The American Athletic Conference revealed its end of the season awards list on Wednesday. And Cincinnati is splattered throughout each lists.
The Bearcats took home the coach of the year award (Luke Fickell), defensive player of the year (junior cornerback Ahmad Gardner), offensive player of the year (senior quarterback Desmond Ridder) and placed a total of 12 players on the conference's first-team offense and defense. The previous school record total was eight, which came last season.
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Fickell was given the AAC's coach of the year award for the third time. He also won in 2018 and 2020. In his fifth season as Cincinnati's head coach, Fickell is 47-14.
Ridder, who also was offensive player of the year in 2020, is the first in school history to win the award back-to-back. Through 12 games this season, he's completed 223 of 338 passes for 3,000 yards and 27 touchdowns, with eight interceptions.
Gardner was a unanimous pick for defensive player of the year. He has 33 tackles, two and half for loss, to go along with two sacks and three interceptions. Most impressively, Gardner has never allowed a touchdown in more than 1,000 snaps in his career. He returned a touchdown last week at East Carolina, the third of his career, off a blocked field goal recovery.
Ridder, Gardner and senior defensive end Myjai Sanders were all unanimous selections to the all-conference first-teams. Gardner and Sanders are two-time selections, while it's Gardner's third. Sanders has 28 tackles this season, six and a half for loss and a pair of sacks.
AAC Offensive Player of the Year (two-time): QB Desmond Ridder
AAC Defensive Player of the Year (unanimous): CB Ahmad Gardner
AAC Coach of the Year: Luke Fickell
All-Conference First Team Offense: OT Dylan O'Quinn, OG Lorenz Metz, C Jake Renfro, QB Desmond Ridder (two-time), RB Jerome Ford
All-Conference First Team Defense: DL Curtis Brooks, DL Myjai Sanders (unanimous, two-time), LB Darrian Beavers, LB Joel Denblanko, CB Ahmad Gardner (unanimous, three-time), CB Coby Bryant (two-time), S Bryan Cook
All-Conference Second Team: WR Alec Pierce
All-Conference Honorable Mention: DL Marcus Brown, LB Deshawn Pace, TE Josh Whyle
