Ohio vs. Jacksonville State:
The Ohio Bobcats achieved their ultimate goal for the 2024 season. They won the MAC Championship outright for the first time since 1968, breaking a five-game losing streak in the conference championship game. A few short hours later, it was announced that their head coach, Tim Albin, was taking the same position at Charlotte.
On Wednesday morning, about 48 hours before the StaffDNA Cure Bowl, interim head coach and offensive coordinator Brian Smith was officially promoted and the interim tag was stripped. So the Bobcats have their coach while the Jacksonville State Gamecocks do not. Rich Rodriguez is back in Morgantown for a second run with West Virginia. Offensive coordinator and QB Coach Rod Smith will serve as the interim.
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That means we have a lot to unpack for this bowl game down in Orlando on Friday December 20.
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Cure Bowl: Ohio Bobcats (-3.5, 54.5) vs. Jacksonville State Gamecocks
Friday Dec. 20, Noon ET
Even though Albin announced his intention to leave, the players did not. Ohio has no transfer portal presence at a time when a lot of players are leaving for greener – literally and figuratively – pastures. Jacksonville State has several guys with RichRod’s departure.
Most of Jacksonville State’s portal considerations are guys on the defensive side of the ball. This wasn’t that great of a defense to begin with, as the Gamecocks finished 66th in yards per play allowed with 5.51. Ohio, meanwhile, was a top-20 defense in that department. I think you could have a good discussion about which conference is better between the MAC and Conference USA, but Jeff Sagarin’s ratings had the MAC rated about two points higher than C-USA.
Ohio’s strength of schedule, though, ranked 131st. Jacksonville State’s ranked 136th, as they played the only top 30 team (Louisville) between the two. In a lot of ways, I guess these teams look evenly-matched on the surface.
Gamecocks QB Tyler Huff has had some more time to rest the ankle injury he suffered in the regular season finale. He didn’t look hurt at all in the C-USA Championship game, going 11-of-15 for 176 yards and two touchdowns through the air and he also had 167 rushing yards and a touchdown. Huff is actually approaching 3,500 total yards for the season and has accounted for 27 touchdowns.
Parker Navarro is similar, but the interceptions attached to his stat line do stand out a bit. Navarro has accumulated more than 3,000 total yards with 2,169 through the air and 943 on the ground. He has racked up 27 total touchdowns as well, but his 10 interceptions stand out above Huff’s six. That said, Navarro had three of them in a surprisingly bad performance against Morgan State back in September and that outlier data point is the difference.
Navarro won’t have to worry about Jacksonville State’s three best defensive players, as Zechariah Poyser (Miami), Reginald Hughes (Colorado), and Fred Perry (TBD) have all left the program. The Gamecocks may have to replace both starting safeties and both starting corners for this one.
But, I do think that Huff will hold up his end for the Jax State offense in his final collegiate game. So, my favorite bet in this game is Over 54.5 as opposed to looking at a side.
Pick: Over 54.5
