By Vickie Sellers

GAME NOTES

https://miamiredhawks.com/documents/2023/12/11/Game_Notes_-_2023-Bowl_Game.pdf

The Miami University football team will take on Appalachian State University in the Avocados From Mexico Cure Bowl on Saturday, Dec. 16 in Orlando, Fla. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. at FBC Mortgage Stadium.

About Miami
• Miami football ranks first all-time in the Mid-American Conference in wins (724), conference wins (317), MAC Championships (17) and bowl wins (8).

• Historically, Miami’s 724 career wins are third all-time among Group-of-Five programs, behind just Navy (737) and Army (725).

• Miami was 4-14 in Coach Martin’s first 18 Mid-American Conference games. Since then, the RedHawks are 42-17 in their last 59 games versus schools from the MAC.

• Miami and James Madison are the only schools in the country with six road wins this season. The RedHawks are 6-1 on the road this year with their only loss coming in week one at Miami (Fla.).

• In 540 minutes versus MAC teams (9 games), the RedHawks have only trailed for 90:37 this year. Miami never trailed against BGSU, Western Michigan, Akron or Buffalo and combined to trail for just 7:37 in the wins over Kent State and Ball State. In Miami’s eight wins versus the MAC, seven were by multiple scores.

• The RedHawks have now been bowl eligible seven of the last eight seasons. From 2006-15, Miami was bowl eligible just twice.

• The RedHawks have picked up Power-5 victories in two straight years, downing Cincinnati (31-24) this season and Northwestern (17-14) a year ago.

• For the first time since 2005, Miami beat both Cincinnati (31-24) and Ohio (30-16) in the same season. Miami’s 17-15 win over Ball State means the RedHawks own all three rivalry trophies in 2023.

• Miami captured its 17th MAC Championship, second under Chuck Martin, with a 23-14 win over Toledo on Dec. 2. Miami’s last MAC Championship was in 2019.

• The last time Miami won 11 games in a season, NFL future Hall of Fame quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was taking snaps for Miami back in 2003 (13-1). A win over App State would give Miami 12 victories, the second most in program history in a single season.

• Miami received 31 points in the most recent AP Poll.

• Twelve RedHawks were named All-MAC. Matt Salopek, Caiden Woullard and Graham Nicholson earned first-team honors, while Will Jados, Reid Holskey, Brian Ugwu, Ty Wise, Yahsyn McKee, Alec Bevelhimer and Cade McDonald (returner) were named second team All-MAC. Brett Gabbert and Rashad Amos were placed on the third team.

• Matt Salopek was named MAC Defensive Player of the Year and Graham Nicholson came away with MAC Special Teams Player of the Year honors. Salopek is the first RedHawks to earn Defensive Player of the Year since Quinten Rollins did so in 2014. Nicholson was named the 2023 Lou Groza Award winner, Miami’s first Player of the Year award in program history.

About Chuck Martin
• Chuck Martin was named Miami head coach on Dec. 3, 2013.
• He was named a 2023 Finalist for the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award.
• Not only was he 74-7 in six years at Grand Valley State (2004-09), he has coached in seven national championship games in the past 20 seasons.  Martin has an all-time head coaching record of 130-68.
• He has twice been named the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) National Coach of the Year and has been a coordinator on both sides of the ball.
• Martin was inducted into the Hall of Fame at Grand Valley State University on Oct. 23, 2015.
• Martin’s 117 games coached at Miami is tops in program history and his 56 career wins ranks behind only Randy Walker (59).

About App State
App State comes into the Cure Bowl with an 8-5 record (6-2 SBC). The Mountaineers won their final five regular-season games before falling to Troy 49-23 in the Sun Belt Championship Game on Dec. 2. Quarterback Joey Aguilar has thrown for a school-record 3,546 yards this season, which ranks ninth in FBS, and has a program-record 33 touchdowns through the air. He is tied with Michael Penix Jr. for third in the nation in touchdown passes. Defensive standout Andrew Parker Jr. leads the Mountaineers with 108 tackles. App State is 6-1 in bowl games since moving to the FBS level in 2014.

