Quentin Poling's first rep of the week came just past noon Saturday. That rep also happened to be the first play of the game.
The redshirt senior linebacker wasn't supposed to play, let alone start. After last week's loss at Purdue, coach Frank Solich said Poling would likely miss a game or two due to an injured hip.
But Saturday morning, Poling woke up and felt better — at least well enough to play.
Not only did he play, he was arguably Ohio's best defender in Saturday's 42-30 win over Kansas at Peden Stadium.
“Truly was a game-time decision, going today," Poling said. "It did feel good; it was nice. I did a good job of taking mental reps at practice so I would be prepared as well in case I did feel good enough. Having over 2,500 college snaps doesn’t hurt your case."
Poling led Ohio with nine tackles, including one for a loss, as the Bobcats slowed down the Jayhawks offensive attack for most of the afternoon. The final touchdown was nothing more than window dressing of a game that had already been decided.
Kansas scored on the final play of the game, putting a final whimper on the program's 42nd straight road loss. The offense wasn't as sharp as the 30 points would suggest: 16 came in the final quarter, when the game was already out of hand.
Ohio's defense played well the majority of the afternoon despite its hurt middle linebacker
— Kansas had just 223 yards headed into the fourth quarter. Ohio led 39-14, too.
The fourth quarter didn't matter much after that, as Ohio sat back into a more conservative defense and tried to prevent big plays. Kansas gained 228 yards in the fourth quarter, but at that point it was all over. Poling was on the field for the final drive.
Despite a long touchdown run by Khalil Herbert in the second quarter, Ohio's defense held Kansas mostly in check. Exactly half of Kansas' rushing yards came on that long touchdown run.
“We simplified things a little bit, we handled the pace much better this week," Poling said. "I took it on my shoulders when they were doing their pace stuff to get us set up on defense as opposed to getting a call in. We did a lot better job of just getting lined up."
An Ohio defense minus Poling could have been deadly, too. Starting outside linebacker Chad Moore was unable to play, as was back-up Cody Grilliot.
The Bobcats were so injured at the linebacker position that safety Tyler Gullett stepped up into a starting role. They ran more of a 4-2-5 look as opposed to their traditional 4-3, with Gullett mostly playing in the slot to defend the Jayhawks spread. Evan Croutch and Poling were the two linebackers on the day.
Luckily for Ohio, Poling played.
"The type of injury it is is not a threat to him, so it’s a matter of withstanding some pain," Solich said. "And he’s pretty good at that.”
Poling walked without a noticeable limp after game's end, three hours after a game no one thought he'd suit up for. Despite his pain, the redshirt senior was still in good spirits.
When asked how his hip felt in the press conference, he grinned, nodded and looked down at his hip.
"Yup."
