By Mark Schmetzer
Enquirer contributor

Brian Knorr needed just the first four games of 2002 to realize Ohio's triple-option offense wasn't the reason the Bobcats went 1-10 last season.

Ohio's second-year coach dropped the run-oriented attack after last season in favor of a more conventional approach, but when the Bobcats stumbled to an 0-4 start, including a 31-0 loss at home to Division I-AA Northeastern, he decided the option wasn't such a bad idea and switched back.

Ohio has responded with three wins in its last four games. The Bobcats are a half-game behind second-place Miami in the Mid-American Conference East Division standings going into today's 1p.m.showdown at Yager Stadium in Oxford.

Ohio (3-5, 3-1 MAC) leads the conference with an average of 253.5 rushing yards a game, topped by senior fullback Chad Brinker's 723 total yards. The Bobcats threw just one pass in their 50-0 victory at Kent State two weeks ago, which gave Ohio back-to-back 50-point games for the first time since 1920. The win also snapped the Bobcats' eight-game road losing streak, the last of which was a 72-21 defeat at Bowling Green on Oct.5.

"The turnaround is a challenge for the defense - getting ready in a week to play a true option team," said Miami coach Terry Hoeppner, whose RedHawks beat Kent State 27-20 at Yager Stadium on Sept.21. "They're not just a team that runs the option. They require a lot of study and a lot of focus.

"For them to do to Kent what they did sent a message around the league. It caught our attention. Is this the team that beat Kent 50-0 or the team that lost to Bowling Green? Either way, we have to take them seriously because of what's riding on it."

The game is crucial to both teams' hopes of remaining close to division-leading Marshall, which will play Miami and Ohio in back-to-back games.

Hoeppner believes a win over Ohio would polish Miami's image at home. The RedHawks went 4-1 at Yager Stadium last year, but they've won just one of their three games there this year.

"We need to play better at home," said Hoeppner, whose team averages 149.3 rushing yards on the road and just 79 at home. "We haven't played well at home. I told the team we're going to start playing all of our games on the road and change our nickname to `Visitors,' because it's already up on the scoreboard."

Miami has won 10 of the last 12 meetings with Ohio and owns a 47-29-2 advantage in what is the RedHawks' second-oldest rivalry.

"There's no love lost between the two teams," said Miami defensive line coach Brian George, a 1994 Ohio graduate. "It's a game that both teams get up for, but I don't know if it's any more than it is for any other team in the MAC East. I know that we get up for all the teams in our conference, and I know that Ohio does as well."