Maybe? His entire coaching career has been at one place, in the same general system he played in. He took over something and kept it around the same level it was at before, doing similar things. He's never been in a building situation before.
Fickell is a defensive guy and runs a different system than Leonhard.....and Leonhard clearly has ambitions to be the head coach....so it was never going to work for him to stay there longterm.The bolded makes perfect sense. (Although it worked out in Remember the Titans)
It doesn't make any sense in the slightest that Fickell wouldn't acknowledge the prowess of the former DC and that the current roster is built for a particular scheme that that DC is an expert in.
So if that DC wanted to stay and had no ambition to ever take over the HC job, the smart move would be to keep him.
Why would that be the smart move? Hasn’t He had success running a 3-3-5?
Roster has been built up to be 3-4 for several years now, and that defense gives them an advantage in the run-heavy Big Ten. 3-4 is great against the run, and not a lot of teams run it. Gives other teams headaches having to prepare specially for it.
