Athens, Ohio— The Ohio football team (9-4, 7-1 MAC) will take on the Wyoming Cowboys (7-5, 5-3 MWC) in the Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl. Kickoff is set for 4:30 ET/2:30 MST at Arizona Stadium. The game can be seen on Barstool.TV with Jake Marsh, Dave Portnoy and Dan "Big Cat" Katz on the call; Caleb Pressley and Adam "Rone" Ferrone will be on the sideline.
The Bobcats' matchup can also be heard on the Ohio Sports Network from Learfield. Russ Eisenstein returns for his 15th season as the "Voice of the Bobcats" and will be joined by Ohio alum Rob Cornelius, who has been a part of the broadcasts for two decades.
The Bobcats and the Cowboys met twice in consecutive seasons, 2007 and 2008.
The Cowboys engineered a fourth-quarter comeback to defeat Ohio, 34-33, in 2007. The following year, Ohio opened their season at Wyoming. The Cowboys pulled off another fourth-quarter comeback, defeating the Bobcats 21-20.
SCOUTING WYOMING
Wyoming enters this matchup with the Bobcats with a 7-5 overall record and 5-3 against MWC opponents. Last time out, they fell to Fresno State, 30-0.
Wyoming recorded 191 yards of total offense passing for 104 yards and rushing for 87 yards. Wyoming held Fresno State to only 297 yards of offense over 100 yards below their season average and 100 yards below their average yards passing per game at 183 for the night.
The Cowboy defense was paced by Easton Gibbs with 12 tackles, as he went over 100 for the season becoming the 61st player in Wyoming history to record 100-plus tackles in a season. Oluwaseyi Omotosho recorded a career-high eight tackles including a sack.
The Wyoming offense was paced by quarterback Andrew Peasley passing for 104 yards on 12-of-29 passing. Running back Titus Swen rushed for 75 yards going over 1,000 for the season. He is the 12th Cowboy to rush for 1,000 yards as that has been done 16 times. Wide receiver Josh Cobbs grabbed four passes for 23 yards. John Michael Gyllenborg recorded a career high three catches for 21 yards.
Fresno State took the lead on the opening drive on a five-play, 66-yard drive ending in a four-yard run from Jordan Mims. Quarterback Jake Haener connected on a pair of passes for 33 yards on the drive to set up the score for the Bulldogs in the opening two minutes of the game.
The Bulldogs took a 14-0 lead with 2:17 left in the first quarter on a Haener touchdown pass to Nikko Remigio from six yards out. The eight-play, 41-yard drive just set up by a partially blocked punt. Haener passed for 38-yards on the drive.
Fresno State got pressure once again and blocked another Clayton Stewart punt this time for a safety to take a 16-0 lead four minutes into the second quarter. Mims would add another touchdown following the free kick and took a 23-0 lead with 8:28 remaining in the opening frame. That would be the score going into halftime, as Wyoming was held to 73 yards of total offense.
Mims would score his third touchdown of the game from two yards out for a 30-0 contest with 7:55 remaining in the third quarter.
On the season, the Cowboys are averaging 20.8 points per game; their opponents have been averaging 23.4 points per game.
Wyoming averages 187.8 rushing yards per game, while putting up an average of 127.8 yards per game through the air.
SCOUTING OHIO
Currently, the Bobcats are 9-4 overall and 7-1 in MAC play. They average 31.92 points, 138.9 rushing yards and 285.31 passing yards per game.
Quarterback CJ Harris made his first collegiate start against Bowling Green (Nov. 22); on the season, he is 32-for-64 with one touchdown on 393 yards in the air.
On the ground, Sieh Bangura has net 940 rushing yards with 12 touchdowns, Nolan McCormick has 303 rushing yards on 81 attempts, while Harris has three touchdowns on 116 yards.
Sam Wiglusz leads the receivers with 69 catches and 11 touchdowns on 850 yards. Jacoby Jones has five touchdowns on 732 yards while James Bostic currently has 592 yards, 32 receptions and one touchdown.
Keye Thompson leads the defense with 96 tackles, 45 of which are solo. He has three pass breakups, five quarterback hurries, two fumble recoveries and one forced fumble. Bryce Houston has 72 tackles, 11 tackles for loss and eight quarterback hurries while Alvin Floyd is just behind him with 70 tackles and five pass breakups.
Jack Wilson has 38 punts on the season, accumulating 1410 yards and averaging 37.11 yards per punt while Jonah Wieland has recorded 621 yards on 16 punts.
In 81 kickoffs, Tristian Vandenberg has recorded 4,880 yards and 31 touchbacks.
Nathanial Vakos continues his strong freshman season, going 19-for-23 on field goals and 48-for-49 on PATs. So far this season, he's scored 105 points.
