Football Blog
Bobcats sticking to guns, despite Cowboy defense, injuries
By Michael Weisman, Senior Sports Writer
September 20, 2007 | 4:33 p.m.
The Ohio Bobcats (2-1) haven’t played in the confines of Peden Stadium since the 2007-2008 school year started. In other words, it will have been 21 days since Ohio last took the field for a game in Athens, when they play host to the Wyoming Cowboys (2-1) Saturday at 3 p.m. in the first-ever match-up between the two teams.
Over the last few weeks, the Bobcats have traveled 2,582 miles on trips to Lafayette, La. and Blacksburg, Va. but they return home with hopes of getting back to their winning ways.
Now their opponent will do the traveling as the Cowboys make the 1,404-mile trek from Laramie, Wyo. to Athens.
Ohio coach Frank Solich said he hopes the distance Wyoming has to travel will give the Bobcats the upper hand. He knows, however, that returning to those winning ways won’t come easy as the Cowboys already knocked off ACC contender Virginia 23-3 in their season opener and narrowly lost to last year’s Cinderella, Boise State, 24-14 a week ago.
Wyoming coach Joe Glenn, now in his fifth year in Laramie, said he feels this year’s team is the best he’s had during his tenure with the Cowboys and Solich and quarterback Brad Bower know they’ll need all the help they can get to earn the win, including a large crowd giving Ohio the home-field advantage.
“We need all our fans out here supporting us,” Bower said. “Especially when Wyoming’s on the field. We need (the fans) out here being loud and crazy, to distract them as much as possible, just giving us every advantage we can get.”
The Bobcat offense struggled a week ago against a tough Virginia Tech defense, despite playing the Hokies tough, including being tied 7-7 at the half, before falling 28-7. The offense will face another tough defense this week, as the Cowboys defense is ranked 10th nationally.
“They’re a fast defense, they’re aggressive, and they hit those holes,” Bower said. “We just have to be ready for anything they bring against us. We’re more about what we’re going to do and executing what we have to do instead of worrying about them.”
Wyoming’s defense is giving up only 228 yards per game and 15 points per game over their first three weeks of the season. The key to the Cowboys stingy defense could be the not-often-seen 3-4 scheme they run, using four linebackers and three down lineman, rather than the typical 4-3 defense.
However, the Bobcat offense said they’re staying with their game plan, despite the different look they’ll see lining up across from them.
“We’ll tweak some things here and there, but we’re doing our stuff that we know how to do,” Bower said. “We’re going to be flying around and I’m excited to be back in front of our crowd.”
Making things even tougher on Ohio will be the injuries they sustained to their offensive line. Paul Johnson is out indefinitely with a knee injury sustained last week while Mike Eynon has been out since the season opener with a knee injury of his own.
With the injuries, a pair of sophomore reserves will be forced to step up and fill the void left behind by the veterans.
“With Dathan Ferrainolo stepping up and David White stepping in there, some guys who know what they’re doing, they just need to get some experience and I have all the confidence in the world in them,” Bower said.
Bower added he doesn’t feel like the change in offensive line will make a difference in the offense and they’ll still be able to do the same stuff they’ve been running in previous weeks. He credited offensive line coach Keven Lightner for having players ready to step in whenever needed.
The Bobcats have started 2007 the same way they started 2006—with a pair of victories to open the season, before losing to a nationally ranked foe (Rutgers a year ago, Virginia Tech last week).
In 2006, Ohio followed the loss to Rutgers with two more losses for a three game skid, but the team knows they can’t repeat that with Wyoming coming to town.
“You can just tell with everyone’s work ethic, that we came out here, we’ve been working hard and getting things done,” Bower said. “We’ve been there before, we have a lot of older guys on the team and we’re not going to let (the three game skid) happen.”
Praying and playing
Senior kicker Michael Braunstein, who came to Ohio after three years at the University of Washington, will play in Saturday’s game, despite having a religious conflict of interest.
Braunstein is Jewish and Saturday is Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, one of the holiest days of the year for the Jewish people. However, Braunstein is still going to lace up his cleats and kick for the Bobcats, despite the traditional Jewish custom of attending services in the morning, followed by a day of reflection and fasting.
Double trouble
Brad Bower has solidified the starting quarterback job for Ohio, but Bower’s backup, sophomore transfer Theo Scott is still playing every week. Solich has said repeatedly he wants to continue to get Scott repetitions in games, despite Bower’s consistent play.
“I go out there every play expecting big things from each play no matter what,” Bower said. “I know when they send (Scott) in there, they’re just trying to get him experience since no one behind me has any.” Bower added that throwing Scott in during the game doesn’t disrupt his game play and is fine with the coach’s strategy. Scott is 3-9 for 52 yards and has 20 rushing yards in limited action in two games.