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The Miami-Ohio Redhawks enter 2017 coming off of a historic 2016 season, finishing 6-7. The 6-7 record was by no means impressive, but the growth of the RedHawks over the season was unprecedented. Miami became the first FBS team in history to start 0-6 and finish the regular season 6-6 to qualify for a bowl game.
If it weren't for overly conservative play-calling, the RedHawks could have finished 7-6 with a résumé-building win over Mississippi State of the SEC. Miami fell 17-16 in a gut-wrenching manner to the Bulldogs in the St. Petersburg Bowl, due to several kicking woes. Kicker Nick Dowd had an extra point blocked in the first half and a potential 37-yard game-winning field goal blocked as well. Miami elected to play for that field goal rather than attempt to win with the touchdown, a decision that came back to bite.
Nonetheless, Chuck Martin's program looked stronger than ever during his tenure last season. Martin endured a 2-10 and a 3-9 season before turning an 0-6 start into a postseason appearance. The RedHawks nearly competed for the MAC Championship Game, finishing 6-2 in conference play. In-state rival Ohio also stood at 6-2 in MAC play but held a head-to-head tiebreaker over the team from Oxford, beating the RedHawks 17-7 in early October.
Miami finished 6-1 in games when Gus Ragland played under center. Ragland took over the reigns as the team's starting quarterback at midseason and instantly turned Miami 180-degrees from a horrendous non-conference start. Ragland stayed mistake-free in Miami's six wins, throwing zero interceptions during the massive winning streak.
His first test will transpire in Huntington, WV against the Marshall Thundering Herd.
Today’s game will be streamed on Facebook rather than the usual ESPN3 telecast so get yourself prepared for that.
Your need to know information. . .
Kickoff time: 6:30PM
Television: None... sort of
Stream: This game will be streaming on Facebook. We’ll update this link with how to watch that when the game starts.
Weather: Cloudty, 62°
Line: Marshall -1.5
Preview: here