Ragin' Dave's Ohio Preview
So we squeaked out a win vs Nicholls and now on to Ohio. Ohio is has been disappointing to start the season. The expectation was that this team was going to challenge for the MAC East title and still can, but they have started the season 0-2 losing 29-9 to Syracuse and then following that up with a 28-26 loss to the mighty Dukes of Duquesne a FCS team from Pennsylvania. I had mentioned this in the past that Ohio had some offseason issues as long time Head Coach Frank Solich, a guy how did a great job at Ohio retired for health reasons and they moved on to their current HC, Tim Albin. Albin was their Offensive Coordinator. Albin does have some Head Coaching experience as he was the Head Coach from 1997-1999 at Northeastern State (OK) where he went 25-8, including a season in 1999 where the Panthers went 13-0 and won the NAIA National Championship. Albin was on the Nebraska staff with Solich in 2000 and joined the Ohio staff in 2005 and has been their ever since. The Bobcats finished 7-6 in 2019 after starting the season 1-3 with a win vs Rhode Island and then close losses to Pitt and Marshall, they played UL where we beat them 45-25. They then finished the season 6-3 including wins vs Buffalo, Kent State, Ball State, Bowling Green, Akron and a win vs Nevada in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. Last year they went 2-1 in a Covid season including a win vs Akron and Bowling Green and a loss vs Central Michigan. This team has at least 3 players from Canada (Ontario), 1 from the Bahamas and 1 from Canada. The background on the Canadians is that Albin's recruiting area for Solich was Canada so he has continued to bring in Canadian talent where he can.
QB--For anyone that followed Ohio at all, they have a familiar name at QB and that is Kurtis Rourke. Rourke's brother, Nathan, played for the Bobcats for 3 years including 3 straight bowl wins in 2017-2019 seasons. The elder Rourke holds tons of Ohio records. He is currently the backup for the BC Lions of the CFL. The younger brother is very talented, but injuries have derailed his young career. Kurtis can both run and pass and his numbers for the past two limited seasons are pretty good. 65-95 passing for 696 yards and 4 TD's and 1 Int. While rushing for 86 yards on 27 carries. He is not as dangerous as Lindsay Scott Jr from Nicholls was, but is capable of making a decision to run when he has the chance and can hurt you with his legs. His backup is Armani Rogers a transfer from UNLV, but unless an injury or a blowout, I think this is Kurtis Rourke's team.
RB--We should know their running back, he played against us the last time we faced them, but they do have a 2 headed attack. This will be split between De'Montre Tuggle and O'Shaan Allison. Tuggle was the main guy against us the last time we played. Tuggle and Allison have combined for 44 of the 56 carries on the season, the other 12 have been between their two QB's, Rourke and Rogers. Allison has 21 carries for 132 yards and no touchdowns, while Tuggle has 23 carries for 110 yards and 1 TD. They are both similar in stature at 5'10 and roughly 200 lbs. Tuggle in 3 games last year rushed for 404 yards and 6 TD's. They are both quality backs.
WR/TE-- They do not have a ton of really big receivers but they do have some crafty guys. Jerome Buckner is their leading receiver with 7 catches for 102 yards and Cam Odom is #2 with 5 catches for 92 yards. Ty Walton has 9 catches for 68 yards and their only receiving TD. Buckner is 5'8", Odom is 6'1 and Walton is 5'9. Neither of their running backs have been threats out of the backfield catching the ball and they do have a TE with 3 catches on the season in Ryan Luehrman. Another player that was expected to be a threat was Isiah Cox who had lead the team last year in receiving yards, but in the first two games has not caught a pass. Luehrman's brother is also on the team, Adam who caught a couple of passes last season as well.
OL--The O-Line which has had a ton of turnover both in coaching staff and players over the past few years, returns almost everyone. They do lose their Center Bret Kitrell from last season, but they have brought in a transfer from Virginia Tech who had some starts last year. Kurt Danneker at Left Guard is probably their best returning O-Lineman. The O-Line should look like this, Center Nich Sink, Brody Rogers at RG, Jay Amburgey at RT, TJ Jackson at LT and Kurt Danneker at LG.
Special Teams--Jack Wilson is their expected punter, but so far this year they have had 2 punters, Wilson has 3 punts and averaged 37.67 yards while Jonah Wieland has punted once for 46 yards. Their FG kicker has not been great, last year in 3 starts he was 2-6 and this year in 2 games has been 3-5. He has not made a FG over 40 yards, with just 1 attempt and is only 1-2 in 30-39 yards. The Kicker is Stephen Johnson, Johnson is also their Kickoff guy and averages 58.4 yards per kickoff with only 1 touchback on 9 kickoffs, so Chris Smith should get a chance to return a few. They have not had a punt return but from what I saw Ty Walton will be the guy this year and Tuggle is their main guy on Kick returns. He averages about 27 yards a return on 7 returns including a long of 83 for a TD vs Duquesne. He is a threat when he gets the ball in his hands, specifically in open field.
On offense they have really struggled to get in the end zone. Their redzone offense has not been good. They have only scored 4 TD's on offense this year, but they do attempt to be balanced. They average about 190 yards through the air vs 135 yards on the ground. They are 3 of 7 in the redzone on TD's and they struggle on 3rd down only with a 31% 3rd down conversion rate. They also are losing the Time of Possession battle 35-25.
DLine--On the D-Line, they have Will Evans and Michael Taylor at DE and Kyle McCracken and Rodney Matthews in the middle. This team has only recorded 2 sacks on the season and Will Evans has 1.5 of them. They do have 7 TFL and of those 1.5 of them come from Will Evans, the D End. He is a pretty good one. He is a 5th year senior who has played allot for the Bobcats. He will be where most of the pressure comes from, if they get any. The guys to watch for are McKracken, Rodney Matthews and Bryce Duggan along with Will Evans.
LB--Their tackling machine is Redshirt Junior Bryce Houston. He has 20 tackles on the season including 2 TFL. Also at LB is Cannon Blauser, with 12 tackles including .5 TFL. They don't get a lot of stats from their LB core outside of these 2 guys, but they have a number of DE who are active. With Houston, the other guys will be Ben Johnson at Sam and Cannon Blauser at Mike.
D-Backs--This team seams to be loaded at Safety. Their 2nd, 3rd and 4th leading tackler on the team are listed as safeties. Jarren Hampton a Senior, Jett Elad and Alvin Floyd have 19, 17 and 17 tackles a piece. That does not bode well for a team that is weaker up front. On the corners they will have Jamal Hudson a Junior and either John Gregory or Justin Birchette. The lineup should look like this, but remember they will play a bunch of Safeties. Justin Birchette adn Jamal Hudson at CB with Alvin Floyd and Jarren Hampton at Safety.
Before the season started, I had this as one of my more interesting matchups for the Cajuns. I thought this would be a game we would win, but I expected that the Bobcats would give us some trouble. 2 games in you would think that the Cajuns should have this one in the bag, but neither team has played as well as they can. I still think the Cajuns win this one and I hope they pull it all together this week, but all of a sudden this went from a really interesting Thursday night game for the Cajuns to a 1-1 Cajun team who did not look good in either game, vs an 0-2 Bobcat team that did not look good in either game either.
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Re: Ragin' Dave's Ohio Preview
Originally Posted by Turbine
