Bowling Green football coach Urban Meyer figured yesterday was the right time to stop and show appreciation for the seniors who played through a lot of losing to experience the Falcons’ first winning season since 1994, clinched with a 17-0 win over Ohio Saturday.
“I think this is a great win for a group of seniors and a bunch of assistant coaches,” he said. “When you look at the seniors playing the best football of their career, they all rated winning efforts.” Meyer’s staff uses a grading system to rate each position in games.
Meyer singled out senior defensive backs Karl Rose, Ryan Wingrove, Sergio Lund and Chad Long as some of the team’s best performers. The Mid-American Conference thought highly of Rose, too, naming him the East Division Player of the Week for his two interceptions and five tackles against Ohio.
Brandon Hicks and Chris Glantzis, who have been anchors on the defensive line this season, were also lauded by Meyer.
“Ryan Wingrove, Brandon Hicks and Chris Glantzis, I’m not sure if we’d beat Florida State or Penn State on them, but they have been developed over three or four years and they look the way they’re supposed to look,” he said.
He said Hicks, Glantzis and Wingrove will be nominated for the All-MAC team.
Tying the defense together for the Falcons is defensive coordinator Tim Beckman. Meyer said he wrestled with the idea of keeping Beckman, one of the few holdovers from former coach Gary Blackney’s staff, but has been very happy with his decision.
“The decision to keep Tim Beckman as defensive coordinator is one of the best things I’ve done,” he said. “Here comes a new coach in, and obviously loyalty in this program, that was a concern of mine. But I made a million calls and did a lot of homework, that was a big decision.”
The BG defense has been ranked in the national top 10 against the run all season.
BG had one of its two most dominating performances of the season against Ohio. It notched its second shutout, to go with the 35-0 win over Buffalo in Sept. BG never allowed a Ohio drive to go over 10 plays the entire game. On offense, BG did not go three-and-out once during the game.
Northwestern
The Falcons will have a big hill to climb for win number seven Saturday as they travel to Chicagoland to take on Northwestern at 11 a.m. Central Time. The game was scheduled as a make-up for the canceled game against South Carolina Sept. 15.
The Wildcats were ranked as high as 20th early this season. The season has not been as kind in the second half, however. After sprinting to a 4-1 start, the Wildcats have been hammered by a woeful four-game losing streak that includes 115 points surrendered in the last two weeks, a 56-21 loss to Indiana on Nov. 3 and a 59-16 loss to Iowa Saturday. Saturday’s loss was the worst for Northwestern since 1997.
Despite the recent hardships, Northwestern is still in the hunt for bowl eligibility. At 4-5, it needs wins over BG and Illinois in its season finale to get the six necessary victories to be eligible.
“There was mixed emotions when I found out we were playing Northwestern,” Meyer said. “We found out we were playing them when they were in the top 20 in the country and Rose Bowl favorites. But personally, I have so much respect for programs that do things the right way. You know Northwestern is going to graduate their players.”
