Bowling Green Football Talk

Bowling Green Reclaims Battle of I75 Trophy!!!     It was a perfect Saturday for college football. Two bitter rivals separated by only 25 miles. The best rivalry in a conference practically unaffected by conference realignment in my entire lifetime. Two teams on even playing fields despite Toledo's domination throughout the 2010s. The Rockets were 9-0 against the Falcons when in came Scot Loeffler. A man DETERMINED to make this a true rivalry again. He is now 3-3 in the Battle of I75. In 2019 he shocked the world with a win as 27.5 point underdogs at home, at the Doyt in year 1 (the last Saturday game of this rivalry as well). 14.5 point underdogs in 2022, the Falcons won to finally end a 7 season bowl drought. Now just 2.5 point underdogs and the win is not any less sweet. BG came out hot, never trailed, and came up with an overall psychically imposing win over our heated rival.  Recap 1st Quarter     This game started off hot for both teams. The Orange and Brown defense forced a

  State of the Program 10/25/2024 (photo via Toledo Blade) Vibes?     The vibes should be fine across BG nation. I know I have this battle with people on twitter every week. Should we be 4-3, maybe even 5-2? For sure, in an ideal world. At the end of the day we are Bowling Green. We do not out recruit and out spend our competition. Just because we went 7-5 last year does not mean we should necessarily expect to go 8-4 this year. The fact that we can struggle and still beat Kent State and Akron are really good signs. I will never apologize for a win in this league. The reality is ALL of BGSU's goals are still in front of them, but it all hangs in the balance tomorrow.  Can we beat Toledo?     Last year's game still burns. It was all BG until Bazelak got hurt and Toledo stormed back to win it late. This Battle of I75 has truly been a battle the majority of the time under Coach Loeffler. Loeffler is 2-3 in his 5 games against the Rockets while BG was 0-9 in the 9 years before he s

Bowling Green Gets Rebound Win and Keeps Anniversary Award! (photo via Toledo Blade) (Sorry for the short recap, had field exercises for Uncle Sam and just now am blogging about the first 3 games!) Takeaways      This game was a get right game for BG's offense. Unfortunately, just about everyone in the WR room is hurt but before he got hurt Malcolm Johnson Jr caught a long score. Harold Fannin had another awesome day and Jamal Johnson caught a touchdown. Terion Stewart rushed for 125 on 25 carries and Connor Bazelak ended up playing and was lights out. 23/27 for 313 and 2 scores, arguably his best MAC performance at BG.      The defense was nothing short of perfect. Only 6 points allowed, Kent was just 2/14 on 3rd downs. Tommy Ulatowski was an abysmal 7/27 with 2 INTs and less than 100 yards. Kent's big 2 receivers combined for less than 60 yards and just 5 catches. Todd Bumphis, Pat Day, and Ed Rhambo all had interceptions in the 4th quarter, much needed confidence boost for t

Bowling Green Offense Gets Held In Check. (Sorry for the short recap, had field exercises for Uncle Sam and just now am blogging about the first 3 games!) Takeaways      This game was as ugly as a game as we have seen in a while here at BGSU. BG was just 1/13 on 3rd downs, a truly embarrassing figure that quickly explains the 17-7 final score. 98 passing yards does not help either. The offensive line could not pass block very well and BG has zero big play receivers at the moment other than Harold Fannin. Bazelak left the game with an injury and Lucian Anderson looked very overwhelmed.      The defense actually played really well. The offense could not sustain anything after the very first drive, and yet NIU only mustered 17 points on the Orange and Brown defense. I am so crazy impressed with the D line as well as the pass defense. I will do a full defensive look on my state of the program blog coming tomorrow.  Looking Forward Check out my state of the program blog for my thoughts movi

Bowling Green Starts MAC Play 1-0! (photo via BG Athletics) (Sorry for the short recap, had field exercises for Uncle Sam and just now am blogging about the first 3 games!) Takeaways     This game was closer than many expected. Listen, Akron stinks per usual, but this is MACtion. The parity in this league is unreal and any win is a big win. Connor had another very efficient performance, going 24/30 for 268 yards. Harold Fannin once again had a monster game, 9 catches for 135 yards and ran for the winning score on a GUTSY 4th down call by Coach Loeffler. Jaison Patterson came up huge with 2 rushing scores. Always a pleasure to watch him run, especially knowing how hard he works at blocking and is the epitome of a team player.      Akron was just 3/11 on third downs. The defense came up with timely plays and held strong per usual. Akron was able to move the ball but never really sustained any success and if the offense could have just done a little more, the defense could have started pl

BG Shines, Yet Falls to 1-3 in Non-Con     First off, I am back!!! Thank you all for the support, been very busy in the Army as of late. Let us just dive right into a quick chat about the 1-3 record right now. I hate to sound like a homer here but ALL of BG's goals for this season are still in front of them.      Game 1: Fordham was an inferior FCS team and BG took care of business. 41-17 is a comfortable win. Fordham racked up 400 yards but BG was not showing any special coverages or plays because this game was in hand after the first quarter. The highlight of the game was a Justin Pegues 100 yard kick return to the house to start the game with some blocking by Jaison Patterson that got them millions of views on X and on ESPN.      Game 2: BG almost shocked the world by upsetting Penn State. BG went into the half up 24-20. However, the second half Penn State figured themselves out and the Falcons were held to 3 points and lost a close one 34-27 on the road in Happy Valley against