Sports
Brian Smith Week 9 Press Conference Notebook
By: Andrew Bowlby
Posted on:
ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) – Ohio Football (4-3, 2-1 MAC) got back in the win column Saturday afternoon with a resounding performance against Northern Illinois. However, the Bobcats will be back on the road this week facing one of the conference’s best offenses in Eastern Michigan.
Here are some of the key takeaways from head coach Brian Smith’s weekly press conference.
Reflection on Homecoming Victory
“Very proud of our staff and team for how they prepared for this game,” Smith said Monday. “Our players had great energy, I thought they played hard and I thought they were very well prepared for the game.”
On paper the Bobcats controlled every facet of the game. Ohio out-gained NIU 538-293, had 26 first downs to NIU’s 17 and possessed the ball for 11 extra minutes.
There were very few things that went wrong for the Bobcats in a get-right game.
One of those things that needs to get cleaned up is the penalties. Ohio was called for 13 penalties in Saturday’s action, a season high.
Three of the penalties were holdings on the offensive line, there were a pair of false starts and the defense was flagged four times.
“There are fundamental issues that we’re addressing and want to get fixed,” Smith said. “And there’s some that are my fault. There’s one or two where the plays coming in a little bit late and we’re doing things where there’s audibles and there’s motions and I’m not giving them enough time to get the plays in correctly.”
Running Game vs Eastern Michigan
Maybe the strongest takeaway from the NIU win for Ohio was the dominance of the rush attack. It’s no secret that the Bobcats like to run the ball and that was evident Saturday.
Sieh Bangura had 147 of those yards and three TDs, while Duncan Brune and Parker Navarro accounted for 160 yards and three scores as well.
This week Ohio will have an opportunity to expand on their rush attack that already leads the conference.
The Eastern Michigan run defense has struggled mightily through their first eight games. EMU has conceded 2,042 rushing yards to start the season; that’s over 250 per game. Not only does it rank at the bottom of the MAC, but it’s also the worst total in the entire country by 381 yards.
“Running the football is something that we try to really hang our hat on and be very efficient at and take pride in,” Smith said. “Regardless of what a teams’ stats are going into the game, that is something that we will always try to emphasize.”
If Ohio can run the ball against EMU, it will be a welcomed sight as the Bobcats have rushed for 145 yards per game on the road compared to a mark of 266 per game in Peden Stadium.
Scouting Eagles’ QB Noah Kim
Arguably the biggest challenge with facing Eastern Michigan this season has been finding ways to limit one of the MAC’s best quarterbacks in Noah Kim. He leads the MAC in passing yards (and is ranked top 30 in the country).
Kim’s 12 touchdown passes are tied for the conference lead with Tucker Gleason at Toledo. While he may not be as mobile as Bobcats Quarterback Parker Navarro, he can still run and poses dual-threat challenges for Ohio.
“We’ve had some crossover games with them, so, in prepping for other teams I’ve had a chance to see them a little bit more on offense,” Smith said, “I think he throws accurately. He’s an efficient player, that’s always challenging.”
Kim leads an Eastern Michigan offense that has put up 24.5 points per game, the fifth-best total in the MAC. While the Eagles have only won a single MAC game this season, there is no denying their ability to put points on the board.
Special Teams Struggles Again
It’s become a broken record at this point. With Ohio now having played seven games, in each of them there have been critical mistakes made by the special teams’ unit.
Against Northern Illinois there were a pair of offsides’ on kickoffs, a missed extra-point by David Dellenbach and a couple of big returns given up off kicks.
Chase Hendricks also downed a punt inside the Ohio five-yard line instead of allowing the ball into the end zone. While it didn’t have a big impact on the game, Ohio did watch a similar situation turn into a safety against Ball State.
“We’re continuing to look at what we’re doing and we’re evaluating how to make those units better,” Smith said. “It’s not just one thing that we’re trying to fix, there’s a lot of aspects to that. Unfortunately, it’s been a work in progress, so we’re going to keep spending more time with it and our focus is to get that unit better this week.”
Searching for a Road Win
For Ohio, winning at home is seemingly easy. The Bobcats have won 11-striaght on Frank Solich Field, the nations’ fourth-longest home winning streak. But things have been starkly different on the road.
The Bobcats are 0-3 on the road this season, granted two of those loses are against Rutgers and Ohio State, but still, it has been a struggle. The Bobcats were just 3-3 on the road last year.
Smith says the team isn’t focused on the aspect of being on the road and they are more focused on trying to win every game they play.
They’ll have a chance to get a first road victory of the year in their final Saturday game of the season in Ypsilanti as they face Eastern Michigan. The game will be a Noon kickoff and air on CBS Sports Network.