Football Opponents Released

Getting back into the swing of things...a few days ago the BG football opponents for 2018 were announced.  It looks just slightly more manageable than last year's schedule, maybe.  But not that much.  Schedule-wise, BG will continue to have a hard time posting a winning record.

The big news is BG will have a Big 10 opponent at the Doyt, which is always fun.  Last time that happened was the "train has left the station" win over Indiana.  This time, it is Maryland on September 8...of course, BG beat Maryland as well in 2015.  Maryland is coached by DJ Durkin, who played for us, as well.

The season opens at Oregon, which will be Mario Christobal's first regular season game as head coach.  Maryland is Week 2, followed by Eastern Kentucky at the Doyt.  They were 4-7 last year.  BG will round out the non-conference schedule at Georgia Tech, which plays an offensive style that we traditionally have struggled with, see 2015 GoDaddy Bowl for reference.

Anyway, that's not as tough as this year's schedule was.  It's not easy, but not as bad as this year.  Oregon is not what they once were, Georgia Tech is not MSU or Northwestern.  On the other hand, there's no G5 team in there.  Maryland at home will be interesting...but the Terps will still be heavily favored, especially since BG lost all their home games in 2017...BG could still leave that first set of games 1-3.

In conference, BG draws tough cross-over games.  Of course, for teams in the East right now, all the cross-over games are tough.  EMU and NIU are replaced by WMU and CMU.  Toledo is a protected rivalry, of course.  We play WMU at home and CMU and UT on the road.  All those are going to be tough.

For the East, Buffalo, Kent and Miami will be at home.  Kent's issues have been well documented and Miami appeared to be on the mend this year but took a step back and I think Buffalo has a good shot at breaking out this year. Kent and Miami were BG's only 2017 wins.

For the road games, BG will play Akron and Ohio, the two top teams in the East this year.