Ohio just won its 83rd game of the last 10 years. All hail Frank Solich.

In my 2018 preseason MAC power rankings, I declared Ohio the best team in the league. Frank Solich’s Bobcats had the highest upside of any team, and if they could figure out how to defend the run and get out of their own way at key times, this was the season they could finally get over the hump and win the conference title.

Before Ohio could become the best team in the MAC, the Bobcats had to begin a disappointing 3-3, eking by Howard and slipping up by four points at Cincinnati and by three at eventual MAC champ NIU. They stood at 94th in S&P+; the offensive upside was clear, but the defense was just not doing its job well enough.

From that point forward, they outscored opponents by an average of 45-17. They erased Bowling Green, Ball State, and Akron, they won by 45 at Western Michigan, they beat MAC East champ Buffalo by 35, and, on Wednesday night, they dominated the Frisco Bowl, beating San Diego State, 27-0.

This being Ohio, however, they also lost at Miami (Ohio) in the week between the WMU and Buffalo victories. That allowed UB to win the division. There always has to be a what-if in Athens.

Ohio ranked ninth in Off. S&P+ heading into Wednesday’s game and averaged 6.2 yards per play against a strong SDSU defense.

Running back A.J. Ouellette finished his career by rushing 29 times for 164 yards and a touchdown (he also caught two passes for 33 yards), and receivers Papi White and Andrew Meyer finished theirs with six catches for 150 yards and a score (White also rushed once for 14 yards). Senior linebacker Evan Croutch went out on top as well; he had eight tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, and 1.5 sacks as Ohio pitched its first shutout against an FBS team in more than three games.

Ouellette and Maleek Irons combined for 2,390 rushing and receiving yards this season, while White and Meyer combined for 1,506. Linemen Joe Anderson, Joe Lowery, and Durrell Wood combined for 107 career starts, and all three were on the All-MAC first- or second-team this year. On defense, Croutch and senior tackle Kent Berger led the team in tackles for loss, sacks, and run stuffs.

There appears to be young upside on defense, and quarterback Nathan Rourke (2,434 passing yards, plus 1,006 non-sack rushing yards in 2018) is only a junior. The Bobcats aren’t losing everyone. But with Buffalo returning a lot of its difference-makers and Toledo reloaded after a shaky year, it’s fair to say Ohio won’t be the MAC favorite next year. This year, the window was open as wide as it has ever been, but OU watched NIU win another conference title instead.

Proving your upside can almost make things more disappointing, and while Ohio will end up nearly cracking the S&P+ top 40 at year’s end (the Bobcats were up to 45th heading into Wednesday and smacked the No. 38 Aztecs), that will serve as a partial reminder of what could have been.

Still, it’s hard to feel too much regret. Ohio did just cap its second straight nine-win season and its fourth in the 2010s. The Bobcats have won 83 games over the last decade — by my count, their best decade-long FBS win total before Solich arrived was 55. In what was previously one of the hardest jobs in the MAC, Solich continues to work miracles.

Rocky Long’s Aztecs were 6-1 at one point and peaked at 37th in S&P+, but they finished the year with five losses in six games. That stretch included home losses to UNLV and Hawaii. Now it includes a shutout bowl defeat on national television as well.

They had at one point won 38 of their last 48 games; they’ve now lost four in a row for the first time since 2012-13.

Granted, they were also young; they listed only three senior starters on offense, and three of their top five tacklers on a defense that came into the game ranked 25th in Def. S&P+ were freshmen and sophomores. This was supposed to be a reset year for the Aztecs, even if said reset was a little more stark than we imagined. They’ll have a chance to re-establish their top-30 bona fides in 2019, and now they’ll have a bowl humbling to provide extra motivation.