AP PHOTO Ohio head coach Frank Solich looks on during the third quarter of the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl NCAA college football game against East Carolina in St. Petersburg, Fla. Ohio and Northern Illinois were tabbed by voters as divisional favorites in the Mid-American Conference preseason poll.

DETROIT – Mid-American Conference Football Media Day returned to Ford Field on Tuesday. And, if Frank Solich has anything to say about it, his Ohio squad will be back on the final day of November playing for the school’s first conference championship in 50 years.

Solich joined the conference’s 11 other head coaches and many of the league’s top stars in the Motor City in a precursor to the MAC’s 71st grid campaign.

“When all is said and done, I like our team and I like the leadership that’s on it” said Solich, the third-longest tenured head coach of any FBS school, now in his 14th season in Athens. “We’re looking foward to a good season.”

The Bobcats were crusing toward a spot in the MAC title game last fall until a loss at Akron derailed those hopes. A loss at Buffalo followed the next week before a victory in the Bahamas Bowl vs. UAB. The Bobcats finished 9-4, the fifth time the program reached the plateau under Solich, the former Nebraska head coach.

“I do like the fact the guys bounced back like they did and went to the bowl game and played a great game there,” Solich beamed. “I think they came off that wanting to have a great season (this year). They’ve worked very hard in the winter and they’ve worked very hard in the summer. That’s a good sign.”

With 15 starters returning, the Bobcats were tabbed favorites in the MAC East by members of the conference media. Northern Illinois was picked to win the West.

“That shows respect for our players and our coaching staff,” Solich said. “I think they’ve earned that. I think the MAC is a tough conference. I think everyone is very close and anyone can win it. It will be determined by many things. Hopefully, we’ll get our bounces here and there. That will beneficial.”

As always, injuries play a role in any season. A.J. Ouellette bounced back from a 2016 campaign that was cut short by one and became Ohio’s first 1,000-yard rusher since 2012 last fall. He’ll boslter an offense that scored a program-best 508 points last fall.

“We have a lot of people coming back from that unit,” Solich pointed out. “We have most of our linemen back and we have a good deal of our receivers back that we feel good about.

“Our runing backs, except for Dorian (Brown) are back, and Nathan (Rourke) is back at quarterback, as is Quinto Maxwell. That gives us a lot of guys that can help win football games for us. We’re excited about this group of athletes.”

Solich is equally excited about the returnees back on the defensive side, which include Linsly grad Chukwudi Chukwu.

“He’s had some injuries during his time with us,” Solich said of the redshirt sophomore, “but he’s been able to overcome that and have a good summer. We’re hoping that his ability will now show on the field.”

Chukwu played in nine games in 2017, making nine tackles, including six solos.

“He’s in a battle for time at defensive end, so we’ll see how it all works out for him” Solich said.

Chukwu will have plenty of opportunities to earn playing time as four of the team’s seven starters that were lost on the defensive side were up front.

The Bobcats open the season Saturday, Sept. 1 at home vs. Howard. Following a bye, Ohio hits the road for games at Virginia and Cincinnati.

“The break when it is, I’m not sure how helpful it will be,” Solich said. “But we’ll manage that. We have two tough road games and then return home to a really good UMASS team. It’s a really challenging non-conference schedule. If we can play well in those four games then we’ve really done something.”

Ohio opens MAC play October 6 at Kent State.

IN ADDITION to Chukwu, there are two othere Ohio Valley products on MAC rosters. Steubenville alum Mandela Lawrence Burke is a junior receiver at Kent State, while Wheeling Park graduate Cross Wilkinson is a freshman quarterback at Toledo.

IN HIS “State of the Conference” address, MAC Commissioner John Steinbrecher addressed a plethora of issues, including the continuing evolvement of sports betting in the college sports.

Steinbrecher, in his 10-year guiding the conference, said the MAC is continuing to monitor developments as legislation is passed acrossed the country.

“More work is necessary at state and federal levels,” he said, noting it remains unclear at what level the line will drawn on legal gambling.

He also said the conference is dicussing the idea of having teams issue injury reports or participation reports.

“Will iot be just football or other sports?” he asked, noting the idea remains in the initial stages and anything concrete, if approved, wouldn’t likely be implemented for a few years.

Length of game has been a concern of the MAC in recent years, and Steinbrecher reported gametimes last season averaged 3 hours, 20 minutes, the target the conference had set.