(Featured Image: Sam Greene/The Cincinnati Enquirer)

There’s 1:47 left in the fourth quarter. Cincinnati leads 19-17. Desmond Ridder takes the snap and gives it to Mike Warren II. Warren II barrels into the endzone to give the Bearcats a 26-17 lead. The Bearcats pull off a stunning upset in the Rose Bowl.

Late in the 3rd quarter Dillon Gabriel throws toward the sideline. The route is jumped by a lanky freshman named Ahmad Gardner. He waltzes into the endzone to give the Bearcats a 20-16 lead over UCF. The best player in school history has just arrived.

It’s tied. Cole Smith lines up for a 34-yard field goal with three seconds left. The ball is snapped, and the hold is down. Smith nails it. The Bearcats capture an AAC championship and a trip to the Peach Bowl.

It’s 28-13 in the middle of the third quarter. Ridder takes a shotgun snap and hands it to Jerome Ford. Ford bounces to the outside and its green grass from there. The Bearcats go up by 22. It’s happening. They’re going to the College Football Playoff.

All of those moments left an indelible mark on this football program, and none of them were possible without Luke Fickell.

I never thought I’d have to write this, but here we are. Fickell left to take the Wisconsin job on Sunday, and it puts Cincinnati in a tough position with a move to the Big 12 looming.

Fickell’s departure comes as a surprise. There has been a laundry list of openings that Luke has turned down, including Michigan State in early 2020. But today, the inevitable happened.

Many fans are upset, and that’s ok. Emotions are running high, and everything is still fresh.

I’m not thrilled with how everything went down, but this is the world of college football. Luke Fickell spent six years here. In reality, that’s a long time.

This is a great job thanks to Fickell, but also because of the fertile recruiting ground and a new 100-million-dollar facility on the way.

We’ve seen coaches leave before, and we’ve still recovered. It might take some time, but this program has demonstrated resiliency.

Whoever John Cunningham hires will have their work cut out for them in the short term, but they will have the necessary resources to compete at a high level.

As for Luke Fickell, break-ups like this are always messy. It might sting for a while, but down the road, I think most fans will be grateful that Fickell took this job in December of 2016 and for what he accomplished in the Queen City.