College Football News Preview 2021: Previewing, predicting, and looking ahead to the Bowling Green Falcons season with what you need to know.
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– What You Need To Know: Offense | Defense
– Top Players | Key Players, Games, Stats
– What Will Happen, Win Total Prediction
– Bowling Green Schedule
– Bowling Green Previews
2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015
2020 Record: 0-5 overall, 0-5 in MAC
Head Coach: Scot Loeffler, 3rd year, 3-`14
2020 CFN Final Ranking:
2020 CFN Preview Ranking:
2019 CFN Final Ranking:
Bowling Green College Football Preview 2021: Offense
– It’s time to get this thing going already. Head coach Scot Loeffler was supposed to bring the offense, and his teams haven’t been able to get much of anything going in the first two seasons. The biggest positive? The D has been worse.
The Falcons were able to run the ball last season, but the team averaged 326 yards and 11 points per game as it struggled to keep up any sort of pace.
– It starts by refurbishing the line that was one of the few positives. The interior should be fine, but OT Joe Ware is looking to transfer and C Cameron Stage is off to WKU. This was a relatively young, versatile group that should be okay with a little bit of work.
Running back Andrew Clair left for Northwestern, but leading rusher Terion Stewart is back after leading the team with 295 yards and with all four of the touchdowns scored by a running back.
– The receiving corps is undergoing an overhaul. There’s no replacing leading receiver Quintin Morris at tight end, and top two wideouts Julian Ortega-Jones (Texas State) and Noah Massey have transferred out. 6-4 redshirt freshman Tyrone Broden leads a very, very young group that has to grow up fast.
Junior Matt McDonald became the best of the quarterback options, but he only hit 44% of his passes with a touchdown and six interceptions. Enter Drew Gunther from Syracuse, a 6-3, 220-pounder who’ll get every shot right away in a crowded field.
– What You Need To Know: Defense
– Top Players | Key Players, Games, Stats
– What Will Happen, Win Total Prediction
– Bowling Green Schedule
NEXT: Bowling Green College Football Preview 2021: Defense
4. Bowling Green College Football Preview 2021: Defense
– The offense didn’t do anything to help the cause, but the defense failed to do its part with just one takeaway and the nation’s worst run D. Statistically, the pass defense was strong, but that’s because teams ran for 310 yards per game on the porous defensive front.
It’s been a work in progress, but it doesn’t help that three of the top four tacklers are transferring out along with DE Roland Walder, the team’s leading playmaker in the backfield.
– There are a few positives to build on. The 6-0, 235-pound sophomore Darren Anders is a good-sized middle linebacker who can get behind the line and hits everything – he led the team in tackles. This is a young group that got faster and more athletic at linebacker.
There’s no beef up front, and a pass rusher has to emerge on the end, but like everywhere else with this team, there’s potential among all of the underclassmen. It’ll be rough for a bit, but the run defense can’t possibly be any worse.
– Three of the four starters in the secondary are back. It’s missing Caleb Biggers at one corner, and the team didn’t come up with an interception, but this is one of the team’s few experienced areas. The DBs need help from a pass rush, but at the very least they’ve been through a few battles.
– What You Need To Know: Offense
– Top Players | Key Players, Games, Stats
– What Will Happen, Win Total Prediction
– Bowling Green Schedule
NEXT: Bowling Green College Football Preview 2021: Top Players
Bowling Green College Football Preview 2021: Top Players
Best Bowling Green Offensive Player
RB Terion Stewart, RFr.
It’s a small sample size, but the 5-9, 216-pound Stewart was one of the team’s few bright spots with 295 yards and four touchdown in his four games of work. Very fast and with decent hands, he averaged eight yards per carry highlighted by a 162-yard, two-score day in the loss to Kent State.
2. C/G Sam Neverov, Jr.
3. WR Tyone Broden, RFr.
4. OG Jalen Grant, RFr.
5. QB Drew Gunther, RFr.
Best Bowling Green Defensive Player
LB Darren Anders, Soph.
The 6-0, 235-pound veteran did what he could for the nation’s worst run defense. He led the team with 55 tackles and came up with 4.5 tackles for loss, and now he needs to do even more for a young defense that’s once again in need of a reboot.
