And next year we can look forward to a team with a starting QB who has thrown no more than 1 pass all season so far or in his college career.

I mean, seriously, you didn't see this coming? Now we'll spank Western, lose at BG and look terrible while winning at Akron. Then it's on to a big victory in the Top Care Cling Wrap Bowl. Rinse and repeat.

Kent state will win one before Ohio

Ross running out of bounds screams bad coaching to me. How do the players not know the situation in that instance? The coaches have told him, get the first down at all costs. Don't worry about getting out of bounds because we have two timeouts.

Also, 2 turnovers came at awful times, and yes the first quarter fumble killed us. But where are our takeaways? Our coaching staff recruited and coached up an entire defense that is incapable of forcing a turnover to save their lives.

The whole damn night was inexcusable. There is a clear talent difference between our team and the rest of the league -- for the third consecutive year -- and we have failed to even win our division any of those years. Rourke will set all kinds of school records and not even play in a MACC game.

Which is worse: losing the MACC after a 20-0 halftime lead, or failing to even get to the MACC three consecutive years when you clearly have the most talented team each of those years? I argue the latter is more egregious.

Players shoulder some blame tonight for sure.

But those letting this coach off the hook ..... c'mon.

Allison fumbles on that first drive and gets benched rest of the game?!?!? He ran the ball down their throat on that drive. It's such antiquated thinking.

Running the play clock inside 10 seconds the entire game on offense? How can offense ever get in a rhythm? Ohio has play fast paced all year and suddenly they start playing like they're stuck in quicksand.

The end of game botchery on play calling and clock managment was abysmal. 1st down at midfield ..... plenty of time ... 3 timeouts ... and only need 20 or so yards to get comfortably in Zervos range to tie .... so they exclusively go to pass game that had been stale all night instead of getting Rourke to the edge on a run or two?

I'm sorry. That's three straight years Ohio has laid an egg in a big spot in November. That's coaching. Panicked ... didn't make adjustments ... failed in late half & game management.

Pretty much what we've come to expect

Far more egregious. No excuse for not winning the worst division in FBS

The players get the blame on this one. Two killer turnovers. 14 point difference right there. They defense has let this team down time after time in the 4th quarter. Bobcats needed to have a lead and then milk the clock. Offense pissed that chance away in first half. The fumble one the first drive turned the game. We score they and we get up and pound the football all game long, instead Miami hung around until the Bobcats defense gave up double digits points in 4th quarter again.

+1

He got off to a quick start winning the East in year 2. It was that smackdown by Troy in the 2010 New Orleans Bowl when the excuse machine started turning when the staff realized they lost due to an inferior offense. Then it was we didn't have an IPF and that we needed a quality QB. The MACC usually goes to whoever has the best QB and that hasn't been enough to get it done.

Exactly, and what “we” are doing is failing to execute! Failing to win 1 on 1 battles. Failing to make throws, failing to make catches, failing to cover deep routes on pass plays. That has nothing to do with play calling, it’s execution. And the only thing OHIO players executed tonight was themselves. When they did have chances the players left the points on the field, a fumble at the 5? A missed FG?, both are potentially the game. Giving up 2 60+ yard plays.

Coaches had the players in a position to win a game, sometimes the players have to make plays.

Players know the situation! It’s up to them to make the proper decision, this isn’t 3rd grade where coaches get to be in the huddle every game telling them exactly what to do. These are scholarship athletes, they’ve played the game over half their lives. If you think Ross running out of bounds is bad coaching, I’d like to know when something is bad “execution” in your book.

We've been letting the play clock run down for several games now. The reason given was to help the defensive players get rest so they can play better in the second half. I'm not an Xs and Os guy, but I HATE it when an offense stands there for 25 seconds before snapping the ball. I agree that it hurts flow.

