On Friday, Cincinnati went with another quarterback as its starter. In the Bearcats' 34-24 loss at Memphis to close the regular season, sophomore quarterback Desmond Ridder was benched in favor of redshirt freshman Ben Bryant.

Bryant completed 20 of 32 passes for 229 yards and a touchdown, but threw two interceptions.

Monday, on the AAC's teleconference leading up to the conference championship game, Fickell was steadfast when asked about the decision of who starts. It appears Ridder is the guy to lead Cincinnati's offense.

"Desmond Ridder's our quarterback," Fickell said. "What he's done here over the last two years, there's no doubt who our quarterback is. We were smart with him last week, we held him out last week. He said he was ready to go and able to go, just didn't feel like maybe he had the pop he needed."

Check out the video above for Fickell's full teleconference. Cincinnati travels back to Memphis to play the Tigers at 3:30 pm ET Saturday at the Liberty Bowl. The game will be televised by ABC.