Verbal #9

Dalton Chapman has made a verbal commitment to Bowling Green to play tackle football.  He's a pretty good sized fella, going 6'7" and 290 and plays both ways at Grove City HS.  He was second-team all-conference and honorable mention all-region last season (apparently on defense).  My guess is that he projects to the O-line (tackle), but that's just a guess.

Welcome to the Falcons, Dalton.

Time to get back to work....

Vacation's over, and we're all in now, as we plow forward toward the season.  Above is a pic I got while I was gone....pretty nice, huh?

Anyway, from what I can see there were a couple of developments over the week.

The first was BG's first scrimmage of Fall Camp.  Based on what I saw from reports, the offense was able to out-do the defense, which is among the first times that has happened during camp.  I think that tells you something...the defense is likely to be improved, but you wouldn't want to be the offense they dominate day in and day out, at least at this stage.

So, it was a good day for the offense.  According to The Blade, Trent Hurley led several scoring drives and ran a TD in along with throwing for two.  Matt Schilz had a TD run.  Make of all that what you will.

Coach said the offensive line continued to improve.  The BG News noted that we did have trouble getting the running game going.

So far, there do not seem to be any serious health issues.  The only serious injury reported was to Scott Lewis, O-lineman, who will have surgery and miss the first few weeks.  (of course, the line is the last place the team needed an injury).

Other players were just dinged up...(again from The Blade).

Several key players didn't see action, most notably linebacker Dwayne Woods, wide receivers Kamar Jorden, and Adrian Hodges and defensive back Aaron Foster. Clawson said he expects all four to return to action soon.

The Kicking game continued to struggle.  Burkhardt made a couple easy field goals, while Stephen Stein missed a couple.  Clawson is high on the return game, though.  John Pettigrew had a 94 yard TD return on the opening kickoff.

Scrimmages are tough to tell much from...so we remain hopefully optimistic.

On one other news note, Freddie Barnes is back in pro ball.  He's been signed by the Calgary Stampeders Saskatchewan Roughriders in the CFL.  He's part of an overhaul of the team after the season began on poor terms.  We'll keep an eye on how he does.  He has the right kind of game to play very well up there, but due to the limits on American players, he won't be able to get away just being good.

Moose out front shoulda told ya

Sorry Folks. Blog's closed while we go on vacation.  Moose our front shoulda told ya.

Media Day...

So, the Falcons had media today, in which they apparently unveiled new unis and helmets, did a bunch of taping...and then they actually TALKED to the media.

Coach Clawson had a couple of nuggets...

He once again said we need both Schilz and Hurley playing well... and he threw in Matt Johnson (True FR) and Malik Stokes (walk on QB/ATH)....he said that Johnson and Hurley were improving and pusing each other (as opposed to pushing Schilz) but this might be like when they used to try and guess who was in power in the Kremlin by where they stood at the May Day Parade.

Shaun Joplin is in our top 4 receivers...we plan to play 5-6.

The four are:  Jordan, Cooper, Hodges and Joplin

Which means Joplin has at least passed Ray Hutson and Justus Jones, both of whom have played.

There was a lot of talk about the alignment on the offensive line.  First, we are looking very forward to having Bojicic back.  That makes us better right away.  Flewellyn and Roussos were playing next to each other last year and in the spring, so they are staying next to each other.  Chip Robinson is a smart player  who is the backup at C.  He is also working next to Kyle Bryant (T) to help show him the ropes.

On defense Kevin Moore (Alvarado) has moved to E.  It was simply a numbers game.  We went him ont he field, and we have a 3-2 rotation on the inside with Jones, Campbell, and Oulettte so Moore moved outside to get him onto the field

Two Notes from the Nation....

First, the Falcons held their second day of practice today.  Practice started at...well, 5:30 AM.

And, when LSU OC Steve Kragthorpe was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, former BG player, line coach and OC Greg Studrawa was promoted and will be the OC on an acting basis.

Les Miles, who is a nut, said:

"Kragthorpe will be in every huddle, every play call and in the press box and assist fully in game plan. The passing game will be called with his and (wide receiver coach Billy) Gonzales' thumb right on it."

Yes, a nut.  N-U-T.

And yes, that thumb belongs to Billy Gonzales, who was BG's WR Coach during the Time of Urban.

Falcon Football Commercial Unveiled!!

Another great job!!  Great footage, great ambiance....nice work to everyone involved.

It all begins today...

The Falcon football team begins Fall practice today as they prepare for a September 1 start to the season.  Coming right around the corner.  I'm sure there's lots of anticipation.  I think everyone is feeling pressure not to repeat the 2-10 season we had last year...but it won't be easy.  Anyway, BG's Dave Meyer will be at practice and tweeting updates if you want to follow him.

On a side note, I read a great article yesterday about Brian McClure for the Record Pub.  McClure was in school the exact years I was, and (as the article points out), it was truly remarkable that he came to BG, and the career he had.  He put up un-heard of numbers and led BG to an undefeated regular season in his senior year (before the whole Denny Stolz Cal Bowl thing...let's not bring that up).  I actually remember running in to Mark Miller right after he signed, and he said that we had landed a game changing player...which we had.

• A couple things....finished his career as the second most productive passer in NCAA history.
• Was first freshman to be all-MAC.
• We were 30-6 in MAC games during his tenure.

I think that the recent offensive fireworks (both in D1 football and at BG) might have dulled his accomplishments in the popular mind, which is a shame.  He was a truly special player and among the Falcon greats.