Spirits were high at coach Frank Solich’s weekly press conference Thursday, as he looked back on Ohio's win over Miami — its third-straight win and fifth in a row against the RedHawks — and looked ahead to next week’s cross-division matchup against Toledo.
“Proud of our guys, the energy that they had in the game — they played fast,” Solich said of Ohio’s 45-28 win on Halloween night. “We’re on to the next one now.”
Trick plays were a treat
Back in September, Purdue torched Ohio on a double-reverse flea flicker that went for a 62-yard touchdown, prompting the Bobcats to add the play to their practice routine almost immediately.
Ohio pulled out that same play — good for 39 yards to tight end Troy Mangen — in the first quarter Tuesday against Miami. The Bobcats also used a flea flicker later in the game and a direct snap to running back A.J. Ouellette in the red zone.
That was the first game this season in which Ohio used so much trickery. Solich said his team has a set of trick plays ready for each game, but he’s always cognizant about using them at the proper time of game and place on the field.
“I think that they're a huge part of the game,” he said. “If you can pick up a first down that way, if you can get a touchdown that way, if you can get an explosive play that way — that's huge in momentum.”
Receiving depth on display
For the first time since Sept. 16, quarterback Nathan Rourke entered a game with his top two receivers, Brendan Cope and Papi White, fully healthy and playing.
So it’s no coincidence that the Ohio passing game was at its best — Rourke threw for a career-high 294 yards — to offset an off day for the running game (Ohio had a season-low 149 rush yards).
As Miami tried, and for the most part succeeded, to stop Ohio’s potent ground attack, which averages 233 yards per game, the RedHawks left favorable matchups to Bobcat receivers. Cope and White both had five catches, 80-plus yards and a touchdown.
“I like to get them in one-on-one matchups,” Solich said of his receiving group. “Our receivers, in lacking the height, have great speed, great quickness, and we're capable of getting deep on things.”
You play to win the game
As a potential Mid-American Conference Championship Game preview, there’s fair reason to hype Ohio’s game against Toledo on Wednesday.
But the Bobcats’ (7-2, 4-1 MAC) path to a conference championship berth doesn’t go through Toledo (8-1, 5-0 MAC) — it goes through fellow MAC East foe Akron (5-4, 4-1 MAC), who they’ll play Nov. 14.
In a way, this week’s game bears little meaning for Ohio. Just don’t tell that to Solich.
“You've got to prepare to win every single ball game, that's always been our approach,” he said. “If you don't approach it that way as a coach, that soon becomes apparent to your players, and if that ever becomes apparent to your players, then you're on your way to losing them. In terms of coaching, if you ever approach a game and don't play it to win and play your very best and be prepared, then it's probably time to get out of coaching.”
Odds and ends
- Freshman running back Julian Ross is “still a week away” from returning from injury, Solich said. Ross left the Oct. 7 game against Central Michigan early and hasn’t been on the field since. He had three touchdowns through two games to start the year and offered a nice change of pace to the Bobcats’ bruising backfield duo of Ouellette and Dorian Brown.
- Ohio (41.2 points per game) and Toledo (39 ppg) possess the two highest scoring offenses in the MAC. Both teams rank in the top half of the conference in scoring defense, too, but Solich surmised Wednesday’s game could turn into a shootout. “We've had success with our offense in terms of putting points on the board,” he said. “I think that's going to have to continue to be the case this week. To think that you're just going to shut them out or slow them down is not probably very realistic.”
