By the numbers: Ohio’s 17-10 Frisco Bowl triumph over UNLV

The Ohio Bobcats wrapped up their 2025 campaign in triumphant fashion, defeating Mountain West runner-up UNLV 17-10 in the 2025 Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl. Here are key numbers to note from Ohio’s season-ending victory, which cemented its 2025 campaign at 9-4:

7

Ohio’s bowl win streak

When it comes to the postseason, you can always bank on Ohio. The Bobcats won their 7th-straight bowl game, which only trails Minnesota’s 9-bowl win streak for the longest in the country:

• 2025 Frisco Bowl — defeated UNLV, 17-10
• 2024 Cure Bowl — defeated Jacksonville State, 30-27
• 2023 Myrtle Beach Bowl — defeated Georgia Southern, 41-21
• 2022 Arizona Bowl — defeated Wyoming, 30-27
• 2019 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl — defeated Nevada, 30-21
• 2018 Frisco Bowl — defeated San Diego State, 27-0
• 2017 Bahamas Bowl — defeated UAB, 41-6

The streak involves four different head coaches — Frank Solich for 2017, 2018, and 2019, Tim Albin for 2022 and 2023, Brian Smith for 2024, and John Hauser for 2025. Interestingly enough, Ohio never won a single bowl game until the 2011 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, but now the Bobcats have nine bowl trophies in their facilities — winning them all in a 15-year span.

8

Number of 100-yard games for Sieh Bangura in 2025

Boomerang transfers aren’t the most common in college football, but one particular one worked out exceptionally this year. Sieh Bangura was Ohio’s feature running back for the 2022 and 2023 seasons, producing 1,078 and 811 yards during those years, respectively. Bangura was an important fixture of the golden era of Bobcats football, but after 2023, he entered the transfer portal and landed at Minnesota. However, the Maryland native’s touches declined in his new home, finishing 2024 with four carries for 12 yards as a Golden Gopher.

Bangura decided to return to Athens, OH, and the move couldn’t have worked out any better for both parties. He regained his role as a feature running back, shattering his previous career-highs with 1,392 yards and 15 touchdowns. He is currently fifth in the FBS in yards and tied for 10th in touchdowns, earning First Team All-MAC honors in a spectacular bounce-back season. Bangura ended the year on a hot streak, accumulating 100+ yards in eight of his final 10 games. The senior concluded his college career with 149 yards (his second-highest total ever) and a touchdown, solidifying Offensive MVP honors.

40-14

Ohio’s record over the past four seasons

We are living in the glory days of Ohio football. The Bobcats clinched their fourth-straight 9+ win season by winning the Frisco Bowl, and now they own a 40-14 record across the past four seasons, which is best overall in the MAC and 13th among all FBS programs. All 12 teams above Ohio have qualified for the College Football Playoff in the last three seasons.

Ohio sustained this success through multiple coaching staffs, multiple starting quarterbacks, and significant year-over-year turnover. The Bobcats finished 10-4 in 2022, 10-3 in 2023, 11-3 in 2024 with their first MAC championship since 1968, and 9-4 in 2025. All four of those spectacular seasons concluded in bowl wins, and they finished 7-1 or 6-2 in MAC play each time. There is a juggernaut rolling in Athens, OH, and Tuesday night in Frisco, TX was proof of it.

1-0

John Hauser’s record as head coach

Ohio entered the Frisco Bowl without a full-time head coach. But three days after the game, the Bobcats found one. John Hauser held interim status for the Frisco Bowl after the sudden dismissal of first-year head coach Brian Smith earlier in December. Hauser spent 2022-25 as a defensive assistant for the Bobcats, upgrading from a safeties coach to a coordinator for the 2024 season.

The 45-year old Hauser never served in a head coaching capacity before the Frisco Bowl, but he seized his first opportunity and pulled off a victory over a 10-win UNLV squad. Hauser was doused with three gallons of Scooter’s Coffee in a celebratory bath after the bowl game, and his players crashed his postgame interview to shout “Hire Hauser.” In fact, the postgame ceremony featured a collective “Hire Hauser” chant from the entire roster. Ohio’s administration listened and shed the interim status in favor of a full-time position. Hauser is Ohio’s third-straight internal head coaching hire, and he will enter the 2026 campaign with a career record of 1-0.