Less than a full year ago, Ohio had just concluded a football game with Toledo in Detroit, a game that would decide the winner of the Mid-American Conference. By the time the clock struck 00:00, Ohio’s sideline was one of long faces and disappointment. For some, this is how their football careers would end; for others, the loss sparked a hunger for more.
After six weeks of college football, Ohio is sitting at a record of 5-1, as good of a start any Ohio team has had since the 2012 season when the team started 7-0. However, the team is yet to be satisfied. The goal to start the season wasn’t to have a good six weeks, after all.
The goal was to hoist a MAC Championship trophy on the field in Detroit when the season eventually came to a close.
For veteran linebackers Byce Houston and Keye Thompson, nothing but a MAC Championship will bring the team and the community a reason to be satisfied.
“I think just kind of a build-up of last year, how close we were,” Houston said. “We knew how dominant this team was and how successful we could be. It (the MAC championship) being so close and not being able to attain that goal was just something that really drove us to want to come back and finish what we started.”
Both Houston and Thompson are in their sixth years as members of the Ohio football program. While both have had opportunities to leave and play for bigger programs or pursue life after Ohio, both have decided year after year to stay in Athens.
“Athens is OU and OU is Athens; that’s what I always love to say,” Houston said. “Everyone that is around here, everyone that is within 30 miles of here, just loves Ohio University … if you’re from OU, you rep OU. It’s just the camaraderie and that community, we run strong and we run deep.”
Ohio’s defense has been the cornerstone of the team's success so far this season, led by both Houston and Thompson. Allowing just under 12 points per game, fans are experiencing what could go down as the best defense in Ohio history.
The defense was fortunate to return several key players, including Thompson and Houston; however, the defense hasn’t always been successful in the two veterans' tenures with the program. Through six games in 2022, the team was allowing just over 40 points per game. That’s nearly a 30-point difference in the span of just a year.
“I don’t think anything has really changed,” Thompson said. “I think that we just, after watching Week Four against Kent State (2022), we knew the potential that we had. Going into this season, we emphasized starting out fast and allowing as (few) points as possible just to get the ball back to Kurtis (Rourke) and the boys.”
Under second-year Defensive Coordinator Spence Nowinski, the defense has been able to take a leap forward that could have only been predicted by those within the organization who never lost hope of what the team could do.
This will definitely be the last year we see Houston and Thompson flying around on defense at Peden Stadium; after five-plus years with the program, both find this season to be a humbling and emotional experience.
Especially during Homecoming, Houston and Thompson were able to take a moment and appreciate what the community has done for them since getting here in 2018.
“I did take a second; me and Bryce both took a second to look up and really embrace the crowd, embrace the energy,” Thompson said. “I’m pretty sure that’s one of the most packed games that we’ve had here since 2019 against Miami. It was a very cool atmosphere and I definitely took it all in.”
Other than the fact that both Houston and Thompson are playing their final games at Ohio, the veterans are driven by a hungry defense that is in constant competition with not just the MAC but with one another as well.
“There’s a lot of factors that drive us … I do want to mention one thing: on the defensive side of the ball, our guys are hungry,” Thompson said. “We’ve got playmakers all over and we’ve got guys hunting for that MAC Player of the Week each and every day of the week.”
No matter what the in-season accolades are for the players, the goal remains the same: winning the MAC for the first time since 1968.
“It would mean everything,” Houston said. “We’ve set that in stone since me and Keye got here as freshmen; when we first got here, we said we wanted to bring the first MAC Championship to Ohio University since forever. I feel like it's kind of like being a legend; we want to be known as the people who brought that MAC Championship back to Athens, Ohio.”
