The 2017 Cincinnati Bearcats football team represented the University of Cincinnati in the 2017 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Bearcats were led by first-year head coach Luke Fickell who was hired in December 2016. The Bearcats played their home games at Nippert Stadium, and were members of the East Division in the American Athletic Conference. They finished the season 4–8, 2–6 in AAC play to finish in a three-way tie for fourth place in the East Division.
Schedule The Bearcats' 2017 schedule consisted of six home games and six away games. Cincinnati hosted two of its four non-conference games; against Austin Peay from the Ohio Valley Conference, and Marshall from Conference USA. They traveled to Michigan for the first ever meeting between the Bearcats and Wolverines and long time rival Miami (OH) for their annual Victory Bell game.
The Bearcats played eight conference games; hosting UCF, UConn, Temple and SMU. They traveled to East Carolina, Navy, South Florida and Tulane. On September 14, 2017, the American Athletic Conference announced that Cincinnati will play at USF on Saturday, October 14 and will have its bye week on October 28 due to the aftermath of Hurricane Irma.
Game summaries Austin Peay
The Bearcats started the Luke Fickell era by hosting FCS opponent Austin Peay at Nippert Stadium. The Governors were making their 6th visit to Cincinnati, their last visit was a 72–10 throttling in 2011. Many figured that the Governors would be a good warmup having lost 27 straight and 44 of their last 45. The Bearcats struggled at times missed field goals and were far from dominant. The Bearcats were held scoreless in the first quarter but put a decent drive together in the 2nd and scored the first touchdown on the season on a 16-yard pass from Hayden Moore to Thomas Geddis, the Governors responded surprisingly quickly driving 81 yards in 10 plays and leveling the game on a 19-yard touchdown pass from JaVaughn Craig to Kente Williams. The Bearcats took the lead just before halftime on Moore's 2nd touchdown pass this one to Khalil Lewis. The game turned into a grinder with both teams struggling to move the ball. The Bearcats increased their lead on Moore's 3rd touchdown pass of the game. This connection with Tyler Cogswell. Andrew Gantz missed the extra point which kept the lead at 20–7 going into the 4th quarter. The Governors put together another long drive and capitalized with an 11-yard run by Josh Alexander to cut the Bearcat lead to 20–14. Mike Boone added a touchdown in the 4th and though Gantz missed another extra point, the Bearcats looked to have finally put Austin Peay away. But the Governors drove deep into Bearcat territory but that drive was thwarted when redshirt freshman Joel Dublanko stopped Williams on 4th and 1 to seal the win. The win wasn't pretty, the Governors outgained the Bearcats and dominated the time of possession. But the Bearcats forced two turnovers to thwart drives and didn't turn the ball over themselves. Senior RB Mike Boone rushed for 100 yards on 19 carries, the first Bearcat to crack the century mark since Boone did so against Tulsa in November 2015
at Michigan
After a struggle to put away a lowly FCS team, few gave the Bearcats any chance of victory as they made their first ever trip to Ann Arbor to face the University of Michigan. Over 111,000 the largest crowd ever to see a Cincinnati team piled into Michigan Stadium for the contest. The 8th ranked Wolverines took the opening kickoff and effortlessly went 80 yards in 7 plays, the capper a 43 touchdown pass from Wilton Speight to Keoka Crawford. The Bearcats did themselves no favors as Tyree Kinnel picked off an errant Hayden Moore pass and cruised 28 yards to the end zone. Just like that it was 14–0 mid first quarter and a national TV audience braced for a rout. But the Bearcats hung tough and cut the Wolverine lead in half when Mike Boone crashed in from a yard out. The Bearcats didn't allow another touchdown in the first half, but Michigan increased its lead to 17–7 at the half on a short field goal early in the 2nd quarter. The Bearcats were able to force turnovers but were unable to put points up from them. Further hampering the Bearcats they failed to cash in on their last possession of the half as a 51-yard field goal at the halftime gun was short. Taking the second half kickoff, the Bearcats put together its most impressive drive of the afternoon. A 10-play, 85-yard drive was capped by a 10-yard connection from Hayden Moore to Khalil Lewis and the Bearcats were within 3 at 17–14. A majority of the 111,383 at the Big House were growing increasingly annoyed that the double digit underdog Bearcats were still in the game. The Wolverines pushed the lead back to 10 late in the quarter with another touchdown pass from Speight to Grant Perry. The 4th quarter was simply put, a disaster. The Wolverines increased their lead to 27–14 on a short field goal then when the Bearcats were set to punt on their next possession, the snap sailed over punter James Smith's head towards the end zone. Smith batted the ball out of the end zone for a safety. Moore was picked off a second time late in the quarter and the result was another pick six. The Michigan defense outscored the Bearcats 16–14 en route to a 36–14 final. Though the Bearcats were dominated yardage wise, they stayed in the game much longer than expected. The Bearcats only managed 211 yards offense on the day and fell to 1–1.
