Is the UC football head coach position a 'stepping stone' job?

CINCINNATI — Mark Dantonio. Butch Jones. Brian Kelly. And now Luke Fickell.

Is the head coach of the University of Cincinnati football team a "stepping stone" job?

Dantonio took the head coach job at Michigan State after just three years in Clifton. Jones found a home at Tennessee after two out of three winning seasons at UC. Kelly moved on to Notre Dame following an undefeated season in his fourth year as a Bearcat, and eventually took the job at LSU. Fickell is now headed to Wisconsin, one year after UC's first ever College Football Playoff berth under his watch.

Fickell leaves as the winningest coach in UC history. Before him, the last UC coach to last longer than 51 games was the last coach who had a winning percentage of under .500: Rick Minter led the team from 1994-2003, posting a 53-63 record.

If you're a UC fan, it's frustrating to see such promising head coaches go after leading the team to success, especially now with the jump to a bigger conference on the horizon.

And Fickell had turned down reported job offers in the past, as recently as this offseason in the form of Notre Dame.

In a press release announcing his hiring, Fickell was quoted in calling Wisconsin a "destination job."

But what schools are really "destination jobs"?

Pete Carroll won a national championship at USC, then moved on to the NFL. Urban Meyer, who did the same thing at the University of Florida, moved on to Ohio State to again win a national championship, but still ultimately left for the NFL.

Sure, there are some top tier schools that are well sought after because of the past prestige of the program, the number of seats in the stadium and the financial support to have a successful football team. Just look at Nick Saban in Alabama - He's been winning there since 2007. But outside of him, name another program that's had as long of a tenure of not just a singular head coach, but of consistent success.

Look no further than Athens, Ohio where Frank Solich coached the Ohio University Bobcats from 2005-2021, only stepping down to focus on his health. Is OU a destination job? For Solich, it was.

Gary Patterson at TCU, a school that consistently flirted with the top 5 in college football but never made it over the hump of a national championship, was head coach for more than 20 years. He was seemingly happy there, but ultimately fired in 2021 after a few down years. Is TCU a destination job? For Patterson, it seemed to be.

The point is, it's all perspective: Head coaches in college football need to buy low and sell high to make the next move that's right for them, their career and their families.

Looking ahead for UC, there are some interesting candidates with strong local connections. Kerry Coombs recently returned to UC as an assistant after coaching at OSU and in the NFL after his dozens of years at the high school level, including several at Colerain.

Urban Meyer, despite the baggage, went to UC and even coached at St. X for a time, before all of his college-level success. He has strong ties to the state of Ohio and could ride out his twilight years leading the Bearcats into the Big 12.

Jesse Minter, son of the aforementioned Rick Minter, is currently a defensive coordinator at a very successful Michigan school, and could be ready for a head coaching job.

Mike Tressel, the current defensive coordinator at UC, also served under Mike Dantonio when he was UC's head coach.

And look, Deion Sanders was a former Cincinnati Reds outfielder - maybe he liked the city, and after a wildly successful first couple of coaching seasons at Jackson State, could be looking for his first foray into a bigger conference.

For Wisconsin, they've had some great head coaching runs in the same time that UC has churned new leadership every few years. Paul Chryst went 67-26 and won 6 bowl games. Bret Bielema was 68-24 while winning three conference titles. Barry Alvarez did the same, with more than 100 wins from 1990-2005.

Alvarez retired from the Badgers. Bielema eventually left for Arkansas. Chryst was fired. All-in-all, it's a mixed bag of results for Wisconsin's head coaches, and with all due respect to coach Fickell, hard to say it's a "destination job."

So rest easy, Bearcats - every job is a "stepping stone" in college football. The move to the Big 12 is still an exciting one, that will garner more exposure to different recruits across the country, regardless of who takes the helm.

RELATED | UC fans react to Fickell leaving