Ohio (9-4) vs. Southern Miss
(8-5)
Jan. 7th,
8:00 p.m. ET, ESPN
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GMAC Bowl Player
Profile: Southern Miss LB Gerald McRath, team bowl history and more
It's like Silverchair opening for
Nirvana or Three Dog Night opening for the Rolling Stones.
Moved to January 7th, the night before the national championship,
the GMAC Bowl gets a little bit of a national stage as the
second-to-last college football game of the season.
Think of it this way; it's a battle of the second best teams in
their respective conferences, and after it, there's just one last
game before eight months of no college football.
Ohio and Southern Miss might not be Michigan, Arkansas, Nebraska or
Georgia Tech when it comes to the number twos, but they're good,
solid, well-coached teams that each found their way into their
respective conference championship games. Even though they each lost
rather convincingly, they were each red-hot before getting tagged.
 |
|
National
Rankings |
|
Southern Miss |
Ohio |
|
Total Offense |
|
66th 334.69 ypg |
106th 280.69 ypg |
|
Total Defense |
|
39th 314.54 ypg |
31st 304.31 ypg |
|
Scoring Offense |
|
50th 25.23 ppg |
82nd 20.69 ppg |
|
Scoring Defense |
|
37th 19.46 ppg |
24th 17.31 ppg |
|
Run Offense |
|
26th 173.38 ypg |
41st 155.38 ypg |
|
Run Defense |
|
57th 134 ypg |
53rd 131.08 ypg |
|
Pass Offense |
|
97th 161.31 ypg |
115th 125.31 ypg |
|
Pass Defense |
|
31st 180.54 ypg |
22nd 173.23 ypg |
|
Turnover Margin |
|
36th 0.38 |
74th -0.23 |
|
Southern Miss
at Florida L 34-7
SE La W 45-0
NC State W 37-17
at UCF W 19-14
at Tulsa L 20-6
Houston W 31-27
at Va Tech L 36-6
ECU L 20-17 OT
at Mem. W 42-21
at Tulane W 31-3
UAB W 26-20
Marshall W 42-7
C-USA Champ.
Houston L 34-20 |
Ohio
UT Martin
W 29-3
at No Illinois W 35-23
at Rutgers L 24-7
at Missouri L 31-6
Bo. Green L 21-6
West. Mich W 27-20
at Illinois W 20-17
Buffalo
W 42-7
at Kent State W 17-7
at East. Mich W 16-10
Akron W 17-7
at Miami U. W 34-24
MAC Championship
Central Mich. L 31-10 |
|
Position
Ratings
relative to each
other |
|
USM |
5
highest
1 lowest |
O |
|
3.5 |
Quarterbacks |
2.5 |
|
5 |
RBs |
5 |
|
3 |
Receivers |
2.5 |
|
3.5 |
O
Line |
3.5 |
|
3.5 |
D
Line |
3.5 |
|
4 |
Linebackers |
4.5 |
|
4 |
Secondary |
4 |
|
3.5 |
Spec
Teams |
4.5 |
|
4 |
Coaching |
4 |
|
This is Ohio's first
bowl trip since 1968 while looking for its first win in three tries.
It wasn't just enough to be 0-2 in the post-season, but the losses
came to Richmond and West Texas A&M. In other words, a win over
Southern Miss would put the cap on what might be considered the
program's greatest season ever.
A 35-23 win over Northern Illinois in early September set the early
tone for the season, and even thought the offense was non-existent
for a three week stretch, the team bounced back to win seven in a
row including shocker over Illinois and Akron before getting thumped
31-10 by Central Michigan in the MAC title game.
This is a sound Bobcat team with good special teams, a rock of a
defense, and a strong ground game that has to be effective to win.
The passing game, well, the running attack is excellent.
Southern Miss is used to the post-season life making bowl games a
regular occurrence under head coach Jeff Bower. As always, the
defense is aggressive and effective, but the real star is the ground
game which ranked among the best in the program's history.
The five losses all came to bowl teams including season opener
against Florida and a tough date at Virginia Tech, but the team was
good enough to fight past a loss to Tulsa, and an overtime loss to
East Carolina, to get to the Conference USA championship against
Houston.
Don't expect a lot of offensive fireworks or too many big pass
plays, but if you're interested in running games and defense, this
will be the game for you.
Players to watch: While Darren McFadden, Mike Hart, P.J.
Hill, and an assortment of other running backs will get all the head
lines going into 2007, USM's Damion Fletcher, who finished
11th in the nation in rushing, and Ohio's Kalvin McRae, who
was 27th.
Because USM has more playmakers, there's more pressure on McRae than
Fletcher to produce. The Bobcat junior is a pounding workhorse
who'll crank out five yards a crack when he's on a roll, but he
isn't going to tear off many home runs. Consistent and great around
the goal line, he'll be fed the ball early and often.
Fletcher is more of a speedster who fought through a knee injury to
become the focal point of the offense with seven, 100-yard games
including four straight early in the season and three straight
during a critical late season run to the Conference USA title game.
Southern Miss is 5-1 when he runs for 100 or more.
In charge of stopping Fletcher and the Golden Eagle ground game will
be the great Ohio linebacking tandem of Matt Muncy and
Tyler Russ, who combined for 164 tackles on the year. They're
both great against the run, sure tacklers, and work well together on
combining for stops. Muncy is more of a playmaker in the backfield,
but each will have to keep their eyes on mobile USM QB Jeremy
Young.
Southern Miss
will win if...
it stuffs McRae. Ohio's passing
game isn't just non-existent, it's ineffective no matter who's been
under center. Ohio is 9-4 on the year; eight wins came when McRae
ran for 100, four losses came when he was held under 100, and the
one win when he was kept under the century mark came in the blowout
over UT Martin when he he only ran ten times. It would also help USM
to win the turnover battle. The Golden Eagles have turned it over
nine fewer times on the year, and in a game like this where points
might be at a premium, mistakes will matter.
Ohio will win if... it doesn't get away from
what works. Southern Miss has a solid defense, but this isn't the
killer run D of past seasons and it can be pushed around. Even if it
gets down early, Ohio can't panic and start trying to throw it
around since that'll play into USM's defensive strength. On the
other side of the ball, the defensive front has to generate
consistent pressure on Jeremy Young and get him to hurry his throws.
USM has more of a passing game than Ohio, but it's not great when
Young is under fire.
What will happen: These are two relatively similar teams, but
Southern Miss is a little faster, a little stronger, and a little
more effective. The Golden Eagles will have far more offensive
balance, while its suspect run defense will swarm all over McRae and
force the Bobcats to try to throw to win. It won't work. The USM
corners will do a good job of preventing the big play.
Line: Southern Miss -6.5 ... CFN Prediction:
Southern
Miss 34 ... Ohio 13