Luke Fickell has been around football at multiple levels both as a player and a coach, most of those years coming at Ohio State. Fickell entered the limelight as a nose guard at OSU from 1993 to 1996 where he set a record for most consecutive starts with 50. In his senior season as a Buckeye, he was also able to win the Rose Bowl and get his degree. After his graduation, Fickell went undrafted and got picked up as a free agent by the New Orleans Saints.
Fickell's NFL career was short lived as he tore his ACL early on in his rookie year and was cut by the Saints at the end of the year.