BY JOHN FAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
There wouldn't be any talk about Miami University and a bowl bid if it weren't for the development of one player.
Mike Bath, the first-year starter at quarterback, has gone from awful to mediocre to decent to pretty darn good in the course of this season.
|
MIAMI at AKRON
|
Kickoff: 1:30 p.m., Rubber Bowl (35,202)
TV: None.
Radio: WCKY-AM (1360), WMOH-AM (1450), WFMG-FM (101.3), WYLX-FM (97.3), 1530 AM (WSAI).
Records: Miami (9-1, 6-1 MAC; Akron 4-6, 2-5.
Last Meeting: Miami 49, Akron 20. Miami leads series 5-3-1.
What to watch: Miami should roll to its seventh straight victory. Akron had lost four in a row before beating Eastern Michigan 24-21 on a last-second field goal.
The Zips split pretty evenily between the run and pass. Tailback Greg Lomax has 836 yards rushing. Quarterback Butchie Washington has thrown for 1,777 yards and eight touchdowns.
|
If Bath hadn't kept getting better, Miami would not be 9-1 entering today's season finale at Akron. With a win over the Zips, the RedHawks will become only the fifth team in the school's storied 110-year football history to win 10 games in a season.
After the RedHawks lost to Marshall in Week 5, they reset their goal for a 10-win season. With the way Bath was playing at the time, 10 wins was a huge stretch.
After five games this season, Bath had completed 49 of 109 passes (44.9 percent) for 532 yards. He had two touchdown passes and six interceptions.
In the five games since, Bath has completed 59 of 90 passes (65.5 percent) for 834 yards. He has nine touchdownpasses and one interception. His passing rating has risen 45 points in that span to 120.63, 48th in the NCAA.
"There were a lot of naysayers about Mike Bath," Miami coach Randy Walker said. "But he's proved them wrong."
Bath, a 6-foot-1, 214-pound sophomore, has made Miami difficult to defend. The running game,built around Travis Prentice, has been solid from day one.
Teams can't put eight men on the line of scrimmage and dare Miami to throw.
"I'm relaxed more," Bath said. "I'm more confident. We've put in a lot of hard work, and we're reaping the benefits."
Walker stuck with Bath, even though he struggled mightily in the Marshall loss.
"A lot of the Marshall players came up to us afterward and told us that last year losing to us was the best thing that happened to them," Bath said. "(Quarterback) Chad Pennington told me that. I think that's true. We learned a lot."
Bath's last game - he completed nine of 14 passes for 207 yards and a TD against Kent - was typical of the way he has played lately.
