It's been done, but not very often

Luke Fickell would join a select group of accomplished coaches if he can win in Ohio Stadium as an opposing head coach after serving as an OSU assistant

The one thing you notice quickly about the men who've done what Luke Fickell is trying to do Saturday with the Cincinnati Bearcats is that none of them are slouches.

OK, maybe one of them.

No offense, Zooker.

Since Woody Hayes' hiring at Ohio State in 1951, only eight guys have worked on the football staff for the Buckeyes and then come back to beat them in Ohio Stadium as the head coach of the opponent.

Just check out this list and the year(s) in which the former assistants flexed their coaching muscles at OSU's expense:

• Bo Schembechler, Michigan, in 1976, 1978, 1980, 1986 and 1988.
• Dave McClain, Wisconsin, in 1982 and 1985.
• Bill Mallory, Indiana, in 1987.
• Nick Saban, Michigan State, in 1998.
• Glen Mason, Minnesota, in 2000.
• Ron Zook, Illinois, in 2007.
• Pete Carroll, USC, in 2009.
• Mark Dantonio, Michigan State, in 2011 and 2015

Obviously, no one disputes Schembechler's credentials, or Saban's or Carroll's or Dantonio's.

If you don't know, Mallory's Hoosiers ended a 36-year winless streak against Ohio State with a three-touchdown win over the 9th-ranked Buckeyes, prompting then OSU head coach Earle Bruce to term it, "the darkest day in Ohio State football history."

Had Earle thought a bit about that, he could have let himself up over the fact that Mallory coached three different programs to Top 20 finishes in his career, led Colorado to the Orange Bowl amid the Nebraska-Oklahoma dominance of what was then the Big 8 and was the first coach to be awarded back-to-back Big Ten coach-of-the-year honors.

As for McClain, like Mallory, he was a Woody Hayes assistant who did such an exemplary job with the Badgers that the Big Ten COY award is named after McClain to this day.

Mason won coach-of-the-year honors in the Mid-American Conference, the Big Eight twice and the Big Ten.

The man won 10 games in a single season at Kansas, and again at Minnesota.

There's a bar bet you can win against anyone.

Zook, well, that one is hard to explain, but it did come during Illinois' Rose Bowl season, although that's a bit asterisk-ish, since despite that Illini win on Senior Day in the Horseshoe, OSU nevertheless advanced to the BCS Championship game to play LSU.

Fickell would be the first from a non-Power 5 school to win in the Horseshoe, where he played as a Buckeye, starting 50 games at nose tackle and where he coached from 2002-2016, the last 12 of those seasons as defensive coordinator.