LEXINGTON, Ky. -College football is a funny game.
Air Force is a running team, Army is a passing team and the Ohio Bobcats can limp into Kentucky and embarrass the Wildcats and their 60,000-plus fans.
That's exactly what happened Saturday night, when an Ohio defense playing with less than half its season-opening starters dominated its Southeastern Conference opponent.
Final score: Ohio 28, Kentucky 16.
The Bobcats had spent the week preparing for a raucous Wildcat crowd, a group that ironically turned out to be Ohio's best friend.
It's a strange place when you have a team and their fans are booing them
Ohio coach Brian Knorr said. It shocked me that they turned on them so early and I think that gave our guys momentum. We told them 'If we can do some good things
these fans are going to boo their own team.' We've had some struggles in Athens but our fans never booed us.
They booed as Scott Mayle streaked twice toward the sea of blue that was Kentucky's end zone, conceivably making a bid that he should have been running sprints in the other Athens this past summer.
They booed as T.J. Wright broke up pass after pass against receivers who had five inches on him.
They booed an Ohio defense that had every excuse for allowing former Bobcat-killer Shane Boyd to run all over them, yet didn't need to make any excuses.
By the end, though, only the sounds of the Marching 110 echoed throughout a virtually vacant Commonwealth Stadium as Ohio celebrated its most significant victory in at least four years.
Matron Church jumped into a small crowd of Ohio faithfuls who had made the 200-mile trek to Lexington. Coach Brian Knorr, who one day might look back and realize his job was spared because of this game, got the ritualistic liquid dousing.
No one is going to admit it, but two weeks ago, many Ohio fans wouldn't have been surprised by a loss to Buffalo. Now the Bobcats have their best five-game start in seven years and, more importantly, momentum going into the thick of conference play.
As Ohio was boarding its team buses following the win, one of its players chanted sarcastically, We ain't nothin' but a little MAC team -how did we beat Kentucky?
Now that's a darn good question.
-Bixenstine is a senior journalism major who could live entirely on Kentucky's pre-game fried chicken. Send him an e-mail at matthew.bixenstine@ohiou.edu.
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Matt Bixenstine