2. S Jordan Anderson, Soph.
3. DT Walter Haire, Jr.
4. CB Diata Burns, Jr.
5. S Sy Dabney, Jr.
Top Incoming Bowling Green Transfer
QB Drew Gunther, RFr.
The Falcons have to finally settle their quarterback situation. Matt McDonald was the main man – and still could be after getting over a shoulder problem – but the offense went nowhere. In comes the 6-3, 220-pound Gunther who started out his career at Syracuse. He’s a pure passer who needs to at least be able to upgrade the overall options for the position.
NEXT: Bowling Green College Football Preview 2021: Keys To The Season
Bowling Green College Football Preview 2021: Keys To The Season
Bowling Green Biggest Key: Offense
Just complete a few more passes. This is supposed to be an up-tempo, dangerous offense that can get defenses on their heels and come up with a rhythm that takes over games. That’s hard to do when you only compete 43% of your passes.
The Falcons threw for a grand total of 712 yards in the five games with one touchdown pass and seven picks. Go back to 2019, and the offense failed to hit 52% in six of the last eight games. In the Scot Loeffler era, the O has thrown ten touchdown passes with 32 interceptions after the 2018 team threw 29 touchdown passes and 13 picks.
Again, just start completing passes.
Bowling Green Biggest Key: Defense
Run defense, run defense, run defense. Nothing else matters to this team than being able to slow down someone’s ground game. That kills the time of possession, which kills the offense that struggles to move the chains, which kills the team on soul-crushing drive after soul-crushing drive.
It’s been years since the program could stop a ground game, but last season was particularly bad allowing over 300 yards per game and over six yards per carry.
How bad was it? The second worst run defense in America – UMass – allowed 37 fewer yards per game. Only five teams in the last ten years allowed 300 yards or more per game, and 2020 Bowling Green was one of them. Which is why …
Bowling Green Key Player To A Successful Season
DT Anthony Hawkins, RFr.
The Falcons lost a ton off of last year’s line. That’s bad for a not-awful pass rush, but it doesn’t really hurt considering how miserable the run defense was. The 6-2, 302-pound Hawkins has to bring the bulk along with 6-5, 301-pound Billie Roberts on the inside.
Bowling Green Key Game To The 2021 Season
at Kent State, Oct. 2
It’s got to start somewhere. The Falcons have a winnable home game against Akron after starting the MAC season against Kent State, and they have winnable dates against Northern Illinois and Eastern Michigan to follow. They’ll just take any win looking ahead, but somehow stopping the slide against Kent State would be huge.
Bowling Green has been annihilated by the Golden Flashes over the last two years by a combined score of 124-44. It lost three in a row in the series after winning five in a row.
– Bowling Green Schedule Breakdown & Analysis
2020 Bowling Green Fun Stats
– 2nd Quarter Scoring: Opponents 80 – Bowling Green 7
– 3rd Down Conversions: Opponents 36-of-70 (51%) – Bowling Green 17-of-65 (26%)
– Points Per Game: Opponents 45 – Bowling Green 11.4
NEXT: Bowling Green College Football Preview 2021: What Will Happen, Season Prediction
Bowling Green College Football Preview 2021: What Will Happen, Season Prediction
Bowling Green used to be beautiful.
It went from winning the 2014 MAC Championship, to losing in the 2015 MAC Championship game, to 4-8 in 2016, to 2-10 in 2017, two straight 3-9 seasons and then … that.
Bowling Green might not have been the worst team to play college football in 2020 – hey, UMass, what’s up? – but it made a push.
So why does it sort of seem like this could be one of those quirky MAC teams that goes from absolute nothing to great in a hurry?
Set The Bowling Green Regular Season Win Total At … 3
There’s been nothing there to suggest that it’s about to happen, but head coach Scot Loeffler has gone really, really, really young with a team full of improved athleticism and more options. Now the goal is to be able to do one thing consistently right.
The Falcons should be able to come up with three wins somewhere, even though it failed to come closer than 28 points of anyone last season.
There should be a better rotation, and different energy, and again, more talent. But this should be a baby-step season. It can’t get any worse, and now comes the slow turnaround.
– What You Need To Know: Offense | Defense
– Top Players | Key Players, Games, Stats
– Bowling Green Schedule
