Sports
Football: Ohio Accepts Bowl Bid
By: Grant Burkhardt
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Ohio football has accepted a bid to play in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl on Dec. 17 in Boise, Id.
The 2,063-mile trip will mark the sixth time Ohio has played in a postseason bowl game in school history an the third consecutive year the Bobcats will play in a bowl game. Ohio lost to Troy 48-21 in last year's R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl and lost to Marshall 21-17 in 2009's Little Caesar's Pizza Bowl.
Ohio is 0-5 all-time in bowl games, and 0-3 under current head coach Frank Solich. Outside the games in 2009 and 2010, Ohio lost to West Texas State 15-14 in the 1962 Sun Bowl, was beaten by Richmond 49-42 in the 1968 Tangerine Bowl and lost 28-7 to Southern Mississippi in the 2007 GMAC Bowl (now the GoDaddy.com Bowl).
On Dec. 17, Ohio will play on Boise State University's famous "Bronco Stadium," where the field turf is blue.
The Bobcats (9-4, 6-3 Mid-American Conference) will play Utah State out of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). The Aggies are 7-5 and were 6-2 in the WAC in 2011. Utah State's seven wins is the most in a regular season in 32 years for the Aggies.
Utah State is 21st in the country in scoring offense (34.8 ppg) and boasts the sixth best rushing attack in America. The Aggies average 277.5 yards per game on the ground. Ohio is 29th nationally in rush defense, giving up 126 yards per game.
The Bobcats and Aggies have played just once before. On September 17, 1994, Utah State beat Ohio 5-0 at Peden Stadium. In 1994, Ohio finished the season 0-11 and never scored more than 16 points in any game. That was also the last season in which Tom Lichtenstein was the head coach at Ohio.
This past Friday, Ohio lost to Northern Illinois 23-20 in the MAC Championship game in Detroit.
The 'Cats are one of five MAC teams that will play in a bowl game.
-MAC Champion Northern Illinois will play Sun Belt Champion Arkansas State in the GoDaddy.com Bowl in Mobile, Ala. on Jan. 8, 2012.
-Western Michigan will play Purdue in the Little Caesar's Pizza Bowl in Detroit, Mich. on Dec. 27.
-Toledo will play the Air Force Academy in the Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman on Dec. 28.
-Temple will play Wyoming in the Gildan New Mexico Bowl in Albuquerque, N.M. on Dec. 17.
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