[1] The Bearcats played their home games at Nippert Stadium, and were members of the East Division in the American Athletic Conference.

They will travel to Michigan for the first ever meeting between the Bearcats and Wolverines and long time rival Miami (OH) for their annual Victory Bell game.

The Bearcats started the Luke Fickell era by hosting FCS opponent Austin Peay at Nippert Stadium.

The Bearcats were held scoreless in the first quarter but put a decent drive together in the 2nd and scored the first touchdown on the season on a 16-yard pass from Hayden Moore to Thomas Geddis, the Governors responded surprisingly quickly driving 81 yards in 10 plays and leveling the game on a 19-yard touchdown pass from JaVaughn Craig to Kente Williams.

The Governors put together another long drive and capitalized with an 11-yard run by Josh Alexander to cut the Bearcat lead to 20–14.

Mike Boone added a touchdown in the 4th and though Gantz missed another extra point, the Bearcats looked to have finally put Austin Peay away.

But the Governors drove deep into Bearcat territory but that drive was thwarted when redshirt freshman Joel Dublanko stopped Williams on 4th and 1 to seal the win.

Senior RB Mike Boone rushed for 100 yards on 19 carries, the first Bearcat to crack the century mark since Boone did so against Tulsa in November 2015 After a struggle to put away a lowly FCS team, few gave the Bearcats any chance of victory as they made their first ever trip to Ann Arbor to face the University of Michigan.

The 8th ranked Wolverines took the opening kickoff and effortlessly went 80 yards in 7 plays, the capper a 43 touchdown pass from Wilton Speight to Keoka Crawford.

The Bearcats did themselves no favors as Tyree Kinnel picked off an errant Hayden Moore pass and cruised 28 yards to the end zone.

But the Bearcats hung tough and cut the Wolverine lead in half when Mike Boone crashed in from a yard out.

The Wolverines increased their lead to 27–14 on a short field goal then when the Bearcats were set to punt on their next possession, the snap sailed over punter James Smith's head towards the end zone.

The Redhawks looked like a sure thing, controlling both sides of the ball and led the game 17–6 with 4:45 left to play after Sam Sloman's 37-yard field goal.

The Bearcats scored their first offensive touchdown on a 20-yard pass from Hayden Moore to Khalil Lewis with 2:52 left, but the Redhawks had the ball and the lead.

The gamble backfired spectacularly as Malik Clements picked off Gus Ragland's pass and raced 14 yards to the end zone to give the Bearcats the 21–17 lead with just 67 seconds on the clock.

The Miami fans could only watch in horror as the Bearcats would keep the Victory Bell ringing in Red and Black with a 21–17 win.

Time and again, the Bearcats would guess wrong on which Midshipmen player had the ball on the option and Navy repeatedly gained positive yardage on each play.

The pick six seemed to deflate the Bearcats further and they limped through a lethargic second half which Bulls continue to pull away, in all USF scored 30 unanswered points to win handily.

It was a fatal error as Mustang linebacker Kyran Mitchell stepped in front of Boone to pick off the pass and end the game.

It looked like the same old sad story, after having to stew on their crushing homecoming loss to SMU for an extra week from a bye, the Bearcats traveled to New Orleans to take on Tulane.

The win broke the Bearcats eight game losing streak in conference play, improved their record to 3–6 and also ruined Tulane's homecoming.

The game did not start well as the Bearcats could not generate any offense meanwhile Temple methodically put points on the board, first by a pair of Aaron Boumerhi field goals then a short scoring run by David Hood.

The Bearcats offense finally showed some life, taking the second half kickoff and putting together a solid drive.

In their final road trip of the 2017 season, the Bearcats traveled to Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium in Greenville, NC to take on the East Carolina Pirates.

As has been their wont all season, the Bearcats fell behind early and struggled to keep up as Pirate QB Gardner Minshew threw for 444 yards and 4 touchdowns on 31 of 45 passing.

The loss dropped the Bearcats to 3–8 overall and 1–6 in the AAC It looked like it was going to be another crushing defeat to end a long humbling season.

But just when things looked bleak, a little sun shined on the Bearcats and they got a happy ending for their beleaguered outgoing senior class .

Playing a ragged first half the Bearcats managed to take a 7–6 lead on Hayden Moore to Khalil Lewis touchdown pass.

The Huskies had one more drive and raced 93 yards on 12 plays capped off by a 2-yard pass from David Pindell to Hergy Mayala with :00 left and overtime looked certain.

Incredibly, the kick was pushed wide left by Huskies kicker Michael Tarbutt and the Bearcats had an improbable happy ending to a painful 2017 season with a 22–21 win.