TicketsLuke Fickell took over as head coach of the Cincinnati Bearcats at an inauspicious time. It was 2016, and conference realignment was on everyone's mind. After a summer's-long dance with the Big 12, a decision from the conference on its plans forward seemed imminent. Things began to sour on the field with what felt like the program's future on the line. The Bearcats got hammered at home by South Florida before going on the road to UConn and losing a game in which they didn't score a touchdown. On October 19, the Big 12 announced its decision: No expansion.
As the fan base gathered itself, things on the field started to spiral. Cincinnati lost its final five games of the season, at one point going 13 consecutive quarters without an offensive touchdown. Following the season's conclusion, head coach Tommy Tuberville tendered his resignation.
The Bearcats didn't just need a head coach. They needed a recruiter. They needed an identity. They needed a heartbeat. They needed someone with a plan for the future. They also needed wins, they needed them in bunches, and they needed them sooner than later.
Fickell was not what most of us had in mind. The Bearcats made brushes with greatness under Brian Kelly, a schematic wizard who engineered high-flying offenses and racked up wins leading programs at several levels of the sport. Yet here was Fickell, a down-and-dirty, defensive-minded coach with just one year of head coaching experience, as an interim. And, despite the program's past success when hiring Ohio State defensive coordinators, not many Bearcats diehards were excited about building the future––and carving out our corner of Ohio––using Buckeye building blocks.
The reaction wasn't just tepid locally. SB Nation graded the hiring a 'B.' Athlon Sports, a 'B-.' CBS Sports, a 'C+.' Nobody was sure what to think or how to project the future.
It's hard to explain to young fans how precarious that time felt. The program's momentum—the one thing it had on its side through the 21st century's carousel of coaches—had ground to a halt. UC would spend the foreseeable future in the AAC. Although it seemed like another opportunity would present itself through conference realignment, nobody knew when that would come, just that we'd need to be undeniable when it did.
𝐓.𝐄.𝐀.𝐌. since December 10, 2016
— Cincinnati Bearcats (@GoBEARCATS) October 22, 2022
In honor of @CoachFick's program-record 54th win, consider a gift of $54 to the Next Level Success Fund.
🎁: https://t.co/dcQZWELcx2 pic.twitter.com/MAp3aAfira
When talking about the best coaches in the program's history, you have to talk about Kelly. In just three seasons in Cincinnati, BK tallied 34 wins, was named Big East Coach of the Year three times and won the Home Depot Coach of the Year in 2009. Under Kelly, the Bearcats reached the program's highest heights, qualifying for the 2009 Orange Bowl and the 2010 Sugar Bowl, coming within a whisker of a potential national championship game appearance following the 2009 season.
Sid Gillman helped revolutionize the profession while leading the Bearcats in the early '50s. Gillman modernized the game on the field, stretching his offense vertically, and modernized scouting, studying film before it was commonplace. In six seasons in Clifton, Gillman won 50 games before leaving for a job with the Los Angeles Rams and, later, the Chargers, where the franchise inducted him into their Hall of Fame. From Al Davis, Bill Walsh, Sam Wyche, Andy Reid, and Mike Tomlin, Gillman's coaching tree of influence is staggering.
Mark Dantonio, perhaps the closest analogy to Fickell because of his Ohio State defensive origins, is easy to overlook, given that he accepted a job at Michigan State before much of his fruit came to bear in Cincinnati. But under UC's first coach of the Big East era, the Bearcats survived the move to a higher level of competition and then flourished there, culminating in a November 2006 thumping of #7 Rutgers. If you want an idea of how difficult the country saw the task at Cincinnati, consider Dantonio wowed a Big Ten school enough to earn a job by going just 18-17 in Clifton.
It would be easy to write off Rick Minter's 53 wins as a simple hallmark of longevity, and to some extent, that's true. Minter coached ten seasons in Cincinnati and did leave Clifton with a losing record as head coach. But to stop the story there would be to sell short the work he did in righting the ship. To give you an idea of Cincinnati's status at the time of Minter's hiring, he took over the program from Tim Murphy—a head coach who'd won an impressive eight games in 1993 and then promptly left for a job at Harvard. Yet in Minter's tenure, the Bearcats won seven or more games four times—something they'd done just three times in 20 years before he arrived. They qualified for four bowl games—something they'd done just twice in the program's history. Minter elevated Cincinnati football out of the basement—one-win seasons and 81-point blowouts—to a Big East invite. He did it long enough to call himself the winningest coach in program history.
