What's at stake in the Cure Bowl between Ohio and Jacksonville State?

Ohio and Jacksonville State are set to clash in the StaffDNA Cure Bowl on Friday, and each team has similar circumstances surrounding their stakes in this game.

Both are conference champions — Jacksonville State in Conference USA and Ohio in the MAC. Both are making their Cure Bowl debuts with a chance to deliver the first wins for their conferences, which are both 0-2 in the game. Both have bowl-game winning streaks on the line. And both will have to try to keep those streaks going under new coaches.

That’s where the similarities end.

Jacksonville State is just a second-year FBS team, so its streak is only at a single game after winning the New Orleans Bowl last year. Regardless, former head coach Rich Rodriguez had the Gamecocks playing some good football, delivering a second straight 9-4 record before departing to return to West Virginia.

Ohio’s bowl game winning streak is up to five games dating back to 2017, though just two of those games were under head coach Tim Albin, who accepted the head coach job at Charlotte last week. Albin’s teams won the Myrtle Beach Bowl in 2023 and the Arizona Bowl in 2022.

In the Cure Bowl, the Bobcats will be guided by Brian Smith, who was promoted to head coach from offensive coordinator on Thursday. At 10-3, another win would set a new program record for wins in a season.