Sports
Ohio Football: Ohio’s rushing attack key in Famous Idaho Potato Bowl win
By: Bryan Kurp
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BOISE, Idaho – Ohio has had success all season running the football. The Bobcats entered Friday with the 22nd-ranked rushing offense in the nation. It was no different in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl as the Bobcats rushed for 285 yards.
The Bobcats had a solid day on the ground despite playing most of the game without O’Shaan Allison. Ohio’s strong rushing attack was fueled by the depth of De’Montre Tuggle, Julian Ross and Nathan Rourke.
“We’ve been really fortunate this year. We haven’t had ‘backup’ runningbacks, we’ve had a cycle of guys going in,” Ohio senior quarterback Nathan Rourke said. “We don’t really skip a beat offensively when we have De’Montre or Julian go in. O’Shaan has played extremely well when he was in, but the other two. Even past that, Jake Neatherton and Ja’Vahri Portis, played extremely well. We’ve been fortunate in my time here to have extremely good runningbacks. It definitely makes my job a lot easier. We didn’t skip a beat. We just kept going.”
Tuggle led Ohio with 97 rushing yards on ten carries and found the end zone once to wrap up a strong junior season. He finished with 644 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns.
“He’s been something really special throughout the course of season,” Ohio head coach Frank Solich said. “All he does is score touchdowns it seems like when he gets chances, picks up yards. Great athlete. A little sidenote. He did break his finger in pregame warmups, so starting out, we weren’t real sure how he was going to be able to function. Then, you know, when he had to get in and start playing, it was obvious he was going to be able to play with it.”