I’m sad to say it, but i agree with you. Unfortunately, i seriously doubt that we’ll see any better results from the next staff, or the one after that, or the one after that, or the 5 that follow that one, or the dozen after that 8th-future staff. That this era is the high water mark of the last 50 years doesn’t exactly suggest that things will improve over the next 10-20 years

Have we played fast paced all year? I could swear that we haven’t played fast paced since 2011 or 2012. No huddle that entire time sure, but we’ve been doing this ‘burn the entire play clock’ thing for a long time

I'm not sure what anyone was expecting last night. This is Ohio football. If you didn't see this coming you haven't been paying attention for the last...ever.

Actually, Chuck Martin had his players in position to win the game. They cycle through what, three coaches during Frank regime and are back to being superior to the Bobcats in scoreboard results.

The Bobcats were indeed in position to win at the end. But would a baseball manager seeing his star pitcher having an off night on the mound stick with what isn't working? The coaches had three and a half quarters to see that the pass game was off, way off. Rourke not accurate, line not giving much time, one tight end out of the game. AND a running game that had been gashing the Redhawks with regularity and time of possession to the Bobcats so you could think that the OLine would be fresher than the D line and you may with three minutes to go just try and POUND the hell out of them. But no, get a first down by a great shoetop catch and then PASS PASS PASS PASS.

Is that good game management? I realize that if the run hadn't worked people would be saying why didn't we pass but... And the same thing with why try and kick a 50 yard field goal with a 0-0 score and your offense running the ball so well? Save the 50 plus for the end like the opponent did and go for it on 4th down.

Why after all these years do OHIO players not execute at critical times and opponents who have been on their death bed for years and cycled coaches seem to execute when it is needed?

Ohio Football is the Cubs of the MAC.

Huge PR opportunity last night and this team melts down. Execution killed us last night. The biggies I can remember:

The fumble on the first drive set the tone, and how many of you long-time Bobcat fans knew at that point that our fate was set?

Our offensive line play was horrible. Rourke had no time. The pocket was almost nonexistent. We had no answer for #58. Even after he was clearly demonstrating himself to be a major thorn for us, we had no answer.

Rourke had, perhaps, one of his worst games yet. He looked frustrated on the sideline. His game decision making was bad. Seemed to think he had more time than he did. The OL was giving him NO time. (Despite all that, he still had multiple escapes that defied credibility.)

Defensive secondary again looks weak. One sure-thing Miami touchdown was simply dropped. Don't remember when that was, maybe just before half? Our DB was badly beaten.

Our Defensive Line got handled by a supposedly young Miami OL.

Team committing the dumbest of penalties at the dumbest of times--the type of stuff you expect to see from freshman players in the opening contest. Not senior players at mid- to late-season. Fourth and 18 wasn't bad enough? We have to false-start and make it 4th and 23?

As for the coaching, I'm disappointed in at least two things:
1. Halftime adjustments. No question Miami coaches won that little contest. They come out in the 3rd, march down the field and score. We looked inept on defense. Then we get the ball back after the score and go three and out, punt.
2. This staff seems to have no capability (or no stomach?) for making game-plan changes during the contest. It's not evident who is firing up our players? Watching on TV, it's clearly not Frank. It's not the Coordinators. So who is it? Strikes me as a very professionally run organization--much like an NFL team. You don't get too excited and you don't get too down. Problem is, they play like it's another day at the office. If things start going south, they don't respond well. Personally, I suspect that's on Frank. I wish he'd designate someone to take that role. To communicate changes and urgency. He's a great coach, but that could be a shortcoming. He can fix it by designating that role.

Totally agree with this analysis. Allison fumbled the ball on the way into the end zone, not Solich. Ross had the brain freeze, not Solich. Rourke had the yips, not Solich. Zervos missed the field goal, not Solich. I agree with everyone that it just isn't going to happen under Solich, but I pin 100% of the loss last night on the players (now you could say, who recruits the players, and that's a fair point).

