Ohio has already faced a top-15 team on the road in front of 100,000 people, but there might not be a tougher week for the Bobcats this season than this upcoming week.
Ohio will face Toledo on Thursday night, in what will likely be Ohio's toughest regular season Mid-American Conference game of the season. Oh, and the game comes on four days rest.
Coach Frank Solich touched on this at his weekly Monday press conference and emphasized that despite this handicap, he thinks his team will be ready. It's the team's first mid-week game of the season.
"About the worst thing you can do is just continue to beat them up and continue to practice them long and hard and drive them," he said. "This is a driven group in itself, we don't need to get them to the point where the games tough on them. They’ve responded every week, so I think that’ll continue to be the case. We just need to continue to have energy in the tank.”
Toledo beat Central Michigan 31-17 last Saturday –– the Rockets will be on short rest as well.
"That's something that we’re conditioned to and we know really as a staff how to adjust to it. I think everyone in the MAC does," Solich said. "The majority of the players were here last year, last couple of years, and they know what mid-week games are about, and so they kind of lead the way on how you need to respond, physically, emotionally, mentally, to a mid-week game."
In addition to the short week, Ohio will have to face off against the high-octane Toledo offense. Quarterback Logan Woodside is 12th in the country in pass yards with 2,277 and is first in passing touchdowns with 28. If that wasn't enough, they have a dynamic one-two punch in addition to Woodside.
Senior running back Kareem Hunt has 740 rushing yards this year on 152 carries, with just under five yards per carry. He's 23rd in the country in rushing yards.
"We just have to make sure that we are playing really sound defense and fast defense," Solich said. "They can beat you through the air as well as on the ground. They are averaging 200 yards on the ground, so it is kind of a pick your poison deal."
It's unclear as to which poison the Bobcats will pick –– it won't be an easy choice. But for the defense, it might need to score to pick up the struggling offense Thursday.
The Bobcats will need to shutdown at least one of the Rockets' offensive dimensions. If the Bobcats don't, it will be a long evening trying to figure out what hit them.
"But it is the way you start, by trying to stop the ground game and then be solid on what you are doing," Solich said. "Get some pressure on the quarterback and hope that you can slow down an offense like theirs to a point where you can put enough points on the board to win the game.”