Series Vs. App State
This is the first meeting between the two programs.

Singing the ABC’s
For just the third time in school history, and the first time since 2005, Miami football will be carried live on ABC.

Bowl History
The RedHawks are 8-6 all-time in bowl games.

1948 Sun Bowl (Won 13-12 vs. Texas Tech)
1950 Salad Bowl (Won 34-21 vs. Arizona State)
1962 Tangerine Bowl (Lost, 49-21 vs. Houston)
1973 Tangerine Bowl (Won, 16-7 vs. Florida)
1974 Tangerine Bowl (Won, 21-10 vs. Georgia)
1975 Tangerine Bowl (Won, 20-7 vs. South Carolina)
1986 California Bowl (Lost, 37-7 vs. San Jose State)
2003 GMAC Bowl (Won, 49-28 vs. Louisville)
2004 Independence Bowl (Lost, 17-13 vs. Iowa State)
2010 GoDaddy Bowl (Won, 35-21 vs. Middle Tennessee State)
2016 St. Petersburg Bowl (Lost, 17-16 vs. Mississippi State)
2020 LendingTree Bowl (Lost, 27-17 vs. Louisiana)
2021 Frisco Football Classic (Won, 27-14 vs. North Texas)
2022 HomeTown Lenders Bahamas Bowl (Lost, 24-20 vs. UAB)

MAC Champions
With a 23-14 win over Toledo, Miami captured its 17th MAC Championship, the second under Chuck Martin. Aveon Smith, Matt Salopek and Graham Nicholson earned MACC Offensive, Defensive and Special Teams Player of the Game.

I’m Not Leaving
While Miami football has had a few players enter the transfer portal, many plan to return in 2024. Brett Gabbert, Gage Larvadain, Jack Coldiron, Matt Salopek, Reid Holskey, Kolby Borders, Kobe Hilton, Ty Wise and Graham Nicholson have all announced via social media their intentions to play at Miami next season.

Kick Back
Miami blocked two field goals (Austin Ertl blocked both) in the win over Toledo and have blocked five field goals and an extra points this season. Yahsyn McKee sent Miami to overtime by blocking a field goal versus Cincinnati, Kobe Hilton had a game-saving field goal block versus Ball State and Caiden Woullard has a blocked two kicks this season as well. Ertl’s two blocks in the MACC matches an NCAA record and is the first player since 2017 to block two field goals in a single contest.

Bend But Don’t Break
At times, Miami’s defense has surrendered yards between the 20’s, but once the opposition gets to the red zone, the RedHawks have turned them away. In 36 trips inside Miami’s 20-yard line, the RedHawks have allowed just 17 touchdowns.

Monsters of the MAC
Miami’s defense was downright frightening in conference play. This season, Miami ranked first in scoring (10.8), total defense (272.5) and sacks (27). Miami was second in rush defense (114.4) and pass defense (158.1). The RedHawks shutout two MAC opponents this year (BGSU and Akron) and allowed just three points in a win over Kent State. Miami allowed just nine touchdowns in eight MAC games this season.

Just Keeps Getting Better
As impressive as those numbers above are, Miami’s defense seems to be getting even better as the season goes on. Over the last 22 quarters (5.5 games), Miami has allowed just six touchdowns and 55 total points.

Living on the Edge
Miami’s defense ranks first in the MAC and 26th nationally with 34 sacks this season. A majority of those sacks have come from Miami’s edge players. Caiden Woullard (9.5), Brian Ugwu (8.0) and Ty Wise (7.0) all rank in the top-5 in the MAC and are 14th, 41st and 48th nationally.

44 And Counting…
Defensive tackle Austin Ertl made his 44th career start vs. Toledo in the MAC Championship Game, but he is not the only defensive standout that has started a bunch of games for the RedHawks. Matt Salopek (39), Kobe Hilton (35), Jacquez Warren (34), Caiden Woullard (25), Michael Dowell (25) and Yahsyn McKee (20) have all started at least 20 games on defense for the RedHawks. Brian Ugwu (19) and Ty Wise (18) are closing in on 20 career starts as well.