I totally disagree though that Ohio has far more talent then Miami. Seriously? There's no one on Ohio's defense anywhere as near good as Costin. He made Ohio's O-line look stupid. Miami's kicker was better than Zervos. And most of you are going to disagree, but I thought Miami's QB Gabbert played as well as Rourke did. He looked far more composed and made some nice throws. Apart from some great and very determined runs, Rourke had an abysmal game. He stared down his receivers, never scanned the field for his 2nd and 3rd options, and like Desmond Howard said, he had no feel for the pocket pressure at all. He couldn't make decisive decisions. He flubbed a handoff to Tuggle on an RPO play, yanking the ball from Tuggle's hands at the very last second, causing yet another fumble. He just looked indecisive all night long and you knew he wasn't going to win the game with his arm. He looked rattled, and that was the most disappointing thing to me.

Agree with much of your post, but disagree with this one, unless you simply mean he was better last night. There's no arguing that, but you have to look at the body of work. Zervos is a good kicker. Once you get into the 50+ yard range, you can't put too much stock in a kicker's hit ratio. That's on the offense. You have to give your kicker a chance.

You're right Robert, I pretty much meant last night. Although Miami's kicker seems to have the potential to be very good. He nailed that 53 yarder and Zervos has never made one from that far. But you're right, to date Zervos' body of work is better.

You need 35 yards to tie and also eat up the clock and you decide lets start passing because we suck at it tonight. The game was blown at 2nd and 10 after a bad pass, should have run twice and worse case be at 4th and 2 or 3 and that’s worse case. I blame the loss on the offensive coordinator and Frank if Frank has play calling final say.

I am an avid Cubs fan and they never frustrated me during their painful championship drought as much as the Bobcats have in my 20 years as a fan. They can give us great moments and hope but they can never get thru a damn season without crapping the bed. This crap is so damn maddening.

We are clearly a MUCH better football team than Miami. Their ability to win was largely turnovers and big plays, yes. And the players made other crucial mistakes...penalties, miss-throws, missed tackles, missed blocks, dropped passes. But even in spite of that, we should have won this game easily.

Many have brought up the inexcusable moments...

The timeout with 2 minutes left on 4th down and the clock already stopped. WHAT THE HELL? Keep the timeout and we get the ball back with 1 minute left only needing a field goal. Even if you decide to go for it, just do it...you still give yourself a chance to get the ball back..as we did...except with only 10 seconds left. This one pained me the most of all the BS last night.

The running out of bounds on 3rd down with 2 timeouts left in the 1st half. Just a brain fart I guess? Either way it hurt bad.

Going for the long field goal early, everyone in the stadium knew that was NOT the right call for that point in the game. Let Rourke run an option, he has proven his ability to get the couple yards.

The painful standing there like statues for 15 seconds while Rourke claps his hands and the play clock runs down to 3 seconds...NOOO. WHY?! Aside from it being painful for us spectators, I think it is terrible for our rhythm and confidence. You really think these young athletes like being told to just stand there and let the clock go? Go out there with some freedom and swagger, confidence you will punch them in the mouth and do it again as soon as they stand up. But to do it when you're trailing in the 4th quarter? Again...WHY?!

I realize the passing game was not on and we needed to run the ball. But hey how about we do a little misdirection? Dive right, dive left, dive left, dive right. Not nearly enough play-action, motion, etc. I know this offense has that in them, I've seen it as recent as the previous game. What the hell happened?

Leaving work early and getting to bed late for that crap, maybe I'm just cranky and being unfair. We had such a great student crowd that stuck around (yes I know largely because of the tuition giveaway)...and this is the show they get. Just frustrating as hell.

Completely agree with the frustration. I'll add one more sickening memory:
Second half, Rourke runs the option. He goes left, looks off the RB and keeps. He gets bear hugged three yards behind the LOS. The play had no chance whatsoever, a play that Rourke has been expertly managing for years now.

I don't know. A "much better team" doesn't crap the bed like it did last night. Coaching, game management (and being here in Cleveland, unfortunately I'm really familiar with bad game management), play-calling, the ability to perform under pressure, all of that to me is considered being part of the team. And from what I saw last night, everything considered, Ohio didn't appear to be the much better team. Especially now, sitting there at 4-5 in one of the worst divisions in FBS.

I wish I could believe you guys that Ohio is the much better team, but from what I saw last night, eh not so much.