Ohio will be kicking off its 2025 season this week on the road against Rutgers in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and before the team makes the trip to the Garden State first-year head coach Brian Smith sat down with the media for his first pre-game press conference as Ohio’s head coach.
Here is everything we learned from Smith’s opening presser before week one kicks off this Thursday.
Front seven rotation
No position group was hit harder than both the linebackers and defensive line this offseason, leaving lots of questions about the entire front seven unit. In Smith’s first pre-game press conference of the year he didn’t name any names about who will be starting up front.
“A lot of D-linemen will play, they'll be up for fairly good rotation,” Smith said. “I think when you have a lot of new players, what tends to happen is once the lights go on, you're going to see who gets better, who gets worse, and who rises to those challenges.”
Alrhough Smith didn’t reveal much information, the first depth chart of the year did, with Anas Luqman and Kaci Seegars starting on the outside and Nehemiah Dukes and Pius Odjugo starting in the interior. As for linebacker, it will be two homegrown players in Michael Molnar and Jack Fries.
Bradley Weaver
The Bobcats lost all of their defensive lineman with starting experience after the 2024 Mid American Conference championship. The biggest loss was redshirt senior and four-year veteran Bradley Weaver, who, during his tenure with the Bobcats, had 102 tackles and 14.5 sacks. The 2024 season was his best with 44 tackles, 15 1/2 tackles for loss, 8 1/2 sacks and 3 forced fumbles to lead the way.
Ohio will look to contain Weaver, who transferred to Rutgers this fall, and will be on the other side of the line for its week one matchup. Ohio will counter with a transfer portal addition of its own from Rutgers. It brought back graduate student Shedrick Rhodes to finish his career in Athens and to have him limit the defensive line of Rutgers, led by Weaver.
“He was a joy to coach,” said head coach Brian Smith of Weaver. “He was a great player for us, so to see him, I'm definitely going to enjoy that. I love competing against him. I think he's a really talented player, so that'll provide some challenges, but I hope that he and Shed get some opportunities to go against each other, and they've been battling for years since they've been here.”
Max Rodarte
Ohio has two receivers that have solidified spots heading into week one, these players are junior Chase Hendricks and redshirt junior Rodney Harris II. The questions were around who would be taking the wide receiver three reps this week.
“Max Rodarte,” said Smith. “He's had a great camp, and he's playing as good a football as any of those guys in that room right now.”
Rodarte spent last season nursing an injury and playing with a knee brace when he did get on the field. He overtook Caleb Gossett who spent last year as the fourth wide receiver and was projected to slot in as the third this year after Coleman Owen graduated.
Julie Cromer
One big piece of news that came out since the last time Smith was in front of media was the announcement of Julie Cromer leaving Ohio and her role as Athletic Director to become an associate at Louisiana State.
Cromer hired Smith as head coach following the departure of Tim Albin to Charlotte in December, and Smith wasn’t shocked Cromer had other options with the body of work she had presented at Ohio.
“I guess I wasn't so surprised, because I think that she's extremely talented at what she does, and has had a lot of success since she's been here,” Smith said. “I definitely wish her the best, and I know she's going to do great wherever she is, and I think she's been great for our program. I have a lot of faith in our president that she's going to continue to hire great people.”
History vs Power 4
The Mid-American Conference has always been a pesky foe to the power schools but especially the Big Ten Conference. Disregarding the COVID-shortened 2020 season, the MAC had beaten a Big 10 school every season since 2006, until last season when it went winless. The Bobcats and other MAC teams have history on their side in dethroning the Big 10 schools again this year.
Ohio also has a strong history against another conference in recent years as well. The last two power conference wins for Ohio were against Big 12 Conference adversaries. The most recent against Iowa State at home in 2023 and at Kansas in 2016. The history shows the nonconference could be daunting, but the history is behind Ohio to find a victory early in 2025.
