RedHawks Open MAC Play With Trip to Bowling Green

Saturday, September 22

Bowling Green, Ohio

3 p.m.

Miami University

Bowling Green

RedHawks Open MAC Play With Trip to Bowling Green

9/17/2018 2:18:00 PM | Football

Miami Notes vs. BGSU BGSU Notes vs Miami Watch Live Stats

This Week's Matchup
Miami University and Bowling Green State University will square-off on Saturday, Sept. 22 at 3 p.m. at Doyt Perry Stadium. The contest will be the MAC opener for both schools.

Television
The matchup with the Falcons will be carried live on ESPN+. Michael Reghi will handle play-by-play duties and Al Groh will serve as color analyst.

ESPN+
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Fans who have any questions about the new ESPN App or ESPN+, may contact ESPN customer care:

Online: support.espn.com
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Radio
In its 12th year of its partnership with IMG College, the Miami Sports Network continues its coverage of Miami Football with a group of affiliates blanketing most of Southwest Ohio and Southeast Indiana. "The Voice of the RedHawks" Steve Baker will deliver the play-by-play coverage, while Terry Bridge will provide color commentary. Randy Hollowell will be the network's sideline reporter. Tune-in to one of Miami's gameday affiliates:

WMOH-AM 1450 (Hamilton, Ohio)
WFMG-FM 101.3 (Richmond, Ind.)
WDBZ-AM 1230 (Cincinnati, Ohio)
WONE-AM 980 (Dayton, Ohio)
WKBV-AM 1490 and 100.9 FM (Richmond, Ind.)

Need To Know
• Miami football ranks first all-time in the Mid-American Conference in wins (684), MAC Championships (15) and bowl wins (7).

About Chuck Martin
• Head coach Chuck Martin, who earned that title on Dec. 3, 2013, brings an impressive resume to Oxford, Ohio.
• Earlier this year Martin signed a contract extension that will run until 2020.
• Not only was he 74-7 in six years at Grand Valley State (2004-09), he has coached in seven national championship games in the past 16 seasons. Martin has an all-time head coaching record of 90-43.
• He has twice been named the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) National Coach of the Year and has been a coordinator on both sides of the ball.
• Martin was inducted into the Hall of Fame at Grand Valley State University on Oct. 23, 2015.

Minnesota Recap
The Miami offense struggled to get going for the second straight week, falling to Big Ten foe Minnesota 26-3 last Saturday. With the Golden Gophers leading 10-3 with 2:39 left in the contest, Miami suffered a safety and a little over a minute later Minnesota tacked on a touchdown to stretch the lead to 19-3.

Tidbits From Minneapolis
• De'Andre Montgomery had a career-high 15 tackles.
• Davion Johnson entered the game versus the Golden Gophers with one career carry and finished the contest with 50 yards on nine rushes.
• Backup quarterback Alex Malzone saw his first action as a RedHawk.
• Defensive back Mike Brown made his first career start, recording a career-best 10 tackles.
• The Miami defense recorded its first two turnovers of the season.

About Bowling Green
Bowling Green is 1-2 on the season after a 42-35 win last Saturday over Eastern Kentucky. Offensively, Jarret Doege has thrown for 654 yards and nine touchdowns this season while Andrew Clair has 247 yards rushing and a score. Overall they average 26.7 points and 311.7 yards of offense per game. Defensively they allow 46.0 points and 522.3 yards per game.

Series Vs. Bowling Green
Miami is 43-24-5 all-time versus Bowling Green and is 21-10-4 all-time on the road versus the Falcons, including a 40-26 win back in 2016, which was just Gus Ragland's second career start. In fact, Miami is 7-1 at BGSU, dating back to 1999. The RedHawks lone loss in that span came in 2012.

Career Numbers vs. BGSU
Over the last two contests versus the Falcons Miami has scored 69 points on the backs of several players:
• QB Gus Ragland has completed 38-of-61 passes (62.3%) for 470 yards and five touchdowns (missed most of the second half in 2017). Ragland has added 110 yards rushing and two touchdowns as well.
• RB Kenny Young has 27 carries for 231 yards (8.6 avg.) and has added six catches for 52 yards over the past two years.
• Brad Koenig has 18 career tackles, 1.5 TFL and one sack against BGSU.

