Beau Knows Best: Bobcats Creep Towards Detroit

Ever heard of Beau Blankenship before tonight? Didn’t think so. If you have (diehard fan), would you have ever thought Mr. Blankenship would lead the Bobcats in carries, rushing yards and touchdowns?

The correct answer is no. Why? He’s not great at anything in particular. He’s too small, not strong enough and not fast enough. He’s third on the depth chart behind starter Donte Harden and Ryan Boykin.

With Harden coming off a school-record 322 all-purpose yards last week against Temple, who would have thought that Blankenship would even see the field much, except on third downs.

The 5’9” 184-pound sophomore never carried the ball more than 10 times on the season. That all changed in frigid Mount Pleasant on Thursday night.

Blankenship carried the ball 25 times for 130 yards, salting the game away in the fourth quarter with his hard nosed style, good vision and quick cuts.

Blankenship rewarded Frank Solich for trusting him by scoring the last two touchdowns including a 48-yarder to ice the game for the Bobcats.

Blankenship and the ‘Cats ran for an astounding 309 yards on 62 carries as Ohio rolled to a 43-28 win over last place Central Michigan to maintain their lead in the MAC East division.

Ohio has two games remaining but a loss next week to Bowling Green would not be catastrophic.

The Bobcats could secure a division title with a win over Miami on November 22nd no matter what happens next week. They hold the tie-breaker over Temple after last week’s “blackout” win.

2011 MAC East Standings (from ESPN.com)

EAST	CONF	OVR
Ohio	4-2	7-3
Temple	4-3	6-4
Miami (OH)	3-3	4-6
Kent State	2-3	3-6
Bowling Green	2-4	4-6
Buffalo	1-4	2-7
Akron	0-5	1-8