Chris Holtmann branded it the stiffest season-opening challenge of his Ohio State tenure.
Despite beginning two of the past three seasons against AAC champion Cincinnati teams, the Buckeye head coach called Tuesday’s meeting with Akron – which has lost eight or fewer games in each of the past two years – “the toughest home opener we’ve had in our four-plus years.”
Holtmann will go toe-to-toe with former Taylor University teammate John Groce, the fifth-year Akron head coach who made Holtmann his lead assistant at Ohio from 2008-10, and the Zips are just two years removed from a regular season conference title and potential NCAA tournament berth during the COVID-shortened 2019-20 campaign.