The Bobbies host the Jags as both teams look to prove they’re capable of more than their Week 1 results suggest.
Ohio (0-1) hosts South Alabama (0-1) on Saturday night, with both teams looking to build upon opening week performances that showed promise for the long-term season prospects while identifying some improvement areas.
Having had a week to sharpen strengths and address weaknesses, the teams should be ready for test number two, which, according to Bobcat head coach Tim Albin, is the week in the season when teams make the biggest improvements
With that we take a look at each team starting with South Alabama:
Game notes
- Time and date: Saturday September 7th, 2024 at 6 p.m. Eastern
- Location: Peden Stadium, Frank Solich Field, Athens, Ohio
- TV network options: The game will be exclusively streaming on ESPN+. A valid subscription is required for viewing.
- Radio options: For Ohio, tune in to WTXQ-FM (Athens), Marty Bannister (play-by-play), Rob Cornelius (color) will provide commentary. For South Alabama, WRKH Jags Radio Network also on iHeart radio. JT Crabtree (play-by-play) and Chris May (color) will provide commentary.
- Gambling considerations: South Alabama are two-point favorites, with an over/under of 56, per DraftKings.
- All-time series: First meeting
- MAConnections: 2023 Central Michigan offensive coordinator/QB coach Paul Petrino is the current South Alabama WR coach.
About the South Alabama Jaguars
Photo by Michael Chang/Getty Images
For the second time in as many weeks, Ohio faces a newly-appointed head coach when Major Applewhite and company head to Athens. Applewhite is familiar with South Alabama, as he was the offensive coordinator under Kane Womack for three years before the latter departed for a new job.
Applewhite brings primarily an offensive background as a highly successful QB at Texas around the turn of the century.
Since that time, he has worked primarily as a QB coach then offensive coordinator with an additional three-year stop in Houston as the head coach from 2016-2018, where he led the Cougars to a 15-11 record, including a first place tie in the AAC West division his final year.
Applewhite and the Jags lost their home opener this year in a track meet to North Texas State 52-38, where the teams rolled up a combined 1,132 yards. South Alabama headed into halftime up 19-14, but all but lost the contest in the third quarter where a trick play, a blown coverage, and dropped snap/blocked punt resulted in three quick Mean Green scores.
South Alabama looks to move beyond that uncharacteristic series of third quarter events to claim win one of the season this week. The Jags have a lot of talent, starting with an explosive offense.
South Alabama features a very promising QB in redshirt freshman lefty Gio Lopez. Making just his third career start this week, Lopez’s career begun with a bang in last year’s bowl season, winning MVP honors for the 68 Ventures Bowl in his first career start for the Jags in South Alabama’s 59-10 rout of Eastern Michigan.
Lopez followed up the bowl performance with video game-like numbers in the season opener vs. UNT, passing for 432 yards en route to a mind-boggling 494 total yards from scrimmage, both team records.
Lopez is a dual-threat guy who will gash opponents by scrambling and test defensive patience and discipline in the process. Also, at about 220 lbs with some wiggle, Lopez is not an easy guy to get on the ground with shoulder or arm tackles.
At Lopez’s disposal are a plethora of weapons which will also test Ohio’s ability to tackle in space. Some of the main weapons are not physically large but are fast, agile, and productive. For instance, five-foot-eight, 175 lbs WR Jamaal Pritchett had over 800 yards receiving last year and torched the Mean Green last week by making 10 receptions for 197 yards and a receiving score.
Several backs got a taste last week with 2023 contributors Braylon McReynolds and Kentrel Bullock figuring to be in the mix again this week.
As productive as South Alabama’s offense was last week, its defense felt the full wrath of a talented Mean Green crew who rolled up 582 yards, the vast majority of those coming through the air (446).
South Alabama may have to be prepared for a different test against a Bobcat offense that ran the ball well in last week. (More on that in a moment.)
The Jags feature recognized talent at all levels of the defense beginning up front with pre-season All-Sun Belt nominee redshirt senior nose guard Wy’Kevious Thomas. Thomas has been a staple of Jags football since 2020, having appeared in 47 games, contributing 14.5 tackles-for-loss and 7.5 sacks.
Middle linebacker Blayne Myrick was all over the field last week, amassing 12 tackles as the defensive leader.
