Sports
Ohio Football: Bobcats wrap up Day 1 of practice in Boise
By: Thomas Garverick
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BOISE, IDAHO — The blue turf is very much real — Albertsons Stadium, the home of the Boise State Broncos. But on Friday, it will play site to the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl between the Ohio Bobcats and Nevada Wolfpack.
The Bobcats kicked off practice at Boise in the indoor facility, and Ohio is certainly ready to roll for the Wolfpack on Friday.
“I’m hoping at this point that we’ve realized that we have a game to go and play,” Ohio quarterback Nathan Rourke said. “We have a really quality opponent and it’s not going to be easy at all. We can’t just show up and play and so it’s less of a vacation and more of a business trip and hopefully that’s where our mindset is.”
Rourke and Ohio the offense could see a Nevada defense that they haven’t seen all season — the Wolfpack fired multiple coaches on the defense shortly after the regular season, making preparation a bit more tricky.
“Yeah, it’s been difficult because we don’t know exactly what they’re going to do,” Rourke said. “Personnel obviously can’t look too much on film because we could not face them and the scheme could be completely different with the new defensive coordinator. It’s a unique situation and there’s not really a good way to prepare for it.”
And even though the story of the season will not end the way Ohio wanted it to, they still have the opportunity to be champions of a bowl game.
“It’s a great place to be, a great bowl. The venue has been awesome and it’s really cool to be out here,” Rourke said. “Obviously, our season didn’t turn out the way that we wanted it to, but we’re really fortunate to have the game that we have. It’s kind of here and it’s come up quickly because we were waiting around for a long time. I’m ready to go and I think the rest of the guys are too.”
Ohio practices Wednesday morning at 10 a.m eastern time.