Maryland Odds and Ends: Schadenfreude Included

Some last odds and ends from the great day in College Park.

First, all day I have been running into BG fans were are totally pumped by what happened and who recognize why it matters.  Encouraging them to be at the Doyt on Saturday.

It was a big day for Ryan Burbrink, a Maryland boy who made his way to BG after no one in Maryland offered him a scholarship.  In fact, BG didn't offer him a scholarship.  He has turned into an all-conference performer.  And I am sure it was incredibly satisfying to beat the home team in front of your family and friends and notch a TD as well.  Well done Ryan.  Enjoy.

The Big 10 announcers were agonizing to listen to.  The worst part was when they somehow got it into their heads that BG hadn't beaten a P5 team since 2008.  I believe that came from the BG Game Notes, which referenced that being the last ROAD win over a P5 team.  Anyway, it was one of those things...when you have it wrong, you don't just say it once, you repeat it over and over again.  They mentioned it multiple times, put a graphic up...it was great.  Of course, we were all screaming at our TVs..."Indiana.  Last year!!"

One thing was different from last year's Indiana win was Coach Baber's demeanor.  There was no repeat of last year's manic "Train" speech.  In football terms, he acted like he had been there before.

I have a column in my TweetDeck that just shows me tweets with Dino Babers in them.  Falcon fans are going to have to get used to what I saw, which is a ton of fans who covet our Coach.  The Illinois fans have been babbling about it since Beckman was fired, but now pretty much every team that is dissatisfied with their Coach--which is pretty much every team--is talking about Babers.  If he wins the next two, it just gets louder.  He's an attractive candidate and sooner or later if he succeeds he is going to have options.  Sooner could be after this season.  Let's see what happens.  Enjoy the ride.  But expect the chorus to be out there and only quiet down if he start to lose, which we don't want either.

Finally, the best part of the P5 upset experience is to get online and see how the local press responds to the humiliation.  It is always a rich and enjoyable experience, because the entire season had been built on beating BG and then, you know, THEY DON'T AND IT IS THE WORST DAY EVER.

And that makes me happy.  The word is schadenfreude.

Here are some nuggets from the Washington Post.

Maryland cornerback Sean Davis looked exhausted. He sat defeated in the end zone during the fourth quarter of Saturday’s game against Bowling Green, staring ahead and slamming his hand into the turf as a Falcons receiver celebrated yet another touchdown.

“Not the outcome we were looking for,” Maryland Coach Randy Edsall said in a terse postgame news conference that lasted less than five minutes.

“The loss hurts,” Maryland offensive lineman Andrew Zeller said, “but we have to get back out and grade the film...The footage won’t be pretty."

24/7 Sports

Maryland didn't just get upset by Bowling Green today. This wasn't a plucky Mid-American Conference team having a good day or getting a few lucky bounces. This was the Terps, seven-point favorites, were overmatched and out-classed throughout the second half of an embarrassing 48-27 loss.

This was an unknown team scoring 42 points in the second half and unwrapping its back-up quarterback like a victory cigar on Maryland's home field.

Today's loss means whatever chances Maryland had of overachieving its way to a bowl game are crippled. And the ugly way by they lost -- allowing 491 yards and 6 touchdowns in in the passing game alone hurts in recruiting.

I suspect we aren't unknown anymore, so how does that taste?  Best line is the victory cigar, by far.

Oh, sweet victory.

BG with First MBB '16 Verbal

Recruiting News: 2016 (Pg) 6'2 Dylan Frye (Mater Academy) commits to Bowling Green University #RMF @DylanFrye05 pic.twitter.com/cMWGFSPTpI

— RMF Magazine (@RMFmagazine) September 13, 2015

So BG has picked up its first verbal for the 2016 class.  For this young man, Coach Huger has picked into his old home in South Beach, and brought back a 3-star (Rivals) commit.

His name is Dylan Frye and he is a 6'2" PG (Mater Academy) who has been getting strong notices for some time.  He was 2nd team All-State (6A) as a sophomore, transferred to another school, led them to a state title and then transferred back to Mater where he will play his senior year.  He is a good student with a 4.3 GPA.  You can check here for some of his AAU stats and some scouting that includes that this might be the dual-threat passing and shooting PG BG has been looking for for a long time.

