Per GoBearcats:
Cincinnati football head coach Luke Fickell was named to the preseason watch list for the 2022 Dodd Trophy presented by PNC on Tuesday.
Fickell, entering his sixth season at UC, was honored with the 2021 Dodd Trophy and is among 20 of the nation’s top coaches on the watch list for the coveted award this season. The Dodd Trophy preseason watch list was created through a selection process by the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Foundation and Peach Bowl, Inc., taking into consideration each program’s projected success for the 2022 season, graduation rate, Academic Progress Rate (APR), and each coach’s commitment to service and charity in the community.
In addition to the 2021 Dodd Trophy, Fickell collected seven other national coach of the year honors last season, including The Home Depot National Coach of the Year, Paul “Bear” Bryant Coach of the Year, the Stallings Award, the Eddie Robinson Award, as well as accolades from the AFCA, Walter Camp Foundation and Sporting News.
Fickell, a three-time AAC Coach of the Year, is 48-15 (.762) in five seasons at UC. In 2021, the Bearcats won their second consecutive AAC Championship title and finished as the nation’s only undefeated team in the regular season, earning a spot as the No. 4 seed in the College Football Playoff. Cincinnati also set school records for points (516) and touchdowns (70) in 2021 and extended the nation’s second-longest home winning streak to 27-straight at Nippert Stadium.
The program saw 12 players earn 2021 All-AAC First Team honors, including two-time conference offensive player of the year senior quarterback Desmond Ridder and unanimous defensive player of the year junior cornerback Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner.
Fickell has watched 16 Bearcats earn a selection in the NFL Draft, including a school-record nine draft picks in 2022.
Off the field, Cincinnati has won five of the last six AAC Football Team Academic Excellence Awards and holds a 100% graduation rate for four-year players under Fickell. A nation-leading four Bearcats collected CoSIDA Academic All-America honors in 2021, including First Team honorees Ridder and Alec Pierce and Second Team winners Bryan Cook and Lorenz Metz. Additionally, UC football had a perfect 1,000 score in the latest Academic Progress Rate (APR) released earlier this summer.
