BG at South Florida

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It just doesn’t get any easier for the 25th-ranked Bowling Green football team.

After losing their first game in over a year last weekend in De Kalb to Northern Illinois, the Falcons must now make the 1100-mile jaunt to Tampa, Fla. to take on the South Florida Bulls at Raymond James Stadium.

BG had won 11 straight games heading into the showdown with the conference-unbeaten Huskies last weekend, but opened the game flat and, despite a late comeback attempt, dropped to 8-1 and 5-1 in Mid-American Conference play.

Now, the daunting task ahead of the Falcons is to face off against a team which has won 18 straight home games and dominated Northern Illinois, 37-6, in September.

“How you react to these situations is big,” BG Coach Urban Meyer said. “Our problem with this reaction is that we face a team who beat Northern Illinois, and they’re the most talented team we’ll play all year, and the most talented team we’ve played to date.”

Leading the Bulls is senior quarterback Marquel Blackwell, a player who has received much national attention this year and throughout his career at USF. Blackwell has completed 186 of 327 passes this year, for 2,065 yards and 15 touchdowns and has thrown just three interceptions.

Perhaps more impressive than Blackwell is the Bulls’ front seven on the defensive side of the ball. That unit is led by Kawika Mitchell, a Butkus Award candidate, who has 87 tackles this season, including 12 against Oklahoma.

Shurron Pierson, who was named the pre-season Independent Defensive Player of the Year by ESPN.com, has a team-high seven sacks, including four against Southern Mississippi.

Meyer spoke of how impressive the Bulls’ defense looks. “Their defensive line and linebackers are incredible,” Meyer said.

“They’re going to have a bunch of NFL players out of that front seven. … Combine that with us being stuffed last week, and there’s a lot of things we have to get ironed out.”

Meyer is also concerned about his secondary, which has been banged up and became moreso after the NIU game.

“I don’t know who will play in the secondary,” Meyer said. “It may be Terrill Mayberry, Jelani Jordan and Tim Arnold, we’re that banged up. This is not a good week to be banged up in the secondary, because they throw the ball extremely well; they’re talented and they’re fast.”

USF coach Jim Leavitt, despite being on a roll in his own right, is very cautious about Bowling Green, and very aware of how potent the Falcon offense is.

“It [the BG offense] is explosive, they can deliver the ball to a lot of different receivers,” Leavitt said. “They run the ball very well, they spread you out and open up running lanes. … They go without anybody in the backfield and run the ball with the quarterback a lot.”