Ohio Football: Bobcats should keep rolling in 2018

Offense

The Ohio Bobcats finished 2017 with the 30th ranked offense in the S&P+. Solich’s offense returns their star quarterback Nathan Rourke, a rising junior. The 6-foot-2, 209 pound Rourke was a two-star recruit out of Fort Scott Community College. He threw for 2,203 yards and seventeen touchdowns but did throw seven interceptions on the season.

While Rourke needs to elevate his yards per attempt up from 7.5, he does add the dual-threat quality that Solich has used from his time at Nebraska with options quarterbacks like Tommie Frazier, Scott Frost and Turner Gil. Rourke added 907 yards rushing and twenty-one touchdowns on 6.6 yards per rush and even caught a touchdown during his sophomore campaign.

The Supporting Cast

The Bobcats run game returns their leading rusher in A.J. Ouellette. Ouellette sat out the 2016 season with an injury but returned for 2017 and eclipsed the 1,000 yard mark adding seven rushing touchdowns and a receiving touchdown. The 5-foot-9, 205 pound Ouellette should be even better in 2018 with a season behind the injury and could improve upon his 5.2 yards per carry. While the do return their top two rushers in Rourke and Ouellette they lost running back Dorian Brown who ran for over 600 yards and seven touchdowns a year ago.

The Bobcats return their top receiver in Papi Brown, an undersized speedster who averaged 16.4 yards per reception but only scored two touchdowns. The Bobcats did lose their second leading receiver in Brendan Cope but do return Andrew Meyer and Cameron Odom.

On the offensive line, the Bobcats return five linemen who made 46 of Ohio’s 65 total starts. The 6-foot-6, 340 pound Joe Anderson was first-team all-conference in 2017 while left guard Joe Lowery was second-team All-MAC.