BG Easily Defeats Notre Dame College

After NDC took BG into OT last year, the Falcons were ready for the assignment and easily dispatched the other Falcons 86-60.  BG scored the first 10 points of the game, had the lead over 20 mid-way through the first half and the lead was never below 19 points for the remainder of the game.

It was a FAST game.  There were 83 possessions.  NDC likes to move the ball and BG played along.  Which means that even though BG had 86 points, that was only 1.04 points per possession, which is good but not great.  The held Notre Dame to .72 points per possession, which is really good.  In particular, the other Falcons are known for 3FG shooting, but they made only 3 of their 28 attempts.

Wes Alcegaire had 20 and 5 rebounds, Wiggins 13 and 7 rebounds, Lillard 13 and 10 rebounds, Denny 11 and 6 rebounds and Dylan Frye had 10 points.  Ali had 9 assists over 2 turnovers...both of which are mitigated by the fast tempo of the game.

The Falcons made 78% of their free throws, including 5-5 by Wiggins, who might be making the biggest one-year improvement at the line in program history.  Truly amazing.

So, BG is 3-4.  Things get a little tougher.  They play @UC on Sunday and then @Evansville the following Tuesday, both of which are tough assignments.  More to come on those.

Preview: Hot Falcon-on-Falcon Action

So Tuesday night the Notre Dame College Falcons come into the Stroh in what is supposed to be a guaranteed win night for the Falcons of Bowling Green.  Last year, it nearly was not so, as BG had to go overtime to beat the Falcons of Notre Dame in an early November tilt.  NDC were 21-11 last year and were picked #4 in their conference this year.  This year they are 3-2.  This is their first D1 game.  (They play tonight as well against Lake Erie College so their record coming in will be different one way or the other).

They are a DII team.

They had two guys go for 20 in last year's game.  One of them is gone----and the other, Will Vorhees--is back.  He had 20 points and 6 rebounds against BG last year.  He's 6'8" and a JR from Columbus Grove.  He's averaging 23 with 9 rebounds this year and shooting 49%.

They also have Kyauta Taylor, who is scoring 19 points, with 4 3FGs/game.  That's #8 in the country in DII.  He's a 6'2" JR G.

They have two other players in double figures and they score 80 a game.  Also, they are #7 in DII in blocked shots, due mostly to Ja'Sean Lewis, a 6'8" SO F.  He's #2 in the nation on an individual basis.

Anyway, this is a game that Falcons of Bowling Green should win, but last year struggled to get done.  I think everyone in orange and brown would like it not to be this year.

Also, the game is the opening match between BG and Notre Dame, who will also play for the national I-AA Rugby Championship on Sunday.

Trent Greene MAC East Defensive POTW

Trent Greene's last game as a Falcon was a big one.  See below:

Greene led the Falcons with eight tackles in a 27-19 win over Buffalo last Friday. Among those eight stops were three tackles for loss and two quarterback sacks. 

Greene also had a forced fumble and a fumble recovery as well as a pass break-up in the victory.

BG has had some pretty good brother bloodlines...Villipiano, Haneline, Redd...I'm sure there are others.  The Greene men certainly can hold their own in that conversation...you've got the program's number one rusher and an All-MAC LB (2nd team 2015) who was in on 238 tackles over the last two years...plus 17 TFL, 6 sacks and 3 forced fumbles.  And I'd expect All-MAC honors again.

Football Verbal: Jamari Rouse

Officially Commited to Bowling Green pic.twitter.com/pY4YkG7hL2

— Jamari Rouse Ⓜ️ (@JamariRouse) November 27, 2016

Coach Jinks told the media after the Buffalo win that the coaches had Saturday off and then it was on the road to recruit for them.  This is huge for BG.  The Falcons simply must restock the program with players--and then hope the coaches get better in the meantime.  But you have to have them both in place.  So far, recruiting has appeared to be a strength for these guys, but that game is only in the first quarter.

So, they nabbed a quick commit yesterday, right on the heels of the Buffalo win.  The young man is Jamari Rouse, a DT from Deerfield Beach, FL.  He's 6'2" and 262 and listed as a 3-star composite recruit on 24/7. He had offers from Temple, Syracuse, North Carolina, Buffalo, Charlotte, Georgia State, Idaho, Middle Tennessee, Ohio, Southern Miss and Youngstown State.  They have him ranked as the #7 DT in Florida, which sounds pretty good to me.

