Penn State Football: get to know your opponent, the Ohio Bobcats

Penn State Football will return home to Beaver Stadium for the first time in the 2022 season, and they will take on the Ohio Bobcats of the Mid-American Conference.

The Bobcats are 1-0 on the season after defeating FAU by a score of 41-38 on Saturday evening.

Ohio looks to have a bounce back campaign after going just 3-9 a year ago, and a road upset over a Big Ten team would be a huge boost for that squad.

So what do the Bobcats bring to the table?

Ohio is coached by Tim Albin, who is in his second season as the head man of the Bobcats. Prior to being named the head coach for the first time in his career, Albin served on the Bobcats’ staff as an assistant since 2005, first as the offensive coordinator/running backs coach, then also taking on the title of associate head coach in 2019.

He was also an assistant at Nebraska from 2000-2003, so he’s not completely unfamiliar with Penn State Football and Beaver Stadium.

Offensively, Ohio is led by junior quarterback Kurtis “The Maple Missile” Rourke (which is a fantastic nickname for a quarterback from Canada), who threw for 345 yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions, and completed 79.4% of his passes in the week one win.

Last season, he appeared in 10 games, completing 65.5% of his passes for 1,801 yards, 11 touchdowns, and seven interceptions.

Ohio’s lead running back through one game is freshman Sieh Bangura, who rushed for 114 yards on 23 carries against FAU.

Wideout James Bostic was the Bobcats’ leading receiver in week one, catching six passes for 136 yards and a touchdown. Their wide receiver corps also features Tyler Walton, who was the team’s second leading receiver a year ago and caught six passes for 64 yards against FAU.

The Ohio defense is led by a pair of veteran upperclassmen in Bryce Houston (linebacker) and Tariq Drake (safety), both of which were third team all-conference selections in 2021. Drake also had three interceptions a year ago.

However in week one, junior safety Ben Johnson paced the Bobcat defense with an impressive 15 tackles.

Penn State Football is 5-1 all-time against Ohio, with that lone loss coming in the most recent meeting in 2012. The Bobcats won that one by a score of 24-14.

The first meeting between the two programs came back in November of 1967; Penn State won that one 35-14.

In his postgame press conference last week, Tim Albin mentioned that his squad is led by “9 super-seniors and 23 other seniors”, so this is an experienced squad that should be ready for the tall task of taking on Penn State.