The ‘Cats look to catch a first-time head coach napping in the opening week.
The Ohio Bobcats look to get their season started after an offseason of high roster turnover, traveling to upstate New York to take on an ACC foe in the Syracuse Orange.
The Orange, meanwhile, are breaking in a new coaching regime after the departure of former coach Dino Babers. First-year head man Fran Brown, who coached Georgia’s cornerbacks in 2023, will hope his team has the fundamentals down so they can open the new era in style.
Let’s get right into it:
Game notes
- Time and date: Saturday August 31st, 2024 at 3:30 p.m. Eastern
- Location: JMA Wireless Dome, Syracuse, NY: Capacity, 49,057. Bobcats first game in the JMA Wireless Dome.
- TV network options: ACC Network, part of the ESPN family of networks. A valid cable subscription is required.
- Radio options: For Ohio, tune in to WTXQ-FM (Athens), Marty Bannister (play-by-play), Rob Cornelius (color) will provide commentary. For Syracuse, tune in to the Syracuse Sports Network. Matt Park (play-by-play) and Adam Terry (color) will provide commentary.
- Gambling considerations: Syracuse are 17.5-point favorites, with an over/under of 47.5.
- ESPN’s Matchup Predictor: Syracuse wins 74 percent of the time
- Last meeting: September 4, 2021, Syracuse 29-9 at Ohio.
- All-time series: Syracuse leads 3-0
Getting to know the Orange
Photo by Rich Storry/Getty Images
The Orange are a significantly changed squad heading into 2024 starting with a mostly new coaching staff after saying goodbye to their head coach Dino Babers. The former Bowling Green Falcons HC Babers guided Syracuse for eight seasons, peaking in wins in 2018 with ten while garnering a second place ACC finish that season at 6-2.
Additionally, Syracuse saw an avalanche of portal activity this offseason with the net results of adding multiple potential impact starters to both sides of the ball to fortify a an All-ACC returning core.
Fran Brown makes his college career head coaching debut with the Orange after helping the Georgia Bulldogs win a national title recently as a defensive assistant. Brown wisely surrounded himself with a host of accomplished, experienced assistant coaches in the offseason to help get the Orange ready for 2024 and assist in his transition to head coach..
Based on the coaching and player talent Brown and his staff have retained and signed, the question is more of when the Orange will be very good rather than if they will be good. It’s just a matter of how early in the year they come together to meet their potential.
Brown’s coaching background is primarily with defensive backs since 2010, so let’s start by looking at the defense.
The Orange transition from a base 3-3-5 to a 4-2-5 with the ‘5’ being loaded and, by season’s end, may prove to be the best secondary the Bobcats face in 2024.
Key is returning nickel safety Justin Barron who is the complete package. At six-foot-four and 225 lbs, Barron has ideal size, great experience with 49 games, and next-level productivity making over 200 tackles and 12 passes defensed.
The Orange also feature Duce Chestnut, who moved from corner to free safety and who ‘Cats fans may recall had an epic college debut against Ohio in their last matchup, with eight stops and an interception back in 2021.
A name familiar to MAC fans will also be a contributor, as former all-MAC first-team safety Devin Grant, formerly of Buffalo, is battling for playing time in a talented secondary after moving from safety to corner.
Syracuse returns another future Sunday player in linebacker Marlowe Wax to man the middle. Wax is extremely accomplished like Barron, having also appeared in 49 career games with almost 300 career tackles, 37 tackles-for-loss, and 16.5 sacks.
The defensive line depth chart is littered with “OR” designations, so figure the Orange to rotate some defenders here to keep everyone fresh to fuel their attacking defense.
Offensively, expect Syracuse to be ready with proven skill position players with a fair question being how the talented but reworked offensive line performs as a unit in the season opener.
Former third-team all-Big Ten quarterback Kyle McCord joins Syracuse this year to orchestrate the offense. Though at a higher level of competition, McCord could easily remind Bobcat fans of former Ohio QB Kurtis Rourke in that McCord is a leader with NFL size who is accurate, takes care of the football, and plays with great composure. In 2023, McCord led the Ohio State Buckeyes to an 11-2 record, completing 66% of his passes while boasting a touchdown to interception ratio of 24:6.
Unlike Rourke, to this point in his career, McCord has been almost strictly a pocket passer with a nine-yard long career rush.
McCord will have plenty of options in the passing game starting with one of the best players on either side in NFL prospect Oronde Gadsden II. Syracuse’s star tight end was first-team all-ACC in 2022 before missing most of 2023 with a Lisfranc injury. In the past, Gadsden II has moved around on the line of scrimmage, flexing out a significant amount of snaps and creating matchup problems with his combination of size (six-foot-five, 235 lbs) and athleticism.
LeQuint Allen, who placed second-team all-ACC last season, returns as the featured back with over 1,000 yards rushing last season. Allen is a plus receiver with over 50 career catches and can do some damage, for instance, on screens or even as a safety valve.
Closing out the offense, the offensive line has been reworked over the offseason starting with the addition of behemoth tackle transfers in Da’Metrius Weatherspoon (six-foot-seven, 335 lbs) manning the left side and former Kent State standout Savion Washington (six-foot-eight, 320 lbs) on the right. If the game is competitive late, expect Ohio’s defensive line depth to be tested as they wrestle with the likes of Weatherspoon and Washington all afternoon with the top Bobcat defensive lineman weighing in at around 290 lbs.