This is good to see.  Coach has made it clear that his vision for the program is to win in both phases of the game...unlike a coach we won't name (rhymed with Shmino Shmabers).  We definitely need bodies on the d-line.  Graduation is OK to us this year, but you need 8-10 rotation lineman.  Of the recruits we know about, there are four D-lineman now and maybe a fifth depending on how Walter Haire is classified.

Rouse is a big upside get for a team that can use guys like him--fast, athletic and football-saavy d-lineman.

Deerfield Beach is still playing, making their way into the state semi-final last Friday.

Past and Future Opponent Land

Ohio State (11-1)  Edged Michigan.
North Dakota (9-2) Off.  In FCS Playoffs next week.
Middle TN (8-4) Beat FAU 77-56 (!!)
Memphis (8-4) Beat Houston to end Herman Era
EMU (7-5) Beat CMU
OU  (8-4) Beat Akron
Toledo (9-3) Lost to WMU
Miami (6-6) Beat Ball State.  Incredible finish to year.
NIU (5-7) Beat Kent
Akron (5-7) Lost to OU
Kent (3-9) Lost to NIU

MAC produces 6 bowl eligible teams...WMU, UT,  OU, Miami, EMU and CMU

MAC Vs.

FBS:  13-21
P5:  4-10
FCS:  9-4

West:  12
East:  5

Barnes Record Broken

Freddie Barnes held the NCAA FBS record for receptions for a season for 7 years  It was broken yesterday by Zay Jones of East Carolina, who finished with 158 catches.  Congratulations to him.  Also a great moment to remember one of the great individual seasons in Falcon history.  Good memories, Freddie...Tyler...and the rest of the offensive unit.  That's a lot of catches.

Falcons Win: More....

So, a few elements to the game.  We have already covered the idea that BG should have put this game away multiple times.  They did not and UB ended up accepting the gift.

On offense, BG did what they said they were going to do.  They ran the ball 67 times and passed it 21 times.  And, it worked.  Coppet had 160 yards on 20 carries, Cleveland 109 yards on 16 carries and Wilson 107 on 25 carries, so that's 8, 6.8 and 4.3 yards per carry, respectively.

Conversely, UB ran the ball 27 times for 117 yards as a team.  They had 38 of those on one play.  BG did what they wanted to do both ways, which was control the running game.

The passing comparison was less attractive.  Morgan was 12 of 21 for 146 yards, which is certainly not great.  He was sacked twice and Knapke was sacked once in his honorary start for Senior Day.  He did not turn the ball over, however, and BG had 10 passing first downs on 12 completions, which is pretty good.

UB on the other hand, had a lot of success passing, in short bursts that look good.   Grant Rohach started for UB and while he struggled for much of the game, he ended up 20 of 35 for 334, which is 16.7 per completion, which is just an awful thing to see for a defense.  Marcus Milton and Robert Jackson did not play, so BG was playing short on an already short hand.

When BG got pressure, they had a shot.  They sacked Rohach 6 times for 50 yards and got a lot of pressure on him other times, including on the game's final play.  I liked the look.  BG got pressure with 3 at least once, Terrance Bush made a big open field sack and BG did a nice job of keeping in rush lanes to contain Rohach in the pocket, because he was willing to go out and run.

Trent Greene has 2 sacks, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery in his last game and Terrance Bush 1.5 sacks in his last game.

In the end, UB ended up with 5.9 yards per play and BG had 5.6 yards per play.  However, the Falcons ran 88 plays and was surprisingly 8 of 15 on 3rd down (basically, only failed inside the UB 35) and had 35 minutes of possession.  Schweiterman had a sack, as did Shannon Smith and Konowalski had a half sack.  Nate Locke was very active, with a hurry, a TFL and a pass break up.    Those guys are all slated to return.

On special teams, Buffalo missed 2 XP, which did have an impact on the game and would have made a difference on the last drive. BG had a couple good returns...Zimmerman had a good punt return and kickoff return and Watson had a nice PR to set up good field position.  Zimmerman nearly fumbled away a punt on a play that he was injured on--he was OK last time I heard, thankfully.

Anyway, that's how the last game shook out.  We'll have more to come moving forward.