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Other Features: Distinct by Design Who Would Have Predicted This? Theater on a Shoestring Sunny-side Up This is Your Life Toss Out the Catalog Visit the Web site! A new window will open in your computer's web browser. www.ohiobobcats.com 2001 schedule Aug. 30 at Akron, 7 p.m. Sept. 8 at West Virginia, 1 p.m. Sept. 13 at NC State, 7:30 p.m. Sept. 22 vs. IOWA STATE, 1 p.m. Oct. 6 vs. TOLEDO, 6 p.m. Oct. 13 at Central Michigan, 1 p.m. Oct. 20 vs. MIAMI, 3 p.m. Oct. 27 (Homecoming) vs. KENT, 1 p.m. Nov. 3 at Buffalo, 1 p.m. Nov. 10 vs. BOWLING GREEN, 1 p.m. Nov. 17 at Marshall, 3 p.m. Home games in CAPS. Dates subject to change. Televised Games The Aug. 30, Oct. 20 and Nov. 17 games will be televised by Fox Sports Ohio, the Sept. 13 contest on the MAC TV schedule and the Sept. 22 and Oct. 27 on the Ohio Sports Network. OSN's flagship station, WSAZ-TV, will broadcast games to Southern Ohio, West Virginia and parts of Kentucky. Games also will be carried on the Ohio News and Cleveland Television networks.

Ohio University Head Football Coach Brian Knorr 'He'll tell you off,' one player says of Coach Brian Knorr, 'but he'll tell you off with a smile.' By Joe Donatelli The Air Force Academy is one tough place. All you love about Athens - the campus worthy of an Ivy League brochure, the quaint uptown shops, the lively nightlife - they don't have at the Colorado Springs school. "Not a whole lot of fun goes on out there," says Ohio head football coach Brian Knorr, who quarterbacked at Air Force from 1982 to 1985. So why was he smiling? During drills ... class ... practice ... curfews. On his first day as a cadet, he competed with 18 teammates for the same job. Less than two years later he was starting. And smiling. A lot. "The upperclassmen began calling me Sunny," Knorr says (you guessed it) smiling. A three-year letterwinner and team captain at Air Force, Knorr and the Falcons racked up four-straight bowl victories and an identical number of wins over tradition-rich Notre Dame. At 36, the nickname and Eagle Scout grin endure. If Knorr is anything, he's a spiraling ball of positive energy - but with more than enough soldier in his bark to keep the troops in line. He is disciplined. But players like him. He is military-efficient. But he gives players freedom. "He'll tell you off," says junior cornerback Thomas Stephens, "but he'll tell you off with a smile." Coach means business It's one of those let's-head-to-Strouds Run summer mornings and Knorr is sitting in his Peden Stadium office, where a box remains unpacked and a laptop computer sits idle on his desk beside a family photo. The ever-present smile vanishes. The topic is the schedule. It's brutal - and it's the biggest challenge of his rookie season, one filled with much expectation. The highlights: at Akron, West Virginia and North Carolina State the first three weeks; Iowa State, Toledo, Miami at home; and Marshall on the road. "We have never faced a schedule quite like this," Knorr says. But Ohio has not, in recent years, returned a team quite like this either. The Bobcats bring back 19 starters and 44 lettermen from a 7-4 team that beat bowl-bound Minnesota on the road and Marshall at home. With all that experience, the team expects to challenge for its first Mid-American Conference title since 1968 and maybe take down a Big East or Atlantic Coast Conference power along the way. Knorr knows how a major upset can springboard a season - and an entire program. "Nothing was more important to our program than beating Minnesota," Knorr says of Ohio's 23-17 victory last Sept. 9. "Going into recruits' homes in December, all they wanted to know about was the win against Minnesota." And by mid-December, the 12th to be exact, Knorr was visiting prospects as the Bobcats' head coach. That was the day he succeeded Jim Grobe, who resigned after seven years at Ohio to take the top spot at Wake Forest. The University tapped Knorr - the only Air Force Academy graduate ever to nab a Division 1 head football coaching post - because, as Athletics Director Thomas Boeh puts it, "he was very well-prepared, passionate, thoughtful, and he was ready." One of Knorr's first priorities was filling coaching vacancies left when several assistants followed Grobe to Wake Forest. His goal was to have his assistants hired by the time students returned from winter break. Almost three months passed before the staff was set. The time, Knorr says, was worth it. This is a diverse group of coaches with a mix of youth and loads of bowl game experience. That's an affirmative "Hugh," Knorr remembers saying to linebacker Hugh Grant during the spring game, "get into the game." "Word," the sophomore responded. Word? Knorr's smiling again. Word is slang for affirmative. As in, "Did you hear Coach wants to run the shotgun formation this season to open up the passing game for quarterback Dontrell Jackson?" Word. "Did you hear running backs Chad Brinker and Jamel Patterson will be on the field simultaneously more often this season?" Word. "Or about the defense using more one-on-one coverage and blitzing schemes?" Word. Someone even said that when the players returned from winter break and found those empty assistants' offices, they didn't panic. Like Knorr's Air Force teammates from two decades ago, they took one look at their coach and knew everything was going to be all right. "That was a down time for us," Jackson says. "But we got back to school and we knew Coach would be sunshining on everyone. No assistants - didn't matter. You could see how he got the name." Word. Joe Donatelli, BSJ '98, is a sports reporter for Scripps Howard News Service in Washington, D.C.