Getting to know the Bobcats
Photo by Peter Joneleit/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The Bobcats start the year feeling the full effects of the success of back-to-back 10-win seasons as several starters, many on offense, were lost to the portal and Power Four squads such as Ohio State, Oklahoma State, Colorado, and Indiana, to name a few.
However, the ‘Cats also added some significant talent and experience via the portal and are an intriguing team to start the year in terms of how quickly they can gel to reach their potential with so much change in the starting lineups.
Tim Albin adds some major stability for 2024 returning for his fourth season as head coach and his 20th season overall after having spent many seasons as one of Ohio’s most prolific offensive coordinators in team history.
The ‘Cats head into 2024 with a new OC in Brian Smith, who was promoted from within after two seasons. Smith adds a run and shoot background with several years of success at programs like Hawaii and Washington State to augment the offense established under Albin and other returning offensive coaches.
Smith and company will have a job to do as Ohio has nine new starters on offense for the opener featuring some returning contributors in larger roles and some accomplished portal transfers.
Quarterback Parker Navarro returns for his third season with the ‘Cats after locking up the starting job. Navarro has eight career appearances with Ohio, mostly in relief.
Navarro has real potential for success in the Bobcat offense though as a dual threat, athletic player who manages the action well as shown in last year’s bowl game. If Navarro can take care of the ball and be that X-factor in the ground game it will go a long way in the Bobcats reaching their potential this year .
Navarro operates behind an offensive line returning two interior starters in center and captain Parker Titsworth and right guard Christophe Atkinson. In an offense looking to gel early, Titsworth is vital as an experienced and knowledgeable veteran who will be the “coach on the field” for the offensive line, making the calls and keeping everyone on the same page.
The Bobcats will have a new dynamic duo in the backfield this year in redshirt freshman Ricky Hunt and Northwestern graduate transfer Anthony Tyus III. In his first significant college action, Hunt closed the ‘Cats season with a bang by tying the record for most touchdowns in NCAA Bowl game history with five (4 rush, 1 pass).
Tyus III adds some significant physicality and size at 225 lbs. and has some solid career production with almost 500 career yards rushing.
At receiver, the Bobcats feature a couple of young rising players including Chase Hendricks and Rodney Harris II while infusing the group with some proven talent like Coleman Owen, who lit up the competition at Northern Arizona (FCS). Owen finished his career in the top ten in school history in touchdown receptions (17), receiving yards (2,286), and receptions (177). Owen was also a plus player on punt returns with 11.8 yards per return career average and an 85-yard score.
The defense begins with a change as third-year Bobcat coach John Hauser was promoted to defensive coordinator with the departure of Spence Nowinsky to Memphis. Hauser looks ready to take command as Nowinsky and Hauser honed the ‘Cats defense going back to their days with Ohio rival Miami Redhawks.
The defense figures to be the more settled unit out of the gate returning a core of starters and contributors from a great 2023 defense. Last season, the ‘Cats were a formidable blend of explosive plays and run defense ranking 20th in the nation last year in turnovers gained, 10th in tackles-for-loss per game while finishing 7th in rushing defense, allowing just over 91 yards a game.
Like the Orange, the ‘Cats will run a 4-2-5 base defense with some proven players on the back end starting with free safety Adonis Williams Jr. and strong safety Austin Brawley. Williams Jr. has prototypical size at around six-foot-two and 215 lbs and is a versatile player playing nickel before moving to free safety. Brawley has a year of starting experience under his belt and figures to be playing his best ball heading into 2024 after getting his feet wet as a starter last year and looking formidable in 2023 at times as someone who plays more physical than their 185 pounds suggest they should be able to.
Through a combination of the COVID do-over, medical redshirts, and basic eligibility, 2024 captain and nickel safety Jeremiah Wood returns for his seventh season with the ‘Cats. The former linebacker looks to pick up where he left off last year after a strong bowl appearance in the win over Georgia Southern.
The team moves on from their first-team all-MAC linebackers from 2023. Established veteran transfer Blake Leake (FCS Bucknell) should see time at WILL and Shay Taylor should be at MIKE. Leake is an experienced, productive player and leader with over 30 college games under his belt, tallying over 200 career tackles and serving as captain last year.
The ‘Cats defensive line should be a very good unit at some point this year beginning with the Jack/DE positions, where they have a lot of depth featuring Bradley Weaver at DE.
Final Thoughts
It’s hard to fathom how oddsmakers came up with the spread in this one considering all the changes on both teams.
Nevertheless, Syracuse has an ACC roster from top to bottom with highly touted incoming portal transfers and key returning All-ACC players and may therefore cover the points and more.
A win for the ‘Cats versus an ACC opponent would be a feather in their caps for sure and they have had several big non-conference wins over the years since Albin’s arrival in 2005 including wins at Penn State and home versus Pitt and Iowa State last year.
Yet, in working towards the big goals of the MAC Championship and bowl season, fans would like to see the ‘Cats at least put their best foot forward in this one and let the chips fall where they may in terms of the final score.