at Miami (OH)
The Redhawks were utterly confident that this would be the year that they would regain the Victory Bell after 11 seasons. They had endured heartbreaking losses, 2 shutouts and a number of hopeless games that they were never in. The oddsmakers installed them as 7 point favorites and the Miami Athletic department greased the goalposts in Yager Stadium in anticipation of the Miami fans wanting to tear the goalposts down after beating the Bearcats. The Redhawks looked like a sure thing, controlling both sides of the ball and led the game 17–6 with 4:45 left to play after Sam Sloman's 37-yard field goal. The Bearcats scored their first offensive touchdown on a 20-yard pass from Hayden Moore to Khalil Lewis with 2:52 left, but the Redhawks had the ball and the lead. Needing to just run out the clock as the Bearcats were out of timeouts, Miami gambled on a 3rd down pass inside its 25. The gamble backfired spectacularly as Malik Clements picked off Gus Ragland's pass and raced 14 yards to the end zone to give the Bearcats the 21–17 lead with just 67 seconds on the clock. The Miami fans could only watch in horror as the Bearcats would keep the Victory Bell ringing in Red and Black with a 21–17 win. Moore threw for 222 yards and a score while redshirt freshman Gerrid Doaks gained 71 yards on 11 carries in place of an injured Mike Boone. True Freshman Michael Warren added 51 yards in his first extensive playing time as a Bearcat. The win extended the Bearcats win streak in the Victory Bell series to 12 and narrowed the series to 59–56–7. "It's in the back of your head that you don't want to be that team to let the bell go," Moore said. "That gives us even more motivation to be able to take it back home. I know how important it is to all the people at UC and all the fans and all the alumni." Even Fickell rang the bell in celebration, something he had resisted doing all week. "I told them I can't touch that Victory Bell because I didn't earn it," Fickell said. "I didn't touch that Victory Bell until that game was over because I didn't think it was right."
at Navy
After a rousing win against their neighborhood rival, the Bearcats started AAC play with a trip to Annapolis to face the US Naval Academy, this marked the Bearcats first visit to Annapolis since 1956 and their 3rd all time meeting with the Midshipmen. The Navy's triple option offense presented a unique challenge to the Bearcats and it showed early as the Midshipmen repeatedly gashed the Bearcat defense on punishing runs. The Bearcats tried to match score for score but Navy ran its offense to near perfection and the Bearcats seemed helpless to stop it. Time and again, the Bearcats would guess wrong on which Midshipmen player had the ball on the option and Navy repeatedly gained positive yardage on each play. The 569 rushing yards set a record for most yards allowed rushing breaking the previous mark set by Northern Illinois in 1989. Meanwhile, the Bearcats only gained a puny 53 yards rushing. Hayden Moore threw for 381 and 3 scores in a valiant but seemingly futile effort. Navy's running game was the story and the Bearcats inability to stop it was the main reason that the Bearcats were on the wrong end of a 42–32 loss. The Bearcats dropped their conference opener and fell to 2–3 on the season
Marshall
After the dispiriting loss to Navy, the Bearcats returned home to the friendly confines of Nippert Stadium and matchup with Marshall. The Bearcats were expected to handle the Thundering Herd but got a rude awakening as Marshall roared out to a 24–0 halftime lead. The Bearcats were booed off the field by a majority of the 35,763 in attendance. The Bearcats played better in the 2nd half, scoring 21 points but that was cold comfort as Marshall was never threatened in a 38–21 decision. Though the yardage looked even at 366–349 in favor of the Thundering Herd most of the Bearcat yardage was gained in late garbage time with the game no longer in doubt. Hayden Moore threw for 211 yards and a score, but Marshall held the ball for nearly 40 minutes in dominating the game. The loss was the Bearcats second straight and dropped them to 2–4 overall.
UCF
The Knights came to Nippert Stadium eager to avenge their last visit a 52–7 drubbing in 2015 during an 0–12 season. 1:13 into the game Knight QB McKenzie Milton hit Dredrick Snelson on a 54-yard score. After a UC punt, Milton unleashed a 79-yard bomb to Tre'Quan Smith and the rout was on. The Knights moved the ball at will and the Bearcat defense seemed helpless to stop the onslaught. It seemed the only thing that could stop the Knights was rain. Lightning stopped the contest with 4 seconds to play in the 3rd quarter. A deluge of rain followed which delayed proceedings any further and the AAC called the contest after an hour delay with no letup of rain in sight. The final was 51–23 Knights rang up 515 yards in 3 quarters. Smith scored 3 times for the Knights (2 Rec, 1 run) Milton threw for 5 scores as the Bearcats gave up their highest point total since a 65–27 drubbing in Tampa by South Florida in 2015. The loss dropped the Bearcats to 2–4 and winless in conference play.
at South Florida
After the washout loss to UCF, the Bearcats faced the unenviable task of heading to Tampa to face the 18th ranked Bulls. Raymond James Stadium has recently been a house of horrors for the Bearcats as they gave up 65 points in their last visit. This visit wasn't as high scoring but it was just as much a battering. The Bulls dominated the Bearcats to a 33–3 thrashing. After the Bearcats evened the score on a 30-yard field goal in the 1st quarter by Ryan Jones, the Bills tacked on a pair of field goals to up their lead to 9–3, then Darius Tice found the end zone on a 16-yard run to increase the Bulls lead to 16–3. Looking to take this manageable deficit to the half the Bearcats had the ball near midfield. The Bulls were called for a defensive penalty with no time left in the first half, and the Bearcats were granted one untimed down. Disaster struck when Moore's pass was picked off and returned 65 yards for a touchdown by Auggie Sanchez. The pick six seemed to deflate the Bearcats further and they limped through a lethargic second half which Bulls continue to pull away, in all USF scored 30 unanswered points to win handily. The loss dropped the Bearcats to 2–5 and winless in conference play.
SMU