Fickell officially surpassed them all on Saturday, winning his 54th game as a Bearcat. He's done it unlike any before: winning early, winning often, and winning year after year. Few coaches in the modern era have had the privilege (much less the patience) to make themselves near-synonymous with a program's permanent ascension. Patterson did it at TCU. Petersen did it at Boise State. Fickell is doing it at Cincinnati.
Next year the Bearcats make their Big 12 debut. It's a moment we all felt was possible when Fickell took the podium on December 10, 2016. But I'm skeptical of anyone who said it was probable. You'd have to be a little crazy to see back-to-back conference championships coming, to predict a College Football Playoff berth, to imagine nine NFL Draft picks in one year.
The only person I'm sure saw this in the cards is Fickell himself because the last six years are only possible if you've envisioned them––if you've laid out the framework and then worked to make it a reality. Nobody knows what the next six years in Cincinnati will look like, but if there's anything to be learned from the last six, we're in good hands.
"𝘞𝘦'𝘷𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘺."#Bearcats | @CoachFick pic.twitter.com/VfI3bAHmEK
— Cincinnati Football (@GoBearcatsFB) October 22, 2022
Notable Wins in the Fickell Tenure
November 25, 2017 - Cincinnati 22, UConn 21
Not to overstate the importance of a November win over a three-win UConn team, but the Bearcats needed this one. Cincinnati entered losers of seven of their previous eight games. UConn scored a potential game-tying touchdown as time expired but missed the extra point to give UC a much-needed spurt of momentum heading into Fickell's first full offseason. The Bearcats haven't lost at Nippert Stadium since.
September 1, 2018 - Cincinnati 26, UCLA 17
This game needs no introduction. The Bearcats entered as 14.5-point underdogs in the Rose Bowl and debuted Desmond Ridder after a first-quarter QB change. A late-game fourth-down conversion sealed it, and Cincinnati hasn't looked back. The Bearcats are 50-8 since 2018.
September 22, 2018 - Cincinnati 34, Ohio 30
While Ridder's debut in the Rose Bowl certainly put him on the map, the second-half comeback he led three weeks later truly cemented his place at the helm of a resurgent program. Cincinnati fell into a halftime hole before scoring the game's final 13 points and intercepting a potential game-winning score in the closing moments.
December 31, 2018 - Cincinnati 35, Virginia Tech 31
The next-man-up mentality is a trademark of the Fickell tenure. At no time was that more apparent than in the 2018 Military Bowl. Senior QB Hayden Moore stepped in and piloted a thriller after Ridder went down with an injury, stamping a victory in rain-soaked Annapolis and giving UC its first bowl victory since 2012.
October 4, 2019 - Cincinnati 27, #18 UCF 24
While Fickell wouldn't win his first conference championship until the following year, the victory over UCF snapped the Knights' 19-game AAC wins streak and symbolically dethroned the conference's standing power. It also introduced the world to future 4th-overall NFL Draft pick Sauce Gardner.
October 24, 2020 - #9 Cincinnati 42, #16 SMU 13
It's hard to believe in hindsight, but there was a time not too long ago when the Bearcats' success seemed uncertain. Cincinnati hit Dallas in 2020 with a 3-0 record but––against sky-high expectations––looked shaky doing so. A road game in Texas against top-20 SMU would be a good measuring stick. UC answered the bell, lighting up the Ponies and setting the program on a trajectory it followed through a Peach Bowl appearance and a CFP berth. The 2020 and 2021 dominance started that night.
December 19, 2020 - #6 Cincinnati 27, #20 Tulsa 24
For all the Bearcats had accomplished under Fickell to that point, they hadn't earned a conference title. In front of a reduced-capacity COVID crowd braving a frigid and rainy night, Cole Smith punched one through the uprights as time expired to bring a trophy to the Lindner Center.
October 2, 2021 - #7 Cincinnati 24, #9 Notre Dame 13
It has my vote as the greatest game in program history thus far. The Bearcats started eyeing the College Football Playoff after the Peach Bowl in January of 2021, and the Fighting Irish represented the biggest obstacle in the way of that goal. Cincinnati sent the traveling contingent home happy, propelling itself into the thick of the postseason conversation.
December 4, 2021 - #3 Cincinnati 35, #16 Houston 20
After an Oklahoma State loss in the Big 12 Championship game, it sure felt like the Bearcats had a win-and-you're-in opportunity in the 2021 AAC Championship Game. They didn't miss their shot, riding key turnovers and Jerome Ford haymakers to a statement win and a College Football Playoff trip as UC faithful spilled onto Carson Field.
Up NextThe Bearcats head to Orlando Saturday to face UCF at 3:30 p.m. on ESPN. They return home on November 5 to face Navy. Tickets are available through StubHub, our official secondary ticket partner HERE. Tickets remain for the final two home games, HERE.
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