An internet website has ranked him as the #22 recruit in Florida.

He had D1 offers from Bryant, High Point, Liberty, Loyola MD, N Florida, Radford, Rider and UCF.

Welcome to the Falcons, Dylan!

Two Falcons win Player of Week

BG had two players make it onto the MAC East Player of the Week list.

Matt Johnson was a no-surprise winner on the offense.  He had a huge day with Playstation numbers in the big upset and is well deserving.  In another week, Roger Lewis at 15/200 would have won, too.

Joseph Davidson won for special teams player, averaging over 50 yards per kick.

Congratulations Matt and Joseph!!

Past and Future Opponent Land

Tennessee  (1-1) Blew big lead, lost to Oklahoma in 2OT.
Memphis (2-0) Beat Kansas 55-23
Purdue (1-1) Beat Indiana State 38-14
Buffalo (1-1) Lost 27-14 @ Penn State
Umass (0-1) Lost 48-14 @ Colorado
Akron (0-2) Lost to Pitt in Akron 24-7
Kent (1-1) Beat Delaware State 45-13
Ohio (2-0) Beat Marshall 21-10.  This is notable.
WMU (0-2) Destroyed by Georgia Southern, 43-17.  Also notable.
UT:  (1-0) Win of the day, beating #18 Arkansas 16-12/
Ball State (1-1) Lost 56-23 to Texas A&M

MAC Vs.

All FBS: 6-12
P5: 2-10
Non P5-FBS: 4-2
FCS: 6-0

Sweet Victory #1: Special Teams

Wrapping everything up now...the special teams.  They were a horror in Nashville, and they were flawed in College Park, for sure, but they were improved and they didn't lose BG the game and in fact generated a very big play.

It didn't start out very well.

Joe Davidson boomed another punt inside the 20, but William Likely was able to field it near the sideline and go 85 yards for a TD.  After the game, Coach said that it was "heart breaking."  The plan was to kick it OB, but the punter just missed and that gave them the chance to put it away.  Coach said that he went over to the punter and the special teams coach and "motivated" them to make sure Likely didn't hurt us again.

And he didn't.  BG did some rugby style stuff to limit returns and, in fact, even generated a fumble that was recovered inside the MD 20.

BG also missed 2 FGs inside 40 yards, as Tyler Tate starts the season off in an unusual slump which we are confident he will work his way out of.  On the plus side, he had 6 touchbacks in 8 kickoffs, helping to keep Likely from hurting us.

The only issue on kickoffs was a bizarre squib kick that went out of bounds and gave MD good field position.

Joe Davidson has got some leg on him.  He punted 3 times and averaged 50 yards per punt.  BG is going to rank low in net punting due to the return issues, but if that gets sorted out BG has a real weapon in the Long Tall Punter.

Nothing particularly great was done on returns.  BG's KOR return game has not generated much at all and we're generally thankful for the touchback.  Ryan Burbrink did have one nice punt return.

Anyway, point is that the special teams kept us on our ass for the Tennessee game and it was less like that against Maryland.  Having said that, there were still issues with the kicking game and it could still stand to get better.

Sweet Victory #1: The Defense

No secret here...the defense was the biggest area of concern for our team heading into the season.  The defense was not good last year and lost almost everyone.  One thing they did gain was a new DC, and I just think that's making a huge difference.  The ultimate thing is that BG probably isn't going to need a MAC-leading defense to win...but they need to get some stops and we are in that zone right now.

Coach mentioned that the defense made great strides since the first game, which I think is certainly true.  They were just more solid, solid tackling, guys on the ball.  An impressive team effort, sort of in the mold of what we saw in the last Elko days.

First, BG held Maryland to 20 points.  Remember, one TD was on a PR.  That's going to be winning number if repeated.

BG held Maryland to 341 yards.  The Terps only ran 59 plays, so that equals out to 5.6 yards per play, which is only an average number.

