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Luke Fickell is the head coach of the Wisconsin Badgers. He played, coached and lived with Mike Vrabel at Ohio State. Vrabel is in his first season as head coach of the New England Patriots.
Mike Vrabel is what you want as a leader because he’s never afraid to say what needs to be said.
I was his host on his official recruiting visit to Ohio State in 1992. I’m one grade older, almost two years older in age. I think his parents put him in school early because he was hell to have around the house. He left the official visit with my ID, maybe so he could get into some of the bars back home in Akron, I don’t know.
I would make fun of him because he was an only child and he must be spoiled and soft. But he had that toughness to him. Whatever you thought his ability was, he played way above it. He could run with the defensive backs. He could lift with the linemen. No matter what environment he was put in, he could compete and perform.
There were times in conditioning or during the summer (at Ohio State), when older guys or big-time players might be struggling, and I just remember him stepping over top of them: Hey, if your ass can’t keep up, we’re not waiting on you.
We were in bowl practice one year, and the offense kept trying to run some play over to his side, and he kept yelling at our offensive coordinator, “You better not run that play over here.” I remember being like, Hey Vrabes, shut up. Let it go. But he definitely wasn’t afraid to say what he wanted to say.
You love to have those guys who are willing to say the things people don’t want to hear. That’s what you need to do as a coach. Maybe that’s why he was never voted captain at Ohio State. Those can tend to be popularity votes, and being that honest doesn’t always make you popular. But he was going to tell you how he really felt in every situation.
Whether you were buddies with him or not, it didn’t matter to him. He holds everybody accountable and to a standard. He has a competitive spirit that is very obvious in everything he does.
We lived together for a few years, struggled, grew up, just like any college kids. Our wrestling matches in the apartment, that might have been when I realized how deep that competitive spirit really was. (Editor’s note: Fickell was a three-time Ohio high school state wrestling champion.) He was not a wrestler. His dad was a basketball coach and he grew up playing basketball. How could you be tough playing basketball? So he was never going to beat me at wrestling, but I can promise you he was never going to tap out and give in, either. Our roommates would have to make us stop. This was usually at 2 in the morning.
You knew there was more to him.
He was a very outgoing and social person by nature. He was easy to get to know. I didn’t say easy to like, but he was easy to get to know. There was a sarcasm there. He was very witty and could get the last word. That was pretty natural for him.
And you knew damn well that if you ever needed something, he was always right there.
He always said he was going to coach, like his dad. As he was playing in the NFL, every time he signed a new contract, I would call him and say, “You still going to coach?” He always said yes.
When Ohio State made me the interim coach in 2011, they let me hire one defensive position coach. Vrabel had played 14 seasons in the NFL at that point, and he told me to give him a reason to retire.
I saw a lot of the “Patriot Way” in him as coach: Nobody plays one position, be flexible. I’m sure he took a lot of that from Bill Belichick. But he also understood that you didn’t always have to outsmart or out-scheme the other team. We had Joey Bosa at defensive end, so we didn’t need to come up with some blitz or move him around. I thought that was good insight from a guy who was just coming from playing and the systems he was in. He got it on a deep level when he was just starting.
His first year as an assistant coach with the Houston Texans in 2014, I went down for minicamp. That’s when I realized how well he connected with those NFL players compared to some other coaches. That’s such a big part of the NFL game.
His ability to connect with NFL players — because he played at that level, won Super Bowls — it’s different than most of the coaches I’ve been around. He can get after guys and be critical and be hard on them in a way that I think is difficult for other coaches to do.
You often hear that better players are worse coaches. He had the ability to separate what he could do and what someone else could do. He never assumed something was easy, or that someone could learn it the same way he did. It can be hard for great players to understand that, but I never saw that with him.
After the Tennessee Titans fired him in 2024, he told me he wasn’t done coaching. He wanted to put himself in a position where people knew he wasn’t going to be a broadcaster or anything like that. That’s when he went to the Cleveland Browns as a consultant for the 2024 season. He wanted to go somewhere he could learn and grow for his next opportunity. He wasn’t just going through the motions in Cleveland. He’s just one of those guys who is never satisfied.
Things work themselves out. I wasn’t surprised he got another head coaching chance with New England, and I’m not surprised that he’s already having success. It’s the same leadership I saw 30 years ago.
—As told to Justin Williams
