Congrats to Luke Fickell being named to the Dodd Trophy Preseason Watch List. The Bearcats are lined up to have another great year and hopefully he will get some consideration at the end of the season.
Per GoBearcats:
University of Cincinnati football head coach Luke Fickell was named to the preseason watch list for the 2020 Dodd Trophy, the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Foundation and the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl announced Thursday.
Fickell was one of 13 coaches on the list who are scheduled to play this fall, along with Mack Brown (North Carolina), Tom Herman (Texas), Josh Heupel (UCF), Brian Kelly (Notre Dame), Gus Malzahn (Auburn), Bronco Mendenhall (Virginia), Dan Mullen (Florida), Ed Orgeron (LSU), Lincoln Riley (Oklahoma), Nick Saban (Alabama), Kirby Smart (Georgia) and Dabo Swinney (Clemson).
Fickell is 26-13 entering his fourth season at Cincinnati and has led the Bearcats to a 22-5 mark over the past two years. The Bearcats are one of seven teams in the NCAA FBS to go undefeated at home in each of the past two seasons along with Ohio State, UAB, UCF, Clemson, Oklahoma and Notre Dame.
UC, ranked No. 20 in the AP preseason poll and No. 22 in the USA Today poll, return 16 of 22 starters on the offensive and defensive side of the ball and 13 of the team’s top 15 tacklers from the 2019 team which won 11 games, the AAC East Division title and the Birmingham Bowl. The Bearcats ended the season ranked No. 21 in all three major polls, won 11 games for only the fourth time in the program’s 132 seasons and had back-to-back 11-win seasons for only the second time in school history.
The Dodd Trophy, college football’s most coveted national coaching award, celebrates the head coach of a team who enjoys success on the gridiron, while also stressing the importance of scholarship, leadership and integrity – the three pillars of legendary coach Bobby Dodd’s coaching philosophy.
The watch list was created through a selection process by the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Foundation and Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, taking into consideration each program’s graduation rate, commitment to service and charity in the community, projected success for the 2020 season and Academic Progress Rate (APR). Coaches in the first year with their current team are ineligible to receive The Dodd Trophy and only those coaches who have played during the fall season will be eligible for this year’s award.
“An unprecedented season calls for an unprecedented preseason watch list,” said Jim Terry, chairman of the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Foundation. “When considering candidates for this year’s Dodd Trophy, the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Foundation made the decision to align with the College Football Playoff’s timeline and only consider coaches who will play during the fall season. That said, we still would like to recognize coaches from other conferences who met all of the criteria and under normal circumstances would be included on our list.”
A midseason watch list – adding to or narrowing the field – will be released later in the fall. A panel consisting of previous winners, national media, a member of the Dodd family and a College Football Hall of Fame member will identify the final list of potential recipients at the conclusion of the 2020 season. The winner of the 2020 Dodd Trophy will be announced in Atlanta during the week of the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.
During the course of the season, the Dodd Coach of the Week Award will also be presented weekly to the coach whose program embodies the award’s three pillars of scholarship, leadership and integrity, while also having success on the playing field during the previous week.
The Bearcats are slated to open 2020 on Saturday, Sept. 19 against Austin Peay at 7 p.m. ET inside Nippert Stadium. The game will be televised by ESPN and air on 700 WLW AM.