2023 first-team all-Sun Belt free safety Jaden Voisin figures to be part of the crew that will help the pass defense settle in as 2024 rolls on. This is Voisin’s fifth season with the Jags, where he’s become a staple on the back end of the Jags defense, with 142 tackles, 11 passes defensed, and six interceptions.
About the Ohio Bobcats
Rich Barnes-Imagn Images
Tim Albin returns to Athens for his 20th season of Bobcat football, heading into his fourth as head coach after serving sixteen seasons as offensive coordinator.
Coming off the first back-to-back 10 win seasons in program history in 2022-23, a lot had changed in the offseason leading to 2024 with two new coordinators promoted from within and dozens of portal transfers in and out of the program.
The question for Week 1 was how quickly could the Bobbies gel by the opener at Syracuse? Despite the 38-22 loss to the Orange, the answer was the ‘Cats looked cohesive and showed a lot of promise in all phases.
Offensively, the Bobcats at times dominated and frustrated the Orange in the running game, led by an offensive line and blockers creating regular holes in the defense. Ohio spread Syracuse early in three and four wide receiver sets and pounded the rock with the three-headed monster of QB Parker Navarro and RBs Anthony Tyus III and Rickey Hunt leading the way.
Tyus III, who transferred in from Northwestern over the offseason, ran over or around the Orange en route to a career day of 203 yards rushing and 12.7 yards a carry, showing vision and operating from a dangerous physical package of speed and agility for a 225 lb. back.
Things could get dicey for the visitors if Ohio is able to establish a similar ground game opening up throwing lanes where Navarro can pepper his targets with short and intermediate routes and play action passes.
Navarro established one target last week in Northern Arizona (FCS) transfer wideout captain Coleman Owen, who was a workhorse with 10 grabs for 137 yards.
Two areas for the Bobcats offense to address in some fashion this week start with red zone improvement, where the ‘Cats came up short three times, settling for field goals. At his press conference, Coach Albin talked about the communication issues in the dome playing a factor in the red zone, which should be resolved with some home cooking.
Another area to watch is the offensive line, which allowed four sacks and 10 tackles-for-loss. This may not turn out to be anything for the ‘Cats to worry about but time will tell as it was the first game and Syracuse has a few NFL-caliber players in the front seven, including Fadil Diggs, who had two sacks and four TFLs on his lonesome.
Defensively, the ‘Cats performed well overall, holding Syracuse to 38 points considering the NFL talent on the offense and the multiple injuries on Ohio’s defense at linebacker and in the secondary before the end of the first half.
Ohio needs to contain Lopez as a runner and limit the number of explosive plays, as five USA receivers had catches of 20 yards or more against North Texas.
If the offense runs the ball like they did last week, that should help keep the Jags explosive offense on the sideline by, intentionally or not, decreasing the number of possessions. In the opener, Syracuse had one first quarter possession for a total of four plays due to Ohio’s two drives covering 25 plays.
Also, considering how far down the depth chart they went, the defense played a physical brand of football, flowing to the ball and tackling pretty well. The Bobcats should be in solid shape against the Jags speedy crew if they can carry that over to week two and get a few players back from injury.
Several of the Bobcats injured last week are on the depth chart this week but two defensive backs that are out indefinitely with reported ACL injuries are captain Jeremiah Wood and Kendall Bannister.
The Bobcats showed a lot of productive depth in the defensive line last week led by defensive end Bradley Weaver and defensive tackle Bralen Henderson. 2024 transfers like Ben McNaboe and Cam Rice among others looked by their play last week to be immediate factors this year.
In his first Bobcat action, Bucknell transfer linebacker Blake Leake looked the part last week contributing seven stops.
Safety Austin Brawley led the back end of the defense against the Orange with a physical style and 12 total tackles.
The ‘Cats and the Jags should have a tight battle here if they both put their best foot forward. If that is the case, things will come down to a handful of plays. The Jags electric offense will make waves but ultimately the Bobcats defense should be good enough to slow the Jags offense more than North Texas did in week one, especially if a few players return from injury as expected.
Also, special teams are especially critical in a tight game and Ohio looked very solid there despite being impacted by injuries. Kicker Gianni Spetic was perfect on three field goals and veteran punter Jack Wilson and the punt team looked like they had one of their better outings with a 45.3 yard punt average.
The Bobcat offense should be able to generate at least around 30 points in this one given that they mustered 22 against an ACC-caliber defense at Syracuse despite being unable to convert three red zone trips into touchdowns.
Ohio 34, South Alabama 31