Here are things to watch Saturday afternoon in Detroit as the Battle of the Bricks round two commences.
The MAC Championship Game is a yearly staple at Ford Field in Detroit. But the 2024 MAC Championship Game is different.
The Mid-American Conference scrapped divisions prior to the 2024 season, enabling never-before-seen matchups in the conference championship. One of those matchups is slated to kick off Saturday at noon in the Motor City.
For the first time ever, we receive a sequel to the Battle of the Bricks rivalry between the Miami (OH) RedHawks and Ohio Bobcats. Miami and Ohio shared a division since the dawn of the MAC Championship Game in 1997, but the two in-state opponents will reconvene at a neutral site to determine superiority. Here are storylines to watch in Saturday’s MAC title game:
So we meet again
Miami knows Ohio in and out. Ohio knows Miami in and out. The teams spent an entire week of film study dedicated to each other back in October — not knowing at the time they’d meet again the first week of December.
The RedHawks hosted the Bobcats on Oct. 19, and it was a pivotal moment in the season for both programs. Miami won the matchup 30-20, although Ohio scored 14 unanswered points in the final six minutes to narrow the deficit in a lopsided contest. Neither team has lost since that fateful afternoon.
However, rematches in conference championships don’t always unfold the way they did in the regular season. Nobody understands this concept more than Miami, which lost its regular season meeting vs. Toledo last year before upending the Rockets to win the MAC Championship.
“Obviously we played a really good game, but we still know how good Ohio is and we still know this is a rivalry game,” Miami defensive end Brian Ugwu said. “If you look back to us last year, we played Toledo around the same time we played Ohio this year and we lost. You go to that championship game, we win that one, so that could be what Ohio’s trying to do this year with us. The focus for us is realizing this is still a game we have to play our best at to win.”
The last two teams in Ohio’s position actually won in Detroit. 2023 Miami and 2021 Northern Illinois both lost the initial meeting, but sat on the conference throne after the higher stakes matchup. The Bobcats hope to learn from their shortcomings in October and present a better version of themselves now that they’re given a redemption opportunity.
“Being able to actually play them already and knowing where they can attack us and where our strengths could be is gonna mean a lot,” Ohio free safety Adonis Williams said. “It’s gonna come down to how much we watch film and how focused we’ve been leading up to this and taking that previous game with us into this one. Also, using keys and things we’ve already learned to go out and stop them as best we can and come out with the victory.”
Back-to-back
Back-to-back conference champions is a common occurrence in college football. For instance, Clemson won every ACC Championship from 2015-20 and Ohio State won every Big Ten Championship from 2017-20. In fact, every conference has seen a back-to-back champion in the last decade except one — the MAC.
The 2011 and 2012 Northern Illinois Huskies were the last team to repeat. After winning the 2023 MAC Championship over Toledo, Miami hopes to end the streak and sit on the conference throne for consecutive seasons.
“The ultimate goal is to get to Detroit,” Miami head coach Chuck Martin said. “It’s really hard to do obviously. Our league is so competitive year in and year out. The history of the MAC is so amazing when you think of all the different teams. There isn’t a Michigan and Ohio State and everyone else. It’s never been that way. We had a group coming back that we felt like could win a championship. We started talking about in January, hey, do we have what it takes to get back to Detroit and have a chance to compete and win a game and become back-to-back champs?”
While Miami eyed back-to-back championships in January, that goal wasn’t always visible this fall, especially when the RedHawks were burdened by an 1-4 start after the first week of October.
“At that point you’re not thinking about going to Detroit,” Martin said. “You’re thinking about winning a game and trying to get the season going in the right direction. We got on a good run and we started playing good football and we started getting better. There was a time where I was not sure this year. At 1-4 I asked the seniors, ‘You’ve had an unbelievable career here, you’re gonna leave an unbelievable legacy regardless of how this ends, but we could go 1-11… but is this how we want to go out this year?’ And they said no.”
Feels like ‘68
The Ohio Bobcats are the model of consistency in the MAC. They’re a very well-run program, only posting one losing record since 2009 — and that was the unexpected transition year where longtime head coach Frank Solich stepped down to due health reasons and handed the reins to current frontman Tim Albin.
Solich started Ohio’s success and now Albin is taking it to another level. Albin strung together back-to-back 10-win seasons for the first time in program history in 2022 and 2023. The two-time MAC Coach of the Year has two bowl wins and is on the verge of his third-straight 10-win season. But there’s one thing Solich, Albin, and any Ohio coach since the 1970s don’t have — a MAC championship. Despite all of the Bobcats’ success, they have not won a conference title since 1968, faring 0-5 since the establishment of the MAC Championship Game, most recently falling to Toledo in 2022.
“Having been there the first time and not coming out with that win, and to be able to be back here and playing our rival it means a lot,” Ohio free safety Adonis Williams said. “It’s gonna mean even more. Emotions are gonna be into it, and it’s gonna want to make me and the guys want to come back with a win even more.”
Albin still communicates with members from the 1968 team and uses that group for inspiration on a routine basis.
“I’ve had a lot of contact with alumni from that era,” Albin said. “Two years ago I wrote a handwritten letter to 20 guys off that ‘68 team. And I wear the block O hat on gameday in honor of (1968) Coach Bill Hess and his career here. A lot of pictures that are on the walls and the history there, he wears the block O. And I’ve worked for Coach Solich here in this program and what Bill Hess did in his time, I like to embrace that. We have an acronym HESS — hydrate, eat, sleep, and succeed, so you try to connect the history.”
Gabbert returns to Detroit
Miami defeated Toledo for the MAC title last December, and many RedHawks returned for the 2024 season — making them the prevailing preseason favorite at the conference’s media day.
However, not all prominent members of the 2024 RedHawks competed in that 2023 MAC Championship Game. Sixth-year starting quarterback Brett Gabbert celebrated with crutches under either arm, utilized to support a gruesome leg injury he suffered in October 2023. Gabbert is a sixth-year senior mainly due to injuries, but this year, the quarterback remained healthy and will get a chance to participate in Detroit.
In fact, it’s not even Gabbert’s first MAC title game. As a true freshman in 2019, the quarterback guided the RedHawks to a 26-21 victory over Central Michigan to hand the program its first conference championship under head coach Chuck Martin. Gabbert started his career on a high note and now he can end it that way with another start and victory in Detroit.
“As an o-lineman, you never want to see your quarterback get hurt,” Miami offensive tackle Reid Holskey said. “But when he is and comes back from the injuries that he’s come back from and still has that confidence and still has that competitive edge, it’s truly contagious. You feel that energy he brings to the huddle every time, and that calmness and that competitive mindset. His ability to control aspects of this offense and to be apart of that, it’s truly been great.”
An underdog’s game
The MAC has been renowned for years as the conference of parity. While the league’s parity is always exhibited throughout the regular season — as only one program has entered Detroit unscathed in MAC play since 2017 — the parity typically rears its head best in Detroit.
The underdog has won five of the last six MAC Championship Games, including Miami’s triumph over Toledo a year ago:
- 2023: Miami (OH) defeated Toledo (-8), 26-21
- 2022: Toledo (-3.5) defeated Ohio, 17-7
- 2021: Northern Illinois defeated Kent State (-3.5), 41-23
- 2020: Ball State defeated Buffalo (-13), 38-28
- 2019: Miami (OH) defeated Central Michigan (-6), 26-21
- 2018: Northern Illinois defeated Buffalo (-3), 30-29
This season, Ohio enters with the underdog label. The spread is smaller than usual, as the Bobcats are only two-point underdogs to the RedHawks, but Miami is wary of this trend and hopes to not become the next victim.
“We don’t listen to underdogs or who is the favorite — we just look at it as a football game,” Miami defensive end Brian Ugwu said. “We understand Ohio’s a great team. We beat them, yes, earlier, but that doesn’t matter. This is a whole new game and higher stakes. With this being a rivalry and beating them already, you know they’re not gonna come to see us again without wanting to get that win even more and having some tweaks or changes in their gameplan. Then we just focus on what we can improve from that game as well, and from all season, to make sure that if they try to exploit any weaknesses, what can we do to stop them from doing that?”
The 2024 MAC Championship Game kicks off on ESPN at 12 p.m. ET from Ford Field in Detroit, MI on Saturday, Dec. 7.