News from Football

So last night BG held a virtual forum with Scott Loeffler (and special guests, or how do they do that at concerts, ASG?), more on that in a minute.

First, kudos to the athletic department for being innovative and creating this event.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I'm glad I got my renewal taken care of in time to participate.  There are going to be more of these and I'd encourage any other season ticket holders to get their renewals in and participate.

Some small news bits.

He said that one thing that was apparent in the 3 days of practice was that "we have a quarterback" and it makes a night and day difference.

He noted that BG took five OL last year and will take 5 again this year and that is unheard of in any program he has ever heard about.  Similarly, we took 5 defensive lineman last year and 4 this year.

I agree with this.  Teams have won the MAC with different styles of play, but no one has won the MAC who wasn't able to control the line of scrimmage.  And I suspect never will...because the winds of November come blowin'.

He was careful to manage expectations for this year, which is appropriate.  We will be very young on the offensive line and the d-line remains an issue.  One of the problems with rebuilding the front is it just takes longer.  Also, the defensive backfield will be very young.

The best part was his description of how they are installing offensive and defensive concepts without being in person.  I can't do it justice, but it was innovative and creative and I give them 100% credit for refusing to sit idly by during this crisis.  Coach said "control the controllables."

Or, as John Wooden said, "Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.”

Also, he said that this could be a model for off-season workouts that could reduce the number of contact drills in the spring, which would reduce injuries.  Again--innovative, resourceful thinking.

He said "elite" once.  This should be like a swear jar.

He talked quite a bit about our tight end oriented offense.  Says defensive coordinators hated it...12, 13 or 22 personnel.  And in 11 personnel, which most teams play, can give you 12 different formations, while 12 can give you hundreds.  You can be in a spread or you can be compressed.  But you need TEs who can block and run routes.

So, beyond that, we had visits from 3 NFL Falcons.  

First, together, were Korey Lichtensteiger and Scott Mruczkowski, who both had extensive NFL careers and were the best offensive lineman of their era in Bowling Green football.  Lichtensteiger was the team MVP.  They shared some memories of BG and then talked about the importance of the offensive line.

Mruczkowski remembered the GameDay game most of all.  It was powerful...he said he was getting chills down his spine thinking about it.  As I think we all do.

Key line:

"We put a licking on those boys."

Yes sir.  You did.

Oh man.

So, then the highlight of the show came along.  Phil Villiapiano.  So, you can watch Scot Loeffler and see that he's a little unglued.  It's OK...normal people watch football they don't coach it.  He's intense.  The words are racing to get out of his mouth.  His motor is RUNNING.

Phil Villiapiano comes on...he's an order of magnitude further down the tracks than Loeffler is. This dude is a wild man.

Key line:

"What I love about football is you can hurt somebody."

Second line, when describing football.

"I want to kill you."

Honestly, he had me laughing the entire time.

He started by saying that he liked hearing Coach talk about football, but "I wasn't liking coach too much last year.  How can you give up 60 points in one game?  There aren't enough plays."

At another point, he said, "I don't think we made any tackles last year."

No filter.  

He wasn't giving us any "expectation managing" for next year.  Zero.  None.  He started talking about Jerry Glanville and who knows what else.

He did confirm that he hated facing two tight end formations.

How did he end up at BG?  This is a great story.  His dad was a basketball coach and they went to the NIT at Madison Square Garden.  BG was playing (Nate Thurmond era) and a huge number of fans had traveled to NY from BG.  They impressed Villiapiano.  The next year, his dad asked him where he wanted to go to college and Phil said, "how about Bowling Green."  And they came and visited and the rest is history.

The guy's a warrior.  He's the only BG alum to get a sideline penalty in a bowl game.  Love him.  And he loves BG.  He was at the UT game this year.

"Go up and beat their ass," he said last night.

Here's a little bonus Phil for you....(sorry, you have to click through to YouTube.  It's worth it.)

That was a different era.

Again, thanks for BG doing this.  It was a welcome escape from what is a pretty challenging world we are facing.  It is a privilege to have things that make you happy, and I thank the athletic department for doing that.  It's a respite, and then we can go back to work.