UB Hosts Ohio in This Century's Rubber Game

On the heels of their most competitive performance to date, the UB Bulls (0-8, 0-4 Mid-American Conference) play host to an injury ridden Ohio University (2-5, 1-2 MAC) squad this Saturday at UB stadium.

The Bobcats, who will limp into Western New York, epitomize a late October team victimized by the injury bug. Having already lost four starters to injury earlier this year, Ohio was forced to weather the past two contests without their top two quarterbacks, senior Fred Ray, who is also the team's leading rusher, and backup Ryan Hawk.

It's true that freshman Austen Everson stepped in for the Bobcats, earning MAC East Offensive Player of the week two Saturdays ago against Central Florida in a 28-0 victory over the Golden Knights. However, in a loss against Kentucky last week, Everson completed just 10 of 18 passes for 147 yards with a touchdown, an interception and a fumble.

On Monday, when asked if his top two guys were going to be ready, Ohio head coach Brian Knorr sounded unsure about his dismal quarterback situation.

"I think we'll have to see," said Knorr at the MAC teleconference. "We give our guys Sunday off. I haven't seen Ryan or Freddy. They've had a couple weeks now, so we sure hope they can be back to competing this week, either Tuesday or Wednesday.

"Austen did a good job," said Knorr about his freshman's performance at Kentucky. "We had two turnovers, but they certainly weren't his fault alone. I thought being put into that environment as a true freshman, he certainly played pretty well."

Whoever it may be who eventually gets the green light at quarterback this week for Ohio, only one thing will remain certain: All three quarterbacks possess the ability to run, and can effectively manage the flexbone formation successfully.

Averaging 200.1 yards a game, the Bobcats are the 15th best rushing team in the nation, spearheaded by their athletic quarterbacks and versatile junior halfback Ray Huston, the fastest player on the team.

"It's a three back offense," said UB head coach Jim Hofher. "They have big strong running backs. They've got really strong running quarterbacks. The formations really give you reason to study them and focus on them because they do use different types of formations, some unbalanced, some not."

It will be a much different challenge for Hofher and the Bulls as compared to last week's Marshall attack, which emphasized the pass.

Anyone who watched the game against Marshall had to be impressed by the effort the UB defense put forth. Junior J.J. Gibson and senior Mark Graham, both defensive backs, gave the Bulls outstanding performances, while senior linebacker Lamar Wilcher was his usual self, running sideline to sideline and tallying eight solo tackles.

"Our defense was very opportunistic and executed very well in many cases against Marshall," said Hofher. "J.J. was in the right place at the right time, there's no doubt about it. He's an important cog in our defense. When everybody does what they are supposed to do and they do it on time, then those types of performances can happen."

The emergence of redshirt freshman Delando Bradford at cornerback has also been impressive, while he and fellow freshmen defensive backs, Brandon Smith and Michael Arroyo, held the explosive Marshall receiver duo of Darius Watts and Josh Davis to just 153 yards on 14 catches. Coming into UB, that Marshall tandem was averaging over 90 yards a game each.

Also having a breakout game for the Bulls was quarterback P.J. Piskorik, who completed 15 of 23 attempts for a career-high 140 yards and a touchdown. UB hopes that Piskorik's confidence will carry over into this week against an Ohio team that still has many players on its roster that were on the sidelines two years ago.

"We have 30 players on our team that were on that trip," Knorr said. "They thoroughly outplayed us in every phase of the game two years ago."

For those unaware, Nov. 2, 2001 marked the last home win for the Bulls, in which they waxed the Bobcats 44-0 in what was the biggest margin of victory in the MAC that year. And last year, OU only won 34-32 after a field goal with 10 seconds left in regulation.

Many people believe that if UB's 18-game losing skid is going to stop, this week needs to be the week with Toledo, Northern Illinois and Kent State rounding out the last three games.

Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. on Saturday at UB stadium.