Bowl season took a break for Christmas, but resumes the day after with a tripleheader of servings of the most wonderful time of the year. I’m splitting the day’s Bowl Chronicles into two parts, with the first part here focusing on the nooner. I’ll try to get the second part up tomorrow morning, or at least during the Motor City Bowl, at the latest.
An interesting mid major contest in the Motor City Bowl gets the tripleheader started. Athens and Huntington are less than 70 miles from each other, so this is a little bit of a natural, geographical rivalry game that gets played thanks to the wonders of bowl season.
Neither Ohio U or Marshall look like a bowl team when breaking it down on paper through various statistical rankings. But, both played a tough slate, featuring a total of five non-conference bowl teams. Each faced two from BCS leagues. Ohio played all the four other MAC bowl teams, the only team in the league to do that. Marshall played four of the other five CUSA bowlers. I’m not sure your standard middle class mid major can cultivate a bunch of good-looking team stats up against slates like that. Besides, both teams found a way to win throughout the schedule, enough, at least, to get here. Ohio went 3-1 against those fellow MAC bowlers, scoring 44, 38 and 35 points in wins against BG, Northern Illinois and Temple. Marshall also beat BG in non conference play, and while they went 1-3 agaisnt fellow CUSA bowlers, all three losses were by less than a touchdown. The win? Over SMU. We saw what the Mustangs are capable of doing the other night. SMU earned Marhsall a lot of by proxy respect in my book in the process.
I am intrigued by mindset of both squads. Ohio is one of many teams that are trying to rebound in a bowl game after losing a conference championship game. A lot of times–and we’ve seen it already with Oregon State–those clubs have a hard time cranking back up the motivation. Marshall, on the other hand, finally broke through with their first ever bowl bid since upgrarding into the Conference USA. Yet, all is not right with their ship as the bowl invite was not good enough to save Mark Snyder’s job. So, they enter this game a bit in flux, with an interim coach, with many players likely wondering about the future of the program.
I give that motivational edge to Ohio. Of all the conference championship game losers, the Bobcats were the only ones who were significant underdogs and didnt lose in heartbreaking fashion. I dont think they’re playing the ‘woe-is-us’ card that some teams do after the inevitable downgrade after that kind of big loss. Their coaching staff is way more set and smooth right now than Marshalls. I think the Bobcats will be better prepped and motivated than a Marshall program wondering why they’re being led by an interim coach.
There are a few on field matchups that I think favor Ohio as well. I love the special teams play of the Bobcats. I see a hidden yardage advantage in the return game. Look for Chris Garrett and Lavon Brazill to set OU up with field position off of each kick. I dont see this game being a shootout. Neither offense is truly that explosive. The return yards will be the Bobcats extra gear in this one.
I think each offense is going to have some trouble with the defense across from it, making those return yards for OU all the more important. The Bobcats are going to have tough slogging running the football against the active Marshall front seven, inlcuding LB Kellen Harris and Mano Harvey. Marshall is going to have a hard time with a ball hawking, aggressive defense of OU. I wonder how their somehwat mistake prone QB Brian Anderson is going to overcome the turnover bug against an OU defense that is one of the best in the business at hawking takeaways. They’ve forced 36 turnovers, including 20 interceptions. The safety combination of Gerald Moore and Patrick Tafua might be the defensive players who swing this game.
I think Ohio has more in its bag to overcome the other teams’s defense. I like the way QB Theo Scott has evolved this year as a passer. He has a group of deep threats, Brazill, Taylor Prince, Terrance McRae and Steve Goulet that I think will be the one offensive aspect of this game that will put the most pressure on the opposing defense. Meanwhile, Marshall’s best weapon all season has been tailback Darius Marshall, but he hasnt had a 100-yard game since early October, spent much of the second half of the season bottled up and has been hobbled, to the point of missing a few games, by a nagging ankle injury. I love this kid’s game, but he hasnt been himself since the injury. He is the Marshall offense and without him at 100 percent and putting up an A-plus game, I’m not sure the Herd can muster up enough offense to get by the Bobcats.
Their biggest weakness might also be having to knock heads with the RAWRCATZ spirit.
The Pick: Ohio -3, 1 Unit……in the end, i think Ohio played better than Marshall down the stretch, and with the coaching flux, i cant see that not carrying over into this contest. The Bobcats have been one of the best ATS teams of the season. They’ve covered eight of 10 to close the season in a 9-4 ATS season. Three of the losses to the spread were a 7-point L to UConn when catching just 5, a 1-point win over North Texas as 1.5-point chalk and a 3-point win over Ball State as 5-point chalk. They are a few plays away from being 12-1 ATS. This team has been a solid money maker all season long. You know how much we talked about the Phil Steele Most Improved Team List all season long and how teams on that list have a tendency to excell as an underdog. Ohio was #4 on that list and they’re 5-1 ATS this season when catching points, 10-3-1 in the program’s last 14 outings as Barking Bobcats. I’m keeping my seat on the train.
