Ohio will be ready by the time the MAC schedule hits in 2019 to win the MAC championship. Non-conference opponents provide good tests. Marshall is picked to win its division in Conference USA and LA Ragin' Cajuns are picked to its half of the Sun Belt. And Pitt, possibly by default, won its division title last year.
The question for Ohio, as it seems it is in recent years, is whether Ohio can go 9 games in MAC Play (8 reg season and the championship) without having a catastrophic 1-3 quarters of football. Not 1-3 bad quarters but 1-3 CATASTROPHIC quarters. That is the difference for Ohio between good and great. That is the difference between going to Detroit and not.
2018: The fourth quarter of the NIU and the first quarter-ish of the Miami game were the difference in what otherwise would have been likely a championship appearance. Granted, we got lucky at Kent St.: we were lucky to win that with the avalanche of turnovers and missed tackles. but Ohio was able to overcome that.
2017: 26-23 loss to CMU-absolute debacle. -4 Turnover differential and we gave that away. 37-34 Loss to Akron? -3 TO differential. I never in a million years would have guessed we'd have lost that game.
Last Edited: 7/23/2019 7:47:40 PM by Rufusbobcat94