Michigan State athletic director returns from Cincinnati, but without coach Luke Fickell

Michigan State athletic director Bill Beekman walked off an airplane Sunday afternoon in Lansing, after a trip to Cincinnati.

But he did not have the next Michigan State football coach on the plane with him.

Beekman was expected to interview Luke Fickell on Sunday for the vacant Michigan State football coaching position, according to a source familiar with the search.

Beekman landed around 8 p.m. Saturday according to Cincinnati TV station WLWT, which had video of the MSU athletic director getting off a private plane that is based out of Lansing.

He was expected to try and court Fickell to become the Spartans’ 25th head coach and replace Mark Dantonio, who retired abruptly Tuesday after 13 seasons.

When a private plane returned from Cincinnati to Lansing on Sunday, Beekman got off the plane, but Fickell was nowhere to be seen.

MSU won't make a hire until receiving approval from the Board of Trustees.

More on Fickell: If MSU is to lure him, it must answer these questions

The 46-year-old Fickell is 32-20 overall in four seasons as a head coach, the last three with the Bearcats. He has led them to a 26-13 record, including back-to-back 11-win seasons and victories over Power 5 opponents Virginia Tech and Boston College in bowl games the past two years.

Fickell has been the front-runner to replace Dantonio since the search began, sources told the Free Press. He worked with Dantonio at Ohio State and was part of the Buckeyes’ 2003 national championship coaching staff as the special teams assistant, with Dantonio as defensive coordinator. The Columbus native, who was the 2010 AFCA Assistant Coach of the Year, also took over at OSU in an interim capacity when Jim Tressel was fired in 2011 and led the Buckeyes to a 6-7 record.

Fickell’s buyout dropped to $2 million on Dec. 31, per his six-year contract. He is set to make to make $2.4 million a year the next three years.

Beekman’s journey to Cincinnati – where MSU hired Dantonio away from in 2006 – comes after Colorado coach Mel Tucker pulled his name out of the running. Beekman was expected this weekend to interview Tucker, who went 5-7 in his first year with the Buffalos.

Tucker tweeted Saturday afternoon he's committed to staying at Colorado: “While I am flattered to be considered for the HC job @MSU_football, I am committed to @CUBuffsFootball for #TheBuild of our program, its great athletes, coaches & supporters. #UnfinishedBusiness #GoBuffs

“We are #Relentless #Culture #TheBuild”

Tucker, 48, was a graduate assistant at MSU in 1997-98 under Dantonio and then-head coach Nick Saban, served as interim head coach of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars at the end of 2011 and went 2-3.

Tucker also was part of the 2003 Ohio State staff with Dantonio and Fickell, serving as Dantonio’s defensive backs coach under Jim Tressel. He went on to replace Dantonio and share the defensive coordidnator job in 2004 before leaving for three stops in the NFL, including a four-year stop with the Jaguars as defensive coordinator from 2009-12 and two years with the Chicago Bears from 2013-14.

In 2015, Tucker reunited with Saban as Alabama’s associate head coach and defensive backs assistant for a year before becoming Georgia’s defensive coordinator from 2016-18.

MSU has hired Glenn Sugiyama, a managing partner and global sports practice leader for DHR International in Chicago, to help guide its search.

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Read more on the Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Spartans newsletter.