Per GoBearcats:
University of Cincinnati football head coach Luke Fickell has added two more national awards this season, earning the Dodd Trophy and Walter Camp Coach of the Year honors on Thursday.
No. 4 Cincinnati will face top-ranked Alabama in the College Football Playoff Semifinals at the Cotton Bowl in Arlington, Texas, on Dec. 31 for a chance at the CFP National Championship.
This season, Cincinnati’s fifth-year head coach led the Bearcats to the only undefeated (13-0) record in college football and a second-consecutive American Athletic Conference Championship. Cincinnati is one of only two teams in the nation that ranks in the Top 10 in scoring offense (8th – 39.2) and scoring defense (4th – 16.1) and features an incredible 12 All-AAC First Team selections.
Fickell led UC to back-to-back 11-win seasons in 2018 and 2019, and a 9-1 overall record in the condensed 2020 season.
He is a three-time AAC Coach of the Year, winning the conference honors in 2021, 2020 and 2018.
Fickell was also named The Home Depot, Eddie Robinson and Sporting News National Coach of the Year earlier this month.
Cincinnati has also excelled academically under Fickell. Off the football field, Fickell’s players have achieved at the highest levels in the classroom, with 80 players receiving Academic All-AAC honors for the 2020-2021 school year. The Bearcats additionally boast an impressive 990 Academic Progress Rate (APR), which ranks tied for sixth in Division 1. Cincinnati has also won five of the last six AAC Team Academic Excellence Awards and posted a program-record GPA of 3.21 in the spring of 2021. Desmond Ridder and Alec Pierce also became the fifth and sixth CoSIDA Academic All-Americans in program history as part of a school-record six Academic All-District members.
