West Virginia Mountaineers administration were finalizing a deal with Troy's Neal Brown to be their next head football coach on Friday with Brown taking Saturday to address his former team. What that means is the University of Cincinnati's Luke Fickell is staying put after discussing the position with WVU administrators on Thursday.

Fickell was a favorite of West Virginia President E. Gordon Gee from their affiliation at Ohio State, so the inquiry was understandable. Much public sentiment in Morgantown was behind Brown, who also comes with a cheaper buyout that reportedly can be reduced if West Virginia schedules a home-and-home series with Troy.

Fickell, 4-8 in his first season, led the Bearcats to an 11-2 record and the Military Bowl championship over Virginia Tech just this past Monday. Brown was 35-16 at Troy who just won the Dollar General Bowl over Buffalo. He was formerly an offensive coordinator at Kentucky and Texas Tech as part of their "Air Raid" offenses.

Luke Fickell returns a team that had 81 underclassmen on this past season's 112-man roster. Next year's schedule will be ambitious.

UC is scheduled to host UCLA on Aug. 31 in their 2019 opener (the Bearcats defeated Chip Kelly and company 26-17 to begin the 2018 season). That's followed by a visit to Columbus to face now-Ryan Day's Ohio State Buckeyes Sept. 7. Sept. 14 is the Battle for the Victory Bell which takes place at Nippert Stadium this year. On Sept. 28, UC's at Marshall. Your home AAC games for 2019 are Temple, Tulsa, UCF and UConn with the road trips coming at East Carolina, Houston, Memphis and USF.

UC confirmed Fickell was in his office again Friday but the coach declined further comment on the day's events. Shortly after the WVU news on Brown, UC tweeted that football season ticket deposits were available for the 2019 season.

"We are thrilled to have Coach Fickell leading our program," UC Athletic Director Mike Bohn said.

It's believed the Fickell's connection to the Cincinnati area and the local Catholic community played a part. The closest Catholic high school to Morgantown is in Clarksburg which locals estimated to be about 40 minutes away.

Thursday, UC's Bohn suggested as much when asked about Fickell's decision.

"He's going to big places," Bohn said. "The question is, what's the right move? Sticking with kids that he loves and the recruiting he's built and the fact he's built something here that he's really, really proud of? His six kids are thriving in Cincinnati."

On the job in the Lindner Center Friday, Fickell retweeted a post celebrating Monday's dramatic bowl victory.