BG held the Terps to 16 first downs (!!!), 22 minutes of possession (no really), 3 of 12 on 3rd down,  and forced 6 punts.  Oh, and 3 turnovers, too.

That's a winning effort.

Breaking it down, BG did a nice job with the MD RBs, who had 63 yards on 17 carries.  Most of the running came from the QB, who 94 on 8 carries.  This is certainly an area of improvement.  BG would get pressure--sometimes with 4 and sometimes blitzing--but couldn't bring Hills down or contain him in the pocket.  An area of improvement.

There was never any doubt that the Terps had issues at QB and they certainly showed themselves.  BG did what you are supposed to do with an average QB, which is keep him in check.  Hills was 15 of 30 but only for 168 yards.  That's pretty unproductive and a low percentage for the kinds of passes he was throwing.  I felt like BG's coverage was pretty good.  Darrell Hunter left with a suspected concussion that was not, but Alphonso Mack seemed to get in on some plays after that.  (He also recovered a special teams fumble).

To me, the player I noticed the most was Trent Greene.  He made some big time plays on the Md backs.  He tie for the team high with 8 tackles, and 2 for loss.  Eilar Hardy had 8 and 1 TFL.  Other standouts were Zach Colvin with 2 TFL, Turner with 2 INT,  and Sanford at 2 pass defenses.

Not to diminish the team effort, though.  Six players were in on tackles for loss and four players broke up passes.

I just feel like the defense has played with a stronger sense of order and they make plays that are available to them.  I felt there were glimpses over it in Nashville and obviously more on Saturday.  If it can continue, it just changes the outlook for the team completely.

Sweet Victory #1: The Offense

Coach Babers said that the offense would hit its stride in the early to middle part of this year.  And, in his post-game presser, he still felt that there was room for improvement, especially when missing deep balls, which are integral to the scheme.

Having said that, as a preview of what could be...that was pretty good.

BG finished with 692 yards of total offense.  That's 14 short of the school record...on the road against a Big 10 team.  That means that for all of the games against Temple and Liberty and VMI, etc, this game was only 14 short of the overall record.  That's strong.

BG ran 105 plays, which nets out to 6.6 yards per play.  Get this...Bowling Green had 35 first downs...they made a first down on exactly one out of every three plays they ran.

Matt Johnson had what might be a career day for many people, but I believe will be viewed as a typical day when this year is done.  He was 36 of 55, which is 65%, which Coach says is the minimum he needs not to "get in trouble."  In Coach's words...if you have 65% and "a bunch of big numbers after that" you are in good shape.

He did have that.  BG had 491 yards passing and 6 TDs.  That's 8.9 per attempt and 13.6 per reception, which is just eye popping when combined with a 65% completion.  There was one INT...a throw behind Moore that got off his fingers and probably belongs to both of them...but one pick in 55 passes is totally workable.

Those 36 completions were distributed to 9 different receivers.  The clear leader was Roger Lewis, for whom Maryland had no answer at all.  Tennessee succeeded in taking him away, but Maryland did not.  Lewis went 15 for 200 and 2 scores.  Honestly, he might not generate big numbers for the whole year because I don't think teams are going to let him do that in general and other guys will get the benefit of his ability, but he had a great day in College Park.

Ronnie Moore had 8 for 79...Rhodes had 2 for 108 (!) and 1 TD.  Besides Lewis and Rhodes, Burbrink, Dieter and Lee also had TD catches.

The running game was also effective.  BG ran the ball 50 times (I know, right?) and had 201 yards for the game.  That's not great...but it was good enough.  After the game, Coach said that BG would like to run the ball, but teams are taking the run away and we take what they give us.  (I suspect that might change in the coming games).

Fred Coppet had a great game.  He had 109 yards on only 15 carries, which nets out to 7.3 yards per carry.  Travis Greene struggled more at 65 in 18 carries (he may not have been 100%) and Donovan Wilson had 28 yards on his 7 game killing carries.

BG also turned the ball over only once.  There was another fumble, but BG recovered it.

So, a nearly record setting day in this setting...a great success for BG.  Defense next.