Most Ohio students have never seen Marshall win the annual Battle for the Bell.
Saturday, Ohio’s seniors will attempt to end their careers with a perfect 4-0 against their rival and take the Bell back to Athens, where it would remain for a fourth straight year.
Despite the winning streak and the fact Marshall hasn’t been a Mid-American Conference school for almost a decade, Chase Cochran says the rivalry means more than Miami.
“To me, this is the biggest rivalry we have on our schedule,” Cochran said. “They’ve circled this game on their calendar, they’re a team that wants to try and be undefeated, but we’ve circled this game too and we’ve been waiting for this one.
“Our hatred for Marshall runs deep, even with the new players.”
The redshirt senior wide receiver said one of the biggest reasons the rivalry means so much is because they almost always play close games. The Bobcats have won each of the past two contests by just three points.
A constant during Ohio’s winning streak has been Marshall quarterback Rakeem Cato, who was profiled in Sports Illustrated as a long shot Heisman trophy candidate before the season began. He’s thrown at least one touchdown pass in 34 straight games, but still hasn’t defeated the Bobcats.
While Cato’s individual play has kept the Thundering Herd competitive against the Bobcats, they’ve committed 13 turnovers and forced just three. Redshirt junior linebacker Jovon Johnson said the Bobcats’ game plan for Cato will be the same Saturday as it has been the past three years.
“Marshall is vulnerable to turnovers, so if we just get our turnovers that we need and contain (Cato) in making him one-dimensional passing, then we’ll be fine,” he said.
Just because Ohio has strung together a winning streak in the rivalry series doesn’t mean they’re going to underestimate Marshall, though. The Thundering Herd has been projected to potentially go undefeated and run the table to play in the first College Football Playoff.
"I think this is probably their best team that we've faced and maybe in our (entire) time here, as far as this staff is concerned,” coach Frank Solich said. “So this will be maybe an even bigger challenge than what it's been.”
Part of that challenge will be traveling to Joan C. Edwards Stadium, where Ohio won in 2012, but hadn’t in its previous five trips. The stadium’s capacity is more than 38,016, which is smaller than other stadiums the Bobcats have played in during recent years, including Kentucky last week.
“We’ve played in some big stadiums … to me (Marshall) is the loudest place I’ve ever played in,” Cochran said. “They crank the music up and their fans get after it and it’s always packed there.”
With a fourth straight win on the line, the coaching staff and captains have been teaching younger players about the rivalry and how tough it can be to play in Huntington, W. Va., by using any motivation they can find.
“Marshall always makes up these articles in their newspapers down there in West Virginia talking all their stuff about how they need to beat us because they haven’t beat us in the past years,” Johnson said. “It’s motivation to make sure we get that ‘W’.”
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