Sports
Ohio has ‘opportunity to improve’ ahead of 2024 season
By: Andrew Bowlby
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CANTON, Ohio (WOUB) – Members of the Ohio football team, along with members from other Mid-American Conference schools, met at the Pro Football Hall of Fame for the 2024 MAC Football Kickoff.
The Bobcats have gone through change program wide over the offseason and had plenty of questions to address ahead of this season.
After Ohio’s Spring game in April, we noted three storylines to watch. Here are updates for those storylines.
Quarterback question resolved
Three months ago, it was unclear who was going to take the Bobcats into the upcoming season, now there is a more defined answer.
In April, grad students Parker Navarro and CJ Harris were competing for the Ohio QB1 position. Harris transferred to California and that opened the door for Navarro to take over the starting role.
Navarro learned a lot playing underneath Kurtis Rourke, who led the Ohio offense for the past three seasons.
He modeled his preparation for this season after that of Rourke, however, also pointed out they are completely different players.
“Kurtis and I are two very different players,” Navarro said. “As much as I want to follow in his footsteps, I also want to trailblaze for myself.”
While Navarro has limited experience, he did make one start last season for Ohio, the 41-21 Myrtle Beach Bowl win.
“Being out there with the guys, getting the experience, the reps, learning from mistakes that were made: that game was huge,” Navarro said.
“Opportunity to improve” on both sides of the ball
Albin made it clear – even despite the changes all around, it provides the group with a chance to improve.
“There were five starters after Spring ball that [transferred to] Power 4, 13 or 14 guys off last year’s team,” Albin said. “That’s the state of college football. I view it as a positive, it’s an opportunity to get better.”
Ohio had two straight years of a pretty consistent roster, but that will not be the case in 2024.
“Last year’s roster to this year’s roster; there’s 58 new players,” Albin said.
With so much change, the older players remaining have been tasked with getting everyone on the same page.
For Navarro, Ohio is rebuilding itself on offense will all the new faces.
“I think we’re just building a new identity,” he said. “Getting those guys caught up on offense, learning the new stuff we’re going to bring this year, that’s been the big thing.”
Getting the new guys up to speed has led to the Bobcats being deep across the board, and Albin believes his roster has improved.
“We’ve top to bottom improved our roster,” Albin said. “It’ll be the most competitive at each position in my time at Ohio.”
Albin is entering his 20th season with the Bobcats, and with the high levels of competition his staff will have a tough time making roster decisions.
“The staff has got a very difficult chore with sorting out our best 11,” Albin said.
On the defensive side of the ball Bobcat fans can expect more new players. Graduate student Jeremiah Wood has taken part in leading the younger group of Ohio players.
“They’ll come to me with advice on what they think they should do on certain plays, they’ll ask to watch film with us,” Wood said. “Just building a relationship with each another.”
The Bobcats still believe they are one of the top groups in the MAC regardless of being picked to finish fifth in the MAC preseason coaches’ poll.
“We can use that as motivation, we believe we are one of the top teams,” Wood said. “We go in there with a chip on our shoulder, with something to prove.”
Ohio will kick off its season in Syracuse, New York against the Orange on August, 31.