Martin vs. the MAC Since 2016
Miami is 10-6 versus the MAC since the 2016 season. In 2016 Miami opened 0-2 and won its final six conference games of the season and went 4-4 in 2017 in conference play.

Weather Issues
While the outcome was not what Miami wanted at Minnesota, at least the two teams played in sunny weather. In Miami's first two contests, the RedHawks faced more than its fair share of weather issues. In the home opener versus Marshall the game was delayed for 150 minutes due to lightning in the area. Against Cincinnati the two teams played through a heavy rain fall for the entire game. It was estimated that the Cincinnati area saw between 4-5 inches of rain throughout the day.

Red Means Go
Miami has scored on 21 of their last 22 red zone trips, dating back to last season. Of those 22 trips, 17 have resulted in touchdowns (80.9%). Three weeks ago against Marshall, Miami scored four redzone touchdowns.

In Gus We Trust
After beginning the 2016 season 0-6, head coach Chuck Martin turned to quarterback Gus Ragland. Ragland led Miami to six straight wins over Kent State, Bowling Green, Eastern Michigan, Central Michigan, Buffalo and Ball State. The now senior quarterback is 10-9 all-time as a starter for the RedHawks.

Nice Way to Start a Career
Ragland began his career by throwing 203 consecutive passes before throwing an interception late in the contest versus Mississippi State in the 2016 St. Petersburg Bowl. In all, the Cincinnati, Ohio native has thrown just 10 interceptions in 586 career pass attempts (1 INT every 58.6 pass attempts). In fact, Miami is 9-1 (loss was versus Marshall in 2018) in games in which Ragland does not throw and interception and 1-8 when he throws it to the other team.

Ragland Versus The MAC
Junior quarterback Gus Ragland is 9-2 in his career as a starter versus teams from the Mid-American Conference. In those nine games Ragland has completed 176-of-285 passes (61.8%) for 2,389 yards, 26 touchdowns and four interceptions. The RedHawks are also 9-1 all-time versus the MAC in games where Ragland starts and finishes the contest.

The Land of Ragland
Gus Ragland has owned the red zone since joining Miami in 2015. In his career, he has completed 38-of-70 passes from inside the 20-yard line for 28 touchdowns, while throwing just one interception. He has added seven rushing scores in his career from inside the red zone, for a 35:1 touchdown to interception ratio.

Offensive Line A Strength
Miami returns all five starters from a unit that allowed just 21 sacks in 2017 and helped Miami rush for a season average of 146.9 yards per game, the highest under Coach Martin. This year Miami has surrendered just three sacks through three games for an average of 1.0 per game, which ranks 21st in the country. Overall, Miami has 126 career starts among its offensive line members, led by senior Sam McCollum (38). He is joined by senior Jordan Rigg (27), senior Mitch Palmer (20), sophomore Danny Godlevske (14), junior Jarrett LaRubbio (11), junior Matt Skibinski (9), and sophomore Tommy Doyle (7).

Dynamic Duo
Alonzo Smith and Kenny Young have played a lot of football for the Red and White. Combined, the duo have rushed for 3,577 yards. Smith's 1,920 rushing yards are 80 shy of 2,000 career yards. Just 13 Miami players have surpassed 2,000 yards rushing in their career. Young is not far behind with 1,657 in his career.

Thomas Back at Full Health
Maurice Thomas missed the final nine games of the 2017season with a leg injury, but looks completely healthy to start the 2018 season. Thomas, a dual threat as a running back and kick returner has averaged 7.5 yards per rush in his career and 20.3 per kick return. Overall, the local product has touched the ball 146 times and has gone over 20 yards on 31 occasions (21.2%).

Last Chance U
The hit documentary show on Netflix, Last Chance U, featured Independence Community College. Junior defensive back Zedrick Raymond, now a member of the Miami University football team, was part of that show. During that season he led the team with four interceptions.