The bye week is in the books and the threat of Hurricane Florence affecting the game is gone. Ohio and Virginia are set for a 4:30 p.m. ET kickoff Saturday at Vanderbilt Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee.
We’re starting a football mailbag this year over at The Post. Pete Nakos and Spencer Holbrook will try to answer all your questions. Do you want to ask one next week? Just comment on the bottom of this article or comment on our bobcatattack.com thread.
Now, let’s jump into the first mailbag.
What are your thoughts on the timing of this bye week? After an uneven performance against Howard, would it be better to be playing Virginia this weekend or better to have time to make changes? — ytownbobcat
There are definitely two ways to look at it, and either way could play out for the Bobcats on Saturday.
With the early bye week, any injury questions that appeared against Howard were fixed with the bye week, such as the absence of Javon Hagan. He’ll play against Virginia and give the Bobcats' secondary a good push. With the early bye week, it means a healthier team that has seen a lot of film on the Cavaliers, which should set the Bobcats up for success.
Still, playing Virginia last weekend may have been better in the long run. It would’ve meant someone like Hagan probably didn’t play, but a Week 8 bye could’ve been more helpful for a run to Detroit.
The bye week comes at the right time if fans are looking for a win over a Power Five school. Probably not so much if your looking for a conference title for the first time since 1968.
Based on early returns, I'm really looking forward to how the D-line two-deep performs this year. Any word from the coaches or thoughts on the D-line's performance in Week 1? On the debuts of Amir Miller, Cole Baker and Amos Ogun-Semore? Amir Miller back 100 percent from last year's injury? — Rufusbobcat94
I think that the coaching staff was really pleased with the work from Cole Baker and Amos Ogun-Semore. The two combined for eight tackles and a 1/2 sack against the Bison. They are two bright spots in a front seven that allowed 645 total yards, with 161 coming on the ground.
Amir Miller continues to just be a question mark. Injuries continue to plague his time in Athens, and this season seems to be no different. There was so much hope when he came in because he was such an athlete. Now, it seems like he may struggle to play multiple games in a row, and Ohio may need to reassess his status at the end of the season.
I would be interested to know how Ohio plans to utilize the "play 4 games without burning a year of eligibility" for freshmen. — Ted Thompson
So, Ohio plans to utilize the new redshirt policy heads on. They’ll save some guys to use at the end of the year when injuries start factoring in more. They may use a couple players one game just to evaluate how they do.
Coach Frank Solich hasn’t hesitated talking about how excited he is to use it. It will definitely be something that won’t truly be able to be monitored until the Bobcats play multiple games in a row.
Do you feel that the frequency in which major hurricanes have struck the U.S. in recent years (Katrina, Sandy, Harvey, Maria, now potentially Florence) signals a necessity to do more to reverse the human effect of climate change? — @NWolf51 via Twitter
Sure.
