Following the first win of the season for Ohio and head coach Brian Smith’s first win at Peden Stadium in his early Ohio head coaching tenure, Smith sat down with reporters for his weekly press conference.
Following the huge upset over a Big 12 opponent in West Virginia, the Bobcats look ahead to a prime-time game in Ohio Stadium against No. 1 Ohio State. Here is what we learned from Smith’s press conference this week.
Locker room confidence after first win
The locker room after upsetting West Virginia was electric as the players were fired up and Athens was buzzing. Ohio will look to play with confidence as they head into what is typically a daunting game against Ohio State, but not for Smith’s team. This team continues to walk into every building, home or away and expect to compete with every team they step on the field with.
“Our kids are extremely competitive,“ Smith said. “They're very confident. They obviously know that this is a big challenge, and we're playing a really strong program that has obviously earned that right to be one of the top programs in the country, and they're excited for the challenge.”
Defensive Line
The Ohio defensive line was the star of the show Saturday night and will be a pivotal part of every game moving forward. The ability to get pressure will not only disrupt opposing quarterbacks but can disrupt the entirety of an opposition’s game plan, as it did against West Virginia.
The run-stopping ability of the line was fantastic, allowing under three yards a carry, which is pivotal in a physical matchup in the trenches against Ohio State this week. The Buckeyes run the ball efficiently, and a hard-nosed, grind-it-out game is in order again for the Bobcats.
“The biggest thing was the energy they played with,“ Smith said. “I thought they played with a lot of energy, enthusiasm. They're flying around. It was great to see how hard the D line was playing and some of the knockback we were getting.”
Linebackers
The biggest change from week one against Rutgers to week two against West Virginia was the play of the defense. Ohio’s defensive unit held West Virginia to just 10 points on the day and less than 100 yards rushing as well.
The entire unit as a whole improved, but the linebacking core looked to be especially improved against the Mountaineers. The starting linebacker duo of Jack Fries and Michael Molnar combined for 14 tackles, two and a half tackles for loss and Molnar added one and a half sacks as well.
Walsh graduate transfer Cameron Hollobaugh made a huge defensive play as well, intercepting Nicco Marchiol to give Ohio the ball back with an opportunity to close out the game.
Molnar was named the Mid-American Conference Defensive Player of the Week for his performance against West Virginia.
“He grew a lot within the first half of the first game to the second half of the first game, and he just keeps getting better,” Smith said of Molnar. “The more opportunities that he gets to get reps and play at full speed at a high level, the better he's going to continue to get. I was so excited to hear that he was (the) Defensive Player of the Week. I think it's awesome for him.”
Looking ahead to Ohio State
The Bobcats are playing their last Power Four team of the season this week, ending a daunting first three games against two Big 10 schools and one Big 12 school, although Ohio was able to beat West Virginia.
Ohio State will no doubt be the best team Ohio will face this season, and the game becomes even more daunting when considering the environment for the game, which will be played in “The Shoe” at 7 p.m. this week in Columbus, Ohio. The game will be Ohio State’s only home night game this year.
Smith says his team remains confident against the nation’s top team.
“I think having confidence going into a situation like that is very important,” Smith said. “It's important that your players and your staff believe in each other, trust each other, and believe and trust in their abilities as kids and as a staff.”
As for the talent on Ohio State’s team, Smith knows the skill players for Ohio will pose a tough challenge for an Ohio defense that improved massively from week one to week two.
“They're talented everywhere, it's a really good program,” Smith said. “There's not a lot of holes that you're seeing within that program. I mean, they have real good personnel over the place.
