Ohio aims for elusive MAC football title

In the previous 12 seasons, Ohio has played in nine bowl games, winning three of them, and only Northern Illinois has won more games in the Mid-American Conference.

What’s missing on the wall of Peden Stadium that honors former players and teams, though, is a conference championship trophy.

The Bobcats went into the first week of preseason practice knowing they are the overwhelming choice to win the MAC, which would be their first title since 1968. Of the 24 votes cast by the media, they received 21 to win the East Division and 13 to win the championship game.

“I think it’s on the minds of our players,” coach Frank Solich said. “They want to win a MAC championship. I think the coaches are the same way. We’re out to win MAC championships. We’ve not been able to get that done. We’ve gotten to the game, what, four times, and in my mind we should have won it twice, maybe three times, but we didn’t.”

Ohio, which opens against Howard on Sept. 1 at home, returns 15 starters, including dual-threat quarterback Nathan Rourke, 1,000-yard rusher A.J. Ouellette and almost the entire offensive line.

The Bobcats muffed a chance to win the division last season with a 37-34 loss to Akron and 31-24 loss to Buffalo in the final two games of the regular season. They rebounded with a 41-6 rout of AlabamaBirmingham in the Bahamas Bowl to finish 9-4.

“We’re excited about the opportunity, I think our players believe in one another,” Solich said. “This is a good group of athletes, they want to maximize their abilities and we’re going to see where that takes us. If we play well and coach well, we’ll be in the thick of it as we come down the stretch.”

Solich is entering his 14th season with the team and only Kirk Ferentz, going into his 20th season at Iowa, and Gary Patterson, his 18th at TCU, have coached longer at their universities. No Division I team has had its head coach and coordinators in place longer than Solich, defensive coordinator Jimmy Burrow and offensive coordinator Tim Albin.

Safety Kylan Nelson, a senior, was on the 2016 team that lost 29-23 to 17thranked Western Michigan in the MAC championship game.

“It stays in our minds,” Nelson said. “A lot of our guys have played in that game, and we have told the others about the atmosphere. We were 30 yards away from capitalizing the season with a win. We were so close. We’ve seen others get over the hump. Now, it’s our turn.”

Rourke said the players don’t have to be reminded that this is the 50th anniversary of the last championship.

“Every year we go into the year thinking were capable of that,” Rourke said. “The great thing about this team is that we’re so motivated internally. Yes, we know about the 50 years, but it starts with us. It always starts with the culture, right? It starts with the coaching staff. At the end of the day we’re all driving for the same thing.”