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Little Caesars Pizza Bowl
Ohio vs. Marshall
12/26/09
Head Coach Frank Solich has done a great job of turning this Ohio Football
program around, and although he was unable to lead his Bobcats to a MAC Title he
is one game away from their first 10 win season since 1968, and their first win
in a bowl game in the school’s history.
Ohio is 9-4 on the season, with wins over Bowling Green, Temple, and Northern
Illinois, but their losses might be whats most impressive from their year. They
lost 23-16 to Connecticut and 34-23 to Tennessee both of whom are bowl teams
this year. Solich definitely has this mid-major program headed in the right
direction, and a bowl win to cap off a 10 win season is just what they need to
keep it going into the 2010 season, but first they have to get past the
Thundering Herd.
Marshall squeaked by to get their 6th win over SMU 34-31 to become bowl
eligible, so for this team just getting to a bowl game makes this a successful
year after their Head Coach Mark Snyder resigned after losing 3 out of their
last 4 games and with a record of 21-37 in 5 years as Head Coach. This is their
first bowl game since 2004 when they lost in the Fort Worth Bowl to the
Cincinnati Bearcats, and if this program is going to get things turned back
around a bowl win would be a great way to start.
PRIMETIME MATCHUP
In this matchup we have two teams who don’t really excel in any one area, but
they are solid in most areas which makes it very difficult to pick out one
matchup that will affect the game the most. Marshall runs a very balanced attack
with RB Darius Marshall and QB Brian Anderson. Marshall has rushed for over
1,000 yards this season with 11 TD’s and Anderson has thrown for over 2500 yards
and 14 TD’s this year. The one are where we believe Ohio can expose Marshall is
by stopping the run, and forcing Anderson to beat them with his arm because he
has 13 INT’s to go along with those 14 TD’s. Ohio is ranked 6th in the MAC in
rush defense allowing 150 yards per game, so they will need to play one of their
better defensive games to stop Marshall’s rushing attack, but if they are able
to do so they should be able to put Anderson into some bad situations.
THE FINAL VERDICT
This is one of the tougher games to figure out, because neither team has real
areas where they excel in where you can pinpoint a single reason why they should
have the better chance, but when you take all things into consideration it leans
towards the Ohio Bobcats. Ohio is looking for their first bowl win in school
history and their first 10 win season since 1968. They have a very good coach in
Frank Solich who will have his team 100% ready to play, and they are playing a
Marshall team that limped into this bowl game winning just one of their last
four games.
Throw in the fact that their defensive coordinator will have to take over the
reigns as the Head Coach, and that is a lot of reasons why The Thundering Herd
will not be ready to play this Saturday. We expect Ohio to at least be able to
slow down RB Darius Marshall enough to put QB Brian Anderson into some bad
situations, and he has shown when teams do that he is vulnerable to turn the
ball over, and this Ohio defense is ranked 1st in the MAC with a +14 turnover
margin. They are very capable of forcing turnovers, and that should be enough to
get the win over a struggling Marshall team. Ohio -3
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