 Believe in it. Practice it. Preach it. Demand it out of each other. Demand it out of each other. I couldn't be more proud to be a coach. But something we don't know about Luke Fickle. I hope now that he's the head coach that he remembers to take his wallet places. He was notorious for, I don't have my wallet. I forgot my wallet. And so I've kept a running tab and he actually owes me $780 from different tabs in college when he just happened to forget his wallet. Only best friends talk about one another like that. Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrable and University of Cincinnati coach Luke Fickle have been friends since they met nearly 30 years ago on Vrable's official visit to Ohio State. The two played together. They lived together. They coached together. With a former teammate, they started the second and seven foundation together. Fickle was the best man in Vrable's wedding. In 2021, these best friends pulled a remarkable double. Luke Fickle was named college football's consensus coach of the year, while Mike Vrable was named the NFL's coach of the year. Thank you. It is an honor and a privilege to play and coach in this league. And having coached in the Pro Bowl, I know our game is in good hands. If I had told you back when you were in college, when you guys were roommates and Mike Vrable was making ramen noodles in the kitchen, that you would be the top college coach. And in that same year, Mike Vrable would be the top NFL coach in the national football league in that year. Would you believe me honestly? No, no, not, not, not the way he acted in college. Maybe me, but no, no, no, no. I can't, I couldn't imagine that, you know, and you never know how things are going to work. Luke Fickle actually got Mike Vrable into coaching. In 2011, Fickle was named Ohio State's interim coach, and Vrable retired from the NFL to join his staff. A decade later, both were voted the best in their respective fields. But for as different as their personalities can be, the two share an odd trait. When they talk about the game of football, they start to sound the same. Vrable talked to the team after practice today. What's that do for those guys to have them, you know, just speak to them. He kind of talked about culture and kind of talked about what an advantage it is to have a culture and the things that travel, he said, you know, effort and fundamentals. And, you know, it wasn't anything about these guys out here, about the season we had. It was kind of spot on. I'm just reminding them that, you know, you got a lot of talent out here and the game of football is played between those lines and, you know, just another opportunity. How cool is that to be your best friend, he's the NFL coach in the year, the college coach in the year? Yeah, I never would have expected that he would ever have done that. Their facial expressions are eerily similar. Even the intonations in their voices are almost identical. Well, I mean, we spent a lot of time together. We spent a lot of time under John Cooper and his coaching staff. And, you know, I never worked for Jim Trussell, but I know that Luke holds him in high regard and I would try to listen to some of those things that Luke would have learned from him. And, you know, that's kind of what you know. You have a style and there's things that you believe in and you try to get the players to understand it. A lot of credit to how we grew up. And I don't just mean from kids, because our parents, I mean, obviously it's from Akron, I'm from Columbus. But I think we grew up in similar ways, you know, just with, you know, what was in our homes and the expectations. But then we really grew up, I think, in that system with coaches and people that we respected and trusted. And a lot of it is what we heard then. And so I think in some of those things, and I think just, you know, I think the core of who we are and what we believe will be successful. Nearly 30 years of friendship between Luke Fickle and Mike Vrable is hardly a secret. What is new is the level of success and recognition as football coaches went up a notch in 2021. College football's Coach of the Year, the NFL Coach of the Year, a friendship that developed while playing with a special group of guys at Ohio State. When I reflect back on what is my program want to be like it, I want and I look at that group of guys that we had and what it is that we did together, whether it was successful on the football field or not, it was. But really the bonds and the things that, you know, that really last a lifetime and really make us who we are, you know, because these four or five years in our situation, my situation, when they're 18 to 22 are incredibly impressionable. And, you know, so I give a lot of credit not to him, but the people that we were around and the group of guys that we were around on, I know, making me a lot of who I am. Man, he never cut corners. You know, I mean, he always just did the right thing. Team was always important to him. You know, every job for Luke wasn't the best job. He always did what was best for his family and what he believed was right. And that was to be patient and to also try to build something like he's doing at Cincinnati.