When a team is winning, it is smooth sailing. Sins are forgiven – or not even noticed – and positives build on top of each other, giving teams confidence and making the game fun.

It is a coaching paradise. It’s a feeling that Gregg Brandon knows well from his previous two seasons as BGSU’s head coach. Two great quarterbacks (Josh Harris and Omar Jacobs), great receivers (Cole Magner, Steve Sanders, Charles Sharon) and great running backs (P.J. Pope and B.J. Lane) have led the Falcons to two bowl appearances and two bowl wins.

This year, however, the team is losing – two in a row at home for the first time in five years and a lackluster 4-4 record overall. And nobody is more aware of that than Brandon.

And this is where Brandon can cement his legacy among the Falcon faithful.

This is where he proves himself as a coach. Not when things are going right, but when things are going wrong.

And when the coach is talking about having good young players “next year” in his post game press conference after a tough loss to Akron, it is not a good sign.

To be fair, Brandon said he was talking about a perception that he should play some young players to compensate for injuries, and that he doesn’t want to sacrifice a year of eligibility for some immediate relief.

“I’m not going to mortgage the farm that way,” Brandon said.

However, when a team is down the last thing the players and fans want to hear about is “next year.” They want to hear about next week and how the Falcons are going to win a game and still be MAC champions.

I still support Brandon. I will never question his coaching acumen. He’s probably forgotten more about football than I’ll ever know.

I also believe the players still support Brandon, and they are the people who really matter anyway. They like him as a person and as a coach. They always say they were put in the right scheme, had the right game plan, but they just didn’t execute.

But being a head coach is about more than the Xs and Os. It is about preparing your team mentally and emotionally to not only expect to win, but to rebound from a loss.

Of course the players aren’t totally exempt from criticism for a lack of effort. However, when you are saying in week eight of the season that you’re not a very good tackling team, that has to fall first and foremost with the coaches. When you’re talking about how leaders need to step up on the team you have to realize that the head coach is the biggest leader, the loudest voice, and the one that people look to for guidance.

And Brandon has talked about things coming from the top on down, from the coaches to the walk-ons. But he needs to eliminate any doubt that he is there to step up and take any bullets that are coming toward his team.

The team needs a leader more than ever because their confidence is shaken, and that leader needs to be Gregg Brandon.

Right now the Falcons don’t need to draw up a great play, they need someone who they can draw inspiration from.