Sports
Preview: Ohio football begins season with road test
By: Andrew Bowlby
Posted on:
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WOUB) – After 259 days, football is finally back for Ohio. The opener this year will be a challenge as the Bobcats face off with the Orange on the road to kickstart the 2024 campaign.
Coming in as a heavy underdog the Bobcats have an uphill battle to begin the season 1-0 and earn the program’s 600th win all time.
Ohio eager to play first game
With so much having changed in the offseason for Ohio, there’s no question the Bobcats are hungry to take the field for the first time this season.
“It’s time for game week to get here,” Ohio head coach Tim Albin said at his weekly press conference. “We need to play a game; we need to see where we’re at.”
The starting lineup for Saturday’s game will be vastly different from any seen in 2023. One of the most notable differences will be at the starting quarterback slot.
Two years of Kurtis Rourke guiding the offense will have a major change; Parker Navarro. He does possess significantly less game experience than Rourke, however, he was the starter in Ohio’s bowl win over Georgia Southern at the end of the 2023 campaign.
Even heading into the year with some question marks, Albin remains optimistic about the talent levels on his team.
“I’m very optimistic with the team, the talent that we have. They’re going to put a great product [on] that our fan base is going to be proud of,” Albin said.
New era begins for Syracuse
The Orange are coming off an up-and-down season where they finished 6-7 and 11th in the ACC. After winning the first four games of the season, all to non-conference opponents, Syracuse lost its first five conference matchups.
With two wins in the final three weeks, the Orange did enough to get to the Boca Raton Bowl. However, they were shutout 45-0 by South Florida.
This season, the Fran Brown era begins for Syracuse. Brown was hired as the new head coach for the Orange in December 2023, coming from Georgia where he served as the defensive backs coach.
In addition to Brown taking over the head coaching responsibilities, there is also a new quarterback leading Syracuse into 2024. The Ohio State transfer Kyle McCord will be the new man under center.
McCord comes to Syracuse after a season with the Buckeyes in which he threw for nearly 3,200 years, 24 touchdowns and 6 interceptions.
Both Brown and McCord will be key pieces to Syracuse reversing its fortune and having a breakout year in 2024.
Series history between the Green & White and Orange
Saturday will mark the fourth time these two programs have met, with the first two coming in 1916 and 1921. The third was much more recent taking place just three years ago in Athens.
Ohio has been on the wrong end in head-to-head dropping all three of the previous meetings and being outscored 140-9.
The 2021 week one meeting was a one-sided affair with the Orange dominating play throughout winning by a final score of 29-9. Syracuse was primarily led to victory through a stellar rushing attack.
The Orange rushed all over the Bobcats defense totaling 283 yards and three touchdowns on the night.
For Ohio, all nine points were scored by their kicker Stephen Johnson who made field goals from 22, 30 and 25 yards.
This season’s edition kicks off at 3:30 p.m. from the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse, New York.