An old adage coaches say is for their teams to take one step — or game — at a time.
For Ohio, that starts Saturday when the Bobcats travel to Akron in the hopes of capitalizing on its first Mid-American Conference win as well as the elusive MAC Championship.
Ohio redshirt senior safety Xavier Hughes said the start of conference play is like a blank slate for the Bobcats.
“We’re 3-1 right now, but ultimately it’s 0-0 for us,” Hughes said. “These upcoming games are the most important games of the season, and there’s no point in playing them if you can’t win. Our goal is to win a MAC Championship and that’s what we want to do.”
The Bobcats are coming off a bye week and redshirt senior tight end Troy Hill said the week off came right when it was needed.
“(The bye week) was definitely perfect timing,” Hill said. “Coming off three wins in a row and allowing us to have a break and getting even more sharp for conference play … it was definitely a good break on everybody’s body.”
Having missed the past three games, injured redshirt senior linebacker and captain Keith Moore is expected to return this weekend, barring any setbacks, according to Ohio coach Frank Solich, who also said he has been impressed with what he has seen from the Zips this season.
“They’ve played very good opponents and it’s shown,” Solich said. “It looks to me that they got a lot of pieces to the puzzle in place to be an excellent football team, and they’re looking to battle. It’ll be a great football game, and it’ll be a huge challenge for us; we know that. We’ll get ready to play and see how it turns out.”
Solich said Akron’s squad has several new faces, which has been an upgrade for the Zips this season.
“The guys they have returning from last year’s team are very good football players, but they also added junior college players and transfers … so they’re a better football team. They’re well-coached, they’ve got good personnel, they play hard, so obviously it’ll be a typical MAC football game that will be very hard-fought.”
The Zips (1-4) are coming off a 31-14 loss to Bowling Green last week, when they were held scoreless in the second half. Akron played a challenging non-conference schedule that featured a defeat against Central Florida, as well as a narrow 28-24 loss against No. 19 Michigan.
Offensively, the Zips have the third-best passing attack in the MAC, averaging 248.6 yards per game. Sophomore quarterback Kyle Pohl leads Akron’s passing game with a completion percentage of 60.5 and has already thrown for 1,072 yards and eight touchdowns. Pohl, however, has shown flashes of inconsistency, as he has thrown six interceptions.
The Zips have also been efficient on the ground, as junior running back Jawon Chisholm has 57 rushes on the season for 227 yards and a touchdown.
Hughes said the Bobcats need to execute their plays well if they want to stop the Zips’ aerial attack.
“We definitely have to be on our Ps and Qs about (Akron) because they’re a good passing team,” Hughes said. “You see what they did against Michigan, they can move the ball up and down the field on a good team, so they’re not the Akron they used to be.”
Saturday’s contest will be the first on the road for Ohio since its season opener against No. 7 Louisville on Sept. 1.
mk277809@ohiou.edu
