By Charles Ryan | Production Director, BGRSO
This summer, the MAC media football kickoff took place in Cleveland Ohio, on July 25 and it gave many people an insight into the teams getting ready for the upcoming season.
BGSU aggressively went into the transfer portal this offseason, looking to pull in more experienced players into their already established, young core on the offensive line.
“Last year we could have gone down this path and we felt as a staff that the longevity of the program that we needed one more high school class and we knew that we were going to take some lumps on the offensive line,” Scott Loeffler, BGSU Football Head Coach said. “We felt that in year four, that we would go down that path and, knock-on-wood, we brought in some really good players but better guys in the locker room.”
Even with using a young offensive line, the Falcons had one of their best seasons in the past three years, going 4 – 8 on the season. This is after going 0 – 5 in the 2020 season, but the offensive line seemed to lack leadership.
“The center we have brought in, Jakari Robinson, he has really become the leader of that unit. That was something that we needed there, part of that maturity just a young group so it was nice to have him come in and lead the group,” Matt McDonald, senior quarterback, said.
Bringing in these new players is a step in the right direction for the Falcons. But, a big part of what the team has been able to achieve has come from the defense making strides of their own. With both Darren Anders being placed on the Dick Butkus award watch list and Jordan Anderson being placed on the Jim Thorpe watch list, the defense is looking stronger than ever before.
“You know with Todd Walker, we are finally going to play some defense around here and I hope so… You know obviously we like to score points but you gotta be able to run the football in Bowling Green and because of the weather and you gotta be able to play defense,” Loeffler said.
According to Loeffler, the defense was a big part of the business plan to rebuild the program and now with the skills brought in by the new players and the mix of the veteran defense, the Falcons are looking to make moves.
A big problem that has to be addressed for the Falcons, is their ability to finish out games. Multiple times throughout last season, fans saw the Falcons leading throughout the first half of the game, but not being able to hold on in the second half.
“I think it is just consistency all the way through the whole game… that is our main focus in the offseason. We had games where we could beat anybody, and we could lose to anybody. We just want to become more consistent, and if we do that, we have a chance,” McDonald said.
The start of the season is approaching and the Falcons face UCLA and only time will tell what this year’s team will do.
