The game I’m now most concerned with is Ohio on October 8th
Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2005 12:05 pm
In the beginning of every season, I circle one game on the schedule as the “key” game for us to win the MAC. In past years it’s been Northern Illinois and that game the last three years was huge. The year we beat NIU, we won the MAC West and played in the MAC Championship game. The years we lost, we didn’t. This preseason, I circled the Miami game on November 15th for obvious reasons. On paper, the East was supposed to be decided between BG and Miami. And Miami has just owned BG in the last decade. Plus, the game will be played in Oxford.
Now, three games into the season with a 1-2 record with a lot of concerns about our defense, special teams and even our offense, my new concern is our game with Ohio on October 8th. I for one always stress taking one game at a time (and don’t want to overlook Temple), but in my opinion, this Ohio game is now our biggest of the year. Ohio’s defense is much improved, they are playing hard (which is a great compliment for any coach) with a lot of enthusiasm and confidence under Frank Solich, and the kicker off it all may be, they also have two weeks to get ready for us since they have a bye after this weekend’s game. More importantly, this is our next MAC game. And you can bet every single MAC opponent will be looking at the Boise State tapes as to how the Broncos simply dissected us on national TV. Ohio will not be afraid to play us on October 8th, I promise you that, and this will be a huge game for both teams.
I do think this Temple game is the kind of game that could be good for us at this time. I fully expect to beat the Owls, and we need to iron out a lot of issues in all aspects of the game and just feel good about ourselves. The team will have to sit on this loss to Boise State for a week and a half and that can’t go over well. The good thing is, after playing three consecutive road games to open the season, we now play four of our next five game at home.
As mentioned in other posts, we started 1-2 last year and had a great season. Also, Toledo started 1-2 last year after getting blasted in two non-conference games and simply went on to win another MAC Title. We can certainly do the same, but we’ve got to get better quickly against Temple before we have to strap it on against Ohio.
Now, three games into the season with a 1-2 record with a lot of concerns about our defense, special teams and even our offense, my new concern is our game with Ohio on October 8th. I for one always stress taking one game at a time (and don’t want to overlook Temple), but in my opinion, this Ohio game is now our biggest of the year. Ohio’s defense is much improved, they are playing hard (which is a great compliment for any coach) with a lot of enthusiasm and confidence under Frank Solich, and the kicker off it all may be, they also have two weeks to get ready for us since they have a bye after this weekend’s game. More importantly, this is our next MAC game. And you can bet every single MAC opponent will be looking at the Boise State tapes as to how the Broncos simply dissected us on national TV. Ohio will not be afraid to play us on October 8th, I promise you that, and this will be a huge game for both teams.
I do think this Temple game is the kind of game that could be good for us at this time. I fully expect to beat the Owls, and we need to iron out a lot of issues in all aspects of the game and just feel good about ourselves. The team will have to sit on this loss to Boise State for a week and a half and that can’t go over well. The good thing is, after playing three consecutive road games to open the season, we now play four of our next five game at home.
As mentioned in other posts, we started 1-2 last year and had a great season. Also, Toledo started 1-2 last year after getting blasted in two non-conference games and simply went on to win another MAC Title. We can certainly do the same, but we’ve got to get better quickly against Temple before we have to strap it on against Ohio.
Virginia Tech has a great defense and Pitt's is pretty good (unlike its offense). Northwestern's is okay. But my point is more geared towards the fact of the Ohio game being a MAC contest and that we can't think for a minute that we're going to run through the schedule until we get to Miami and Toledo. So until we play another MAC game, the Ohio one looms large in my eyes.
