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30 best college football coaching hires this century

By Nick Villano

Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney shakes hands with Alabama head coach Nick Saban during the Sugar Bowl press conference. Mandatory Credit: Bart Boatwright/The Greenville News via USA TODAY NETWORK
Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney shakes hands with Alabama head coach Nick Saban during the Sugar Bowl press conference. Mandatory Credit: Bart Boatwright/The Greenville News via USA TODAY NETWORK /
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Cincinnati Bearcats
Cincinnati Bearcats head coach Luke Fickell. (Photo by Mike Zarrilli/Getty Images) /

25. Luke Fickell – Cincinnati

There aren’t going to be many teams below the Power 5 on this list, but Cincinnati is in a different group. That’s because of Luke Fickell and Luke Fickell only. He is leading a team in American Athletic Conference, also knows as the artist formerly known as the Big East. It took two seasons for Fickell to make a massive difference on this team.

He went 4-8 in his first season, then in his second season, he got the Bearcats to 11-2. He learned how to win at Ohio State under Urban Meyer and Jim Tresell, and he took that experience to a different Ohio powerhouse.

Cincinnati mimicked that win total in 2019, going 11-3 while putting a stake into the once-dominant UCF team. 2020 was a special season for Cincinnati. They went undefeated in the regular season, beating every AAC team in front of them during a strange pandemic shortened year. They lost to Georgia in the Peach Bowl, basically a home game for the Bulldogs, by just three points.

Fickell hasn’t been there as long as some of the coaches behind him on this list, but Cincinnati getting the highly touted Ohio State coordinator was an impressive feat. This was an awesome hire by the Bearcats, and the hope is he sticks around for a while.

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