NASSAU, Bahamas — When Ohio started the Bahamas Bowl with the ball, everyone at Thomas A. Robinson Stadium knew the drill.
Nathan Rourke lined the Bobcats up in their pistol offense and handed the ball to running back A.J. Ouellette for a gain of seven yards.
Then the Bobcats kept swinging and swinging, until eventually, Rourke found DL Knock for a touchdown six minutes and 19 seconds after the quarter began. The drive lasted 11 plays and 75 yards.
The tone was set — and UAB couldn't do anything about it. Dorian Brown picked up the load from there, as Ohio demolished UAB 41-6 on Friday afternoon.
“No matter if it’s snowing or if it's super hot, if you go on a drive like that it’s going to be kind of gassing," center Jake Pruehs said. "After that, it set a tone for our whole offensive line and our run game.”
Ohio scored on the next drive, too, on a 56-yard pass to Papi White. But not after back-to-back seven-yard runs by Ouellette.
By that time, though, the winning points had already been scored. The rest of the game was just window dressing on Ohio's biggest bowl win in school history.
“This is a defining moment in the history of Ohio football," Pruehs said. "We’ve only won so many bowl games, and I think this one is certainly special with the type of team and camaraderie we have.”
Brown did it all to carry Ohio. He scored from long distance with a 74-yard touchdown, from short distance with nine- and 14-yard scores, as well as from intermediate with a 25-yard touchdown.
He was both the power and speed, the ebb and flow, of the Bobcats offense. UAB couldn't touch him.
"I give a lot of props to the O-line as well, because they did a tremendous job blocking and making it easy for me to run the ball," Brown said. "It was very important (to go out on a high note). A.J. wasn’t feeling so well in the first quarter, so I had to step up and take my role.”
Brown finished the day with 12 rushes for 152 yards and four scores.
"The offensive line, I have to give them huge props because they’ve been working their butts off all year," Rourke said. "They’re a very experienced bunch, and they wanted this a whole bunch. When we get the running game going on and I have all day to throw, that makes my job really easy, and that’s when you see our offense start to click."
Ohio's 249 yards as a team was just a tick above the season average of 244 yards. Rourke added 30 yards, Julian Ross added 39 and Ouellette added 26 of his own. Ouellette's 26, however, meant a bit more in the big picture.
After leaving the Buffalo game with a shoulder injury, his status was unclear headed to bowl game. He gutted through a performance that saw him re-aggravate that same shoulder injury but reach 1,000 yards rushing on the season.
"A.J. gave himself a chance to play in this game where I think there’s a lot of guys who wouldn’t have given it a try," coach Frank Solich said. "I’m proud of him for what he accomplished there."
But the star of the game was Brown, who torched the Blazer defense every time he touched the ball. With every power, counter and option, Brown looked like he could run forever.
The holes were there, and so were the touchdowns, as Brown tied a Bahamas Bowl record for touchdowns in a single game.
“They ran the ball on us," Blazers coach Bill Clark said bluntly. "We had some chances to get off the field and we didn’t. But they did what they do: They ran their quarterback; they broke some tackles. But give them credit, they ran the ball well."
