When Nathan Rourke surveyed the field in his first drive of the season Saturday against Rhode Island, the quarterback saw plenty of new faces in green uniforms awaiting his command. The field position — pinned deep at Ohio’s 6-yard line — was less than ideal, but it was a good first test to see how strong Rourke’s chemistry was with new receivers and running backs.
Rourke answered that question with a resounding six points 13 plays later when he crafted a drive free of glaring errors that can typically come with inexperienced players. The senior commanded a similar sequence seven more times in Ohio’s 41-20 win over Rhode Island in the season opener at Peden Stadium.
Yes, the performance came against an FCS school that will likely be the easiest opponent the Bobcats face this season, but Rourke never appeared to have any issue targeting new receivers, leading new running backs and setting the same quick tempo Ohio has always seemed to have with him under center.
"This was our expectation,” Rourke said. “We know what we're capable of. The bar we set for ourselves is high, and we came out and did what we expected to do."
Cam Odom and Isiah Cox were the only two wide receivers to have previously caught a pass from Rourke. Jerome Buckner and Shane Hooks were expected to receive plenty of more snaps after the departures of Papi White and Andrew Meyer, who were staples to Rourke’s offensive look in his first two years as starting quarterback.
Those four receivers all looked in sync with Rourke, but Tyler Tupa, a redshirt junior who battled injuries the last two seasons, stuck out in the season opener. Tupa had three catches for 49 yards and a touchdown and likely positioned himself for an even larger role with the offense this season.
It didn’t matter who was on the field, though. Rourke still finished 16-of-22 with 188 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. His running game was just as potent, too, and he had 10 carries for 85 yards and a touchdown that tied him with former teammate, running back A.J. Ouellette for third on the program’s all-time list with 32 career rushing touchdowns.
It all still felt easy for Rourke, who couldn’t have done much more to temper any concerns about whether the offense could sustain its success from the past two seasons.
"We were just running whatever we wanted to run scheme-wise,” Rourke said. "There's a lot of guys we can find confidence in, whether they contributed to the stat line today or not."
It won’t be as easy for the offense next week, however, when the Bobcats line up against Pitt for their first road game of the season at Heinz Field. That’s the only Power 5 team the Bobcats will play this season, and any performance similar to Saturday will speak volumes for how dangerous Ohio could be against Mid-American Conference opponents.
It’d probably be wise to hold off on building too much hype about the offense regardless of its next opponent, too. Opposing defenses will only gather more tape of Ohio’s new receiving threats. It’ll be up to the the new wide outs to prove their inexperience means nothing and that they can grasp a different game plan in a seven-day span rather than the two weeks the Bobcats have had to strategize against Rhode Island.
For now, though, there’s plenty of promise. The first game couldn’t have looked much better, and it certainly couldn’t have felt much better for Rourke.
"We're just controlling what we can control,“ Rourke said. “When we have the ball, we're going to do everything we can to turn it into points."
