Cincinnati football coach Luke Fickell looks back at the Bearcats' win against UCLA and ahead to Saturday's meeting with Ohio State. Fletcher Page, fpage@enquirer..com
Along each step of his coaching career, during two decades spent exclusively at colleges in Ohio, Luke Fickell has viewed Ohio State-Cincinnati football games with a less-than-stellar opinion.
He was on the Buckeyes' sideline as a graduate assistant in 1999, a special teams coordinator in 2002, linebackers coach in '04 and '06 and defensive coordinator in '14.
Despite wins in each of those five games (and 11 straight since 1900), close contests in the first two meetings left Fickell with the feeling there was little to gain and everything to lose from Ohio State's perspective.