It doesn’t take much to knock the BG football team out of the Mid-American Conference East Division race.
If either Temple or Ohio wins this weekend – even if BG wins the rest of their games and finish 6-2 in the MAC – BG will be out of the race and hopes of an automatic bowl bid will be dashed.
But if BG does win out by beating Akron and Toledo the next two Fridays, they will still be 7-5 overall, making them bowl eligible for the third straight season.
‘When we were sitting at 3-4 (after beating Ball State), we said, ‘One of our goals is to have a winning season and go to a bowl,” said first-year coach Dave Clawson. ‘At that point we said, ‘If our goal is to be 7-5, we first have to be 4-5 and 5-5.’ And now our goal is to be 6-5.’
However, even at 7-5, BG may only have the fourth or fifth best record in the MAC. In a typical year, that would mean the Falcons would have a slim chance of earning a bowl bid, but this team is different than a typical 7-5 team.
With a high-powered offense led by seniors Tyler Sheehan and Freddie Barnes – who have both gained some national prominence this season – BG has more marketability than some other MAC teams.
‘Right now the bowls are about TV, ratings and selling tickets,’ Clawson said. ‘One thing you can say about us is offensively we’re fun to watch. We throw the ball as well as almost anybody in the country.’
Because of that, Barnes finds himself leading the nation in receptions (117) and second in the nation in receiving yards (1,285) and receiving touchdowns (12), while Sheehan is second in passing yards (3,189).
And if those two aren’t enough, Clawson said because his team has played in a close game almost every week this season (chart on pg. 5) there are plenty of variables for a bowl committee to consider.
‘The one thing we can guarantee them, almost, is the game will go into the fourth quarter, and it will be exciting,’ Clawson said.
BG has engineered two come from behind, fourth quarter victories this season (36-35 against Kent State and 30-29 against Buffalo) and have had to battle through the fourth quarter to secure several other wins this season.
But Barnes thinks the Falcons can earn a bid based on their strength of schedule, having played four of the top MAC teams as well as Boise State, Missouri and Troy during the nonconference schedule.
‘We can just sell them (a bowl committee) by winning the next two games,’ Barnes said. ‘We played some tough competition our first four games and within the MAC. If we get these next two games, I’m sure that they’ll want us in one of their bowls.’
The team took two steps closer to that goal against Miami Thursday by opening up their run game and playing strong defense.
‘We have a good shot,’ said senior running back Chris Bullock. ‘If we can get the run game open to open up our powerful passing game ‘hellip; then I think we can be really successful.’
The Falcons only allowed the RedHawks to gain 295 total yards Thursday during their fourth win in the past five games.
‘We’re a pretty hot team right now. We’re on a pretty good streak of winning,’ said senior quarterback Tyler Sheehan. ‘One of the most impressive things the past couple games is how our defense has stepped up.’
