football headlines homecoming it is homecoming at Ohio University and Bobcat football is back to take on Northern Illinois I'm Russ Eisenstein the voice of the Ohio Bobcats on our game week preview is presented by the Athens County Convention and Visitors Bureau the Bobcats trying to go to an O in league play under Frank Solich for the sixth time in his tenure and Ohio trying to win the Mac home opener for the eighth time in 15 tries you can build some Mac momentum here after the overtime win over Buffalo last week 2120 it was a narrow victory but you need those close victories to be able to move on in the Mac last year three of the four losses were by single digits so this is a step in the right direction Ohio's not penalized all that much and they're converting on third downs tops in the Mac and top 20 in the cattle in the country in those categories the Bobcats certainly remember last year and the loss at Northern on their homecoming 2421 the Bobcats lost the last time that the Huskies were at PTIN Stadium back in 2014 the opposition's in an unfamiliar position the Huskies have had just three losing seasons in the 2000s they've won four Mac titles in that time they're the defending Mac champions after beating Buffalo 32 29 at Ford Field last year their last one in four start was back in 2016 that was also their last four game losing streak after the title last year Rob Kerry swooped in on the temple job so former star running back Thomas hammock is in his first season in DeKalb as their head coach they won their opener over FCS top 25 ranked Illinois State then after that the bear of their non-conference schedule hit losing at Nebraska losing at eutz on losing at Vanderbilt last week they dropped a 17-3 halftime advantage and failed a ball state 27 to 20 Cal transfer Ross Bowers is at quarterback 1,300 yards four touchdowns and four interceptions this year Trey Harbison had 146 yards on the ground last week in two touchdowns against the Cardinals and defensively Antonio Jones Davis had a career-high 17 tackles last week an interception a sack and a tackle for loss hopefully they bring their live mascots to Athens two of the most handsome Huskies that you'll ever see mission and mini mission his younger brother very good boys indeed I don't think you take a look at them on Twitter at NIU mission alright our pregame show starts at 2:30 on the radio network with the 3:30 kick it's also on ESPN Plus that's our game week preview presented by the Athens County Convention and Visitors Bureau on the web at Athens Ohio comm it's the cats and the dogs on Saturday for Zach Roberts I'm Russ Eisenstein this is Bobcat TV