’Cats hope for good start in first of three tough road games
By Caleb Troop
October 2, 2008
Over the next three weeks, ’Cats football players will be seeing a lot of bus rides and hotels. Such is the life when you’re on the road in the Mid-American Conference.
After upending Virginia Military Institute 51-31 last Saturday at Peden Stadium, Ohio (1-4) will play three straight games on the road starting this weekend at 2 p.m. in Kalamazoo, Mich., against Western Michigan (4-1).
“Packing your suitcase every week for three straight weeks is not ideal,” Solich understated. “Having three in a row on the road — the only thing I can say to that is, it is what it is. We’ve always responded well to road trips.
“I don’t see us not playing our best football because we are on the road three weeks in a row,” he added. “We are going to play good football for those three games. We’ll see how the matchups are, and we’ll see how we come out. Ideally, you’d like to balance that out a little bit.”
The ’Cats held VMI to just seven points and 136 yards of total offense in the second half to pull away last Saturday. But like much of the conference, Ohio will limp into its contest at Waldo Stadium.
“I felt good about individual performances,” Solich stated. “Obviously — the injury phase of it — as you go through the year, you have a tendency to get some guys banged up, and when that happens, that’s always a little depressing in the game. But that is part of the game, and so you’ve got to play above and beyond that.”
Ohio could be without starting nose guard Ernie Hodge and backup right guard Gary Schussler. Several injured ’Cats will try to give it a go come kickoff time, including RB Chris Garrett, LB Lee Renfro, RG Michael Philibin, DE Kris Luchsinger and RT Chris Rodgers.
Along with the stout defense in the third and fourth quarters last week, Solich said his team’s ability to take care of the football was imperative in the victory, something that Ohio will need to do against the Broncos on Saturday afternoon.
“I think one thing that was critical was for us (was) to get a hold of turnovers and to get that to where it is a manageable number,” he said. “Our goal is always one or less going into a game, and we were able to reach that goal with one turnover.”
Ohio will try to stop the league’s second-best passing offense in the Broncos. Junior quarterback Tim Hiller has completed 69 percent of his passes on the season and is averaging 271 passing yards per contest.
But Solich and company are just as concerned about the Broncos’ defense. WMU is tied with Ball State and Central Michigan for a league-high 10 sacks through five games.
“Defensively, they’ve got 10 seniors starting, so they really have an experienced defensive football team. They’ve got good size up front,” Solich said. “They make it pretty difficult to run base stuff at them.”
For Ohio, the three-game stretch starting with WMU and ending with games at Kent State and Temple is a time to get back into the league race.
“We’re into our MAC schedule, so every game is going to be important,” Solich said. “We still want to battle for the East Division championship, and we want to get into the championship game. In order to do that, we’ve got to get on a roll with these MAC games.”
Future Schedules Released
Ohio Director of Athletics Jim Schaus released the non-conference portion of Ohio’s 2009 and 2010 football schedules last week. Speaking Thursday during his weekly radio show on 970 WATH-AM in Athens, Schaus said Ohio is guaranteed six home games for at least each of the next two seasons with the new schedule.
“Every year we are trying to position our schedule — and I believe we will be able to do it — that we will have six home games for the next six, seven years and beyond,” Schaus said. “Our fans want it, and we need to give our team a chance.”
Ohio will travel to Tennessee (Sept. 26) and North Texas next year while hosting Connecticut (Sept. 5) and Football Championship Series (formerly D-1AA) foe Cal-Poly.
The 2010 schedule features two regional games on the road. The ’Cats will head to Columbus to take on the Ohio State Buckeyes (Sept. 18). A road trip to Huntington, W.Va., for a match-up with Marshall (Sept. 25) also highlights the schedule. The Green and White will host Louisiana-Lafayette, a team they beat 31-23 in 2007, and FCS opponent Wofford as well.
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