Bowling Green State Falcons Season Preview

Coming off a miserable 2-10 season, the Falcons will try to bounce back from their worst season this entire decade. Urban Meyer once led this squad to a 17-6 record, whereas Gregg Brandon led the team to a 44-30 record along a 2003 MAC division crown.  

Dave Clawson now enters his third season as he was formerly the head coach at Richmond and the offensive coordinator at Tennessee.

Before last season was underway, the Falcons were among the top non-BCS programs in America and easily in the discussion for the best MAC team since 2000. Only Toledo had a better winning percentage from 2000-2009 compared to BG’s 70-51 record. 

Sophomore Slouch or Stud?

Seven starters return on offense and they will need their sophomore QB to avoid any sort of slump since Matt Schilz is coming off a tough freshman campaign.

His eight TDs and 14 INTs were nothing to brag about. Plus, the running attack was non-existent, ranking dead last in America averaging a pedestrian 62 yards per game.

They lost their top back, as Willie Geter rushed for 718 yards and six TDs a season ago. Jordan Hopgoo ran 76 times for just 167 yards, but did have six TDs as a backup.

The offensive line returns four starters, but Ben Bojicic is a solid lineman in the MAC. Still, this line was brutal last year and though improvements will be made, it won’t be enough to improve their running game a whole lot. 

I Should Have Bought a Falcon!

The best unit on this team is the receiving core. Kamar Jordan was first-team All-MAC as he hauled in 96 passes for 1,109 yards and four TDs. He was not a red-zone threat at just 6’1", 196 pounds, but he is a solid possession receiver who can move the chains.

Alex Bayer at TE put together a sensational freshman season and will attempt to avoid that sophomore jinx. Eugen Cooper may be the most explosive player on the team as he was first-team All-MAC as a punt returner and he is expected to get plenty of looks at receiver as well. 

Weak Up Front

Defensively, they were 102^nd in total defense allowing 432 yards per game. They have seven starters returning on defense. The front four was gashed for 207 yards per game (worst in MAC) ranking 112^th.

Three return up front and it will be the LB core that will attempt to avoid getting run over again. Dwayne Woods is a junior and he had one hell of a season totaling 134 tackles, 2.5 sacks and 3.5 tackles for loss last season.

The 4-2-5 defense has made this defense susceptible to giving up a chunk of yards on the ground and there is hope that returning rover Keith Morgan will turn into an All-MAC performer.

The pass defense was not nearly atrocious, mainly because they were losing in all of their games but two. The opposition was running the rock a lot and while the secondary returns four starters, the numbers might decline a tad since teams may start to throw more against them.

Assuming Bowling Green is better against the run, there will be a few MAC games going down to the wire for the Falcons.

Drama's Forecast

The schedule features West Virginia, Idaho, Wyoming and Morgan State for the non-conference slate. Meanwhile, the MAC schedule is not easy.

Toledo, Northern Illinois, Ohio, Temple and Miami (Ohio) are arguably the five best teams in the entire MAC. They will be double-digit ‘dogs against all of those teams and the other three teams (Kent State, Buffalo, Western Michigan) should also be slight favorites as well.

Any way you put it, these Falcons will struggle to win a game in conference and may not improve much upon their record form a season ago.

Predicted Finish: 4-8, 1-7

Predicted Bowl: None

Predicted Order of Finish in MAC: 12^th overall, sixth in East Division