Gabbert In The History Book
Brett Gabbert, who will miss the rest of the 2023 season with a leg injury, has made 39 starts in his career and is all over the Miami record books. He ranks third in program history with 7,893 passing yards, sixth in completion percentage (.592) and third in passing touchdowns (59). He is also 18 yards shy of 500 career rushing yards and is responsible for 66 touchdowns (59 passing, 7 rushing) in his career.

New Face Under Center
With Brett Gabbert suffering an injury in Oct. versus Toledo and Aveon Smith departing via the transfer portal, Miami will now turn to Henry Hesson and Maddox Kopp to orchestrate the Miami offense in Saturday’s bowl game. Hesson has appeared in three career games, completing two passes for 17 yards. Kopp began his career at Houston, transferred to Colorado and joined Miami this past spring. Kopp started one game for Colorado back in 2022, throwing for 123 yards and one touchdown.

“Gage”ing Interest
Coming from a smaller school (Southeast Louisiana), Gage Larvadain did not receive much interest from the major programs, something Miami is thankful for. In his debut with the RedHawks, Larvadain had a game-high eight grabs for 80 yards versus the Hurricanes. He followed that up with eight catches for 273 yards and three scores versus UMass and had a 79-yard touchdown on the opening play versus Cincinnati. Despite missing four games, Larvadain ranks 15th in the MAC in catches (38) and is second in yards (643) and touchdowns (6).

Famous Amos
Sophomore Rashad Amos ranks fifth in the MAC with 895 yards rushing and is second in the conference with 12 rushing scores. He has rushed for over 100 yards three different times this season and has scored a touchdown in nine of the past 10 games. His 895 rushing yards are the most since Thomas Merriweather rushed for 921 yards in 2010. Miami’s last 1,000-yard rusher was Brandon Murphy in 2005.

Trench Warfare
Miami’s offensive line had two major holes to fill along the offensive line after losing both Rusty Feth and Caleb Shaffer to the transfer portal. Combined, those two started 69 games, dating back to 2019. Miami still has plenty of experience in 2023. Reid Holskey has started each of the last 39 games for the Red and White, followed by Will Jados (23), Kolby Borders (22), Sam Vaughan (16), Ben Jackson (14) and John Young (13). Miami has started the same offensive line lineup in all 13 games this season.

Tackling Machine
Linebacker Matt Salopek has 382 career tackles and has surpassed 100 stops in 2021, 2022 and 2023. The last time Miami had a player record 100-plus tackles three straight seasons was Matt Pusateri from 2002-04. His 134 tackles currently rank seventh in the nation and he has added 8.5 tackles for loss, 3.0 sacks and one interception this season. He is 19 tackles shy of cracking Miami’s top-10 in career tackles.

Nothing But Net; Nicholson Wins Lou Groza Award
On Dec. 8, 2023, Graham Nicholson was named the 2023 Lou Groza Award winner, Miami’s first national award winner in program history. Nicholson has been nearly perfect in 2023, connecting on 26-of-27 field goals and 35-of-36 extra points. He set an NCAA record for most field goals made in a regular season (23) and made 25 straight field goals, also an NCAA record for most consecutive kicks made in a single season.

Special, Special Teams
It would be hard to find a special teams unit better than Miami in 2023.
• Placekicker Graham Nicholson, the winner of the 2023 Lou Groza Award, has missed one field goal all season long.
• Punter Alec Bevelhimer is 12th in the nation with a 46.1 average.
• Cade McDonald is ninth in the nation with a 12.7 punt return average.
• Miami has allowed 26 punt return yards all season, seventh in the nation.
• The RedHawks have blocked five field goals and an extra point.
• Silas Walters leads the country in special teams tackles with 11.

COURTESY MIAMI ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS