Like everybody else, the Bowling Green football team is attempting to regroup after the fallout from last week’s terrorist attacks and move on.
“Last week was a week of extreme changes of emotion,” head coach Urban Meyer said. “My hat’s off to our team, though. We had our best week of preparation.”
When the attacks initially happened, it appeared the Falcons would go ahead with the planned trip to South Carolina despite the uncertainty about the nation’s airline situation. However, as the week progressed and fewer questions were answered to the satisfaction of Meyer and Athletic Director Paul Krebs, the decision was made to cancel the trip. In the end, all Division I schools canceled their games.
“It was a big comfort that we didn’t travel this weekend,” Meyer said. “But there was a lot of competitiveness. Some of our kids did want to go down there and play that game.”
The Falcons did lose out on a chance to measure themselves against a ranked opponent in South Carolina, but according to Meyer, they were able to shift gears to the Saturday’s game against Temple quickly.
“The minute the announcement was made, we started preparing for Temple,” he said.
Despite the fact that Temple went a meager 4-7 last year, it still defeated the Falcons 31-14 in Philadelphia.
“BG did not play well against Temple last year,” Meyer said. “We looked at a lot of tape of that game. They have a lot of the same offensive and defensive schemes as they did last year.”
On the injury front, the layoff did help the Falcons. Quarterback Andy Sahm and running back Godfrey Lewis, who were questionable for South Carolina, could both be ready to go against Temple.
“Godfrey is clear, but we want to do this right,” Meyer said of the senior, who injured his led in training camp. He said he does not want to rush Lewis back at the risk of re-injuring him. Tight end Jason Van Dam is day-to-day. The lone piece of significant bad news was the injury to Jason Hart. The offensive lineman blew out his knee against Missouri, and had surgery which Meyer described as “potentially career-threatening.”
Josh Harris Like most of his teammates, quarterback Josh Harris is trying to take the schedule disruption is stride. He said he first heard of the attacks while eating breakfast.
“It didn’t really hit me until later on when I saw footage of the plane flying into the building,” he said.
However, he said the team tried to make it business as usual as much as they could. They approached last week just like they were preparing for a game, he said.
Harris said he was disappointed the team did not get a chance to test themselves against South Carolina, but the tests do not stop, or get much easier.
“We get tested every week,” he said. “It was disappointing to not face South Carolina, but nobody’s going to lay down.”
Harris said he is looking forward to a rematch with Temple.
“We have a completely different attitude from last year,” he said. “We will be fired up, looking for a little redemption.”
