By Adam Beadle
Multimedia Specialist
After Miami (OH) went 0-7 in 2013, the Red Hawks turned to Chuck Martin as the team’s next head coach.
Martin had little success in his first two years as head coach. It wasn’t until 2016 that the Red Hawks finally reached their first bowl game since 2010, doing so in a promising turnaround year in which Miami (OH) lost the conference championship tiebreaker to Ohio. However, the Red Hawks came up just short of glory, losing to Mississippi State 17-16 in the St. Petersburg Bowl.
The Red Hawks didn’t play in a bowl again until 2019, the same year in which they snagged their first conference title in nine years—the first of the Martin era.
Excluding the 2020 season, Martin has led his team to a bowl game in the last three seasons, including last season when the team finished 11-2 and won its second conference title under Martin.
Although they fell short of back-to-back conference championships this season, losing to Ohio 28-3, the Red Hawks have once again clinched bowl eligibility.
Despite playing College Football Playoff quarterfinalist Notre Dame earlier this season and Ohio in the MAC Conference Championship, the Red Hawks' matchup against the Colorado State Rams from the Mountain West Conference in the 2024 Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl may be one of the toughest challenges of this season.
Though the CSU and the Red Hawks both finished the season with eight wins, ESPN’s Football Power Index, a system used by ESPN that measures a team’s strength, ranks Miami (OH) 22 spots ahead of the Rams in the rankings at No. 78.
However, the path the Red Hawks took to get to this point was not easy.
Miami (OH) started the season 1-4 with losses to Northwestern, Cincinnati, Notre Dame, and Toledo and a lone win against now 2-8 Massacheutes. Nonetheless, the rough start to the season lit a fire inside the Red Hawks program.
The team would go on to win six straight.
“You get a good view of your strengths and weaknesses,” Martin said. “We did plenty of good things those first three weeks. We didn’t win any of them, but [if] you watch the Notre Dame game, we did plenty of good things against them. We outplayed them for the first 25 minutes. If we could do that against Notre Dame, that’s probably something we should rely on.”
The difference maker for Miami (OH) in conference play: the All-MAC offensive duo of sophomore wide receiver Javon Tracy and senior quarterback Brett Gabbert. However, the Red Hawks will be without their star wideout as Tracy entered the transfer portal soon after the conclusion of the Red Hawks season. He has since committed to Minnesota.
Gabbert has been with the Red Hawks since they won their first conference title under Martin in 2019. The sixth-year senior’s extensive stint in college football has been due to injuries that have sidelined him throughout his career.
Nonetheless, Gabbert is excited about closing out his collegiate career with an opportunity to win a bowl game.
“It means everything,” Gabbert told the Arizona Daily Star. “I think being able to get to a bowl game is always one of your goals when you start working out in January, so now that we’re here it’s great.”
Senior offensive lineman Reid Holskey was also named to the All-MAC first-team.
On the defensive side of the ball, the Red Hawks had three players named to the All-Mac conference first-team: sophomore defensive back Raion Strader, who entered the transfer portal and has since committed to Auburn, seniora linebacker Matt Salopek and defensive lineman Brain Ugwu.
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