After a close loss on the road against Rutgers to open the season, Ohio head coach Brian Smith sat down with the media for his weekly press conference ahead of the Bobcats’ home opener against West Virginia. Here is what The Post learned from his conversation on Monday morning.
Looking ahead to West Virginia
Ohio took the first 24 hours after the loss to Rutgers on Thursday to reflect on the effort displayed in a hard-fought game but once Saturday rolled around, head coach Brian Smith and the team got right back to work prepping for Rich Rodriguez and West Virginia University to come to town this weekend.
“Rich is a very good coach, and they’re going to play a fast offense, they’re gonna play with a lot of tempo,” Smith said. “He coaches his team hard. They’re typically going to be physical. They’re going to bet on running the football so I appreciate the brand he represents.”
The Bobcats anticipate a physical battle with a run-heavy Mountaineer offense but are ready to combat this in the trenches and play a physical game back, relying on tough defense and discipline. They also anticipate a healthy amount of tempo in Rodriguez’s offense and are looking to be overwhelmed, adjusting throughout the game as they see fit.
“There’s more prep this week in terms of how we handle tempo, getting our calls and getting to the line faster, things like that,” Smith said of Ohio’s practice strategy for West Virginia’s high-paced offense.
Record Crowd Anticipated at Peden Stadium
The 2025 football season provides Ohio with an opportunity to do something quite rare for the program by hosting a Power Four opponent. This weekend, Ohio welcomes West Virginia to Athens for what should be an over-capacity crowd in Peden Stadium.
“It should be an electric experience,” Smith said. “We’re talking about that with the players, how exciting it should be for them. I know we're expecting it to be the largest capacity that we've had in the stadium.”
The game with the highest attendance in Peden Stadium history was the 2012 home opener against New Mexico State with 25,893 fans in the seats of Peden Stadium. That game was the week after Ohio pulled off a shocking upset of Penn State in State College.
With the short drive for West Virginia fans and Ohio coming off a MAC title, fan interest should be at an all-time high entering Saturday, making for an incredible atmosphere.
“It'll be unique, because there will be a good group from Morgantown, and so it should be very exciting,” Smith said. “I think it's a great time for our football program, coming off of a championship year to have the opportunity to play in a game like this, and that type of atmosphere at home is awesome.”
Navarro and the new weapons
One near guarantee for Ohio entering this year was the play of returning quarterback Parker Navarro. Coming off a second-team All-MAC selection in 2024, having him return was huge news for an Ohio offense that lost a lot of key guys this offseason.
One of those key players was Coleman Owen, whose connection with Navarro and his great play on the field allowed him to become Ohio’s record holder for most receiving yards in a season last year.
Owen is now in the NFL, and with him gone there were some questions about how the receiver room would shake out but questions were answered against Rutgers as junior wide receiver Chase Hendricks went for 116 yards and multiple tight ends were involved as well.
“Losing the connection he had with Coleman, he's had to really develop some great relationships with the rest of the group and develop a lot of trust with them,” Smith said. “I think that showed on (Thursday) night.”
Defensive rotation takeaways
The Bobcats saw a number of bodies take snaps in the front six Thursday as they tried to keep legs fresh but also get players experienced in the defensive system under defensive coordinator John Hauser. They saw strong performances throughout the night on both levels as players get accustomed to new roles and even made strides after halftime.
“They progressed throughout the game, especially the two starting linebackers, Mike (Molnar) and Jack (Fries),” Smith said. “When you look at how they played in the first half and then how they continued to play in the second half, I think they grew throughout the game. Pius (Odjugo) showed up inside, you can see his physicality with that group of so many new players.”
Smith is unfazed because he believes this team moves as an engine altogether when it plays well and will continue to have a complementary system that has become a staple during his tenure here.
“The thing that I think has been really good for us the last three years is how complementary we've been offensively and defensively, where our defense has been very good at stopping the run and eliminating explosive plays,“ Smith said. “Offensively, we've been very efficient, and we really dominated the clock, and that helps keep them off the field.”
