Urban Meyer says he has much unfinished business in Bowling Green, and will be back for another year at the helm of the Bowling Green football team.
Meyer, who has been rumored as the next head coach at nearly every coaching vacancy in the country, including Michigan State, says the disappointed 1-3 finish to the 2002 campaign is enough for him to come back and compete for a Mid-American Conference championship.
“If we would have run the table and won a MAC championship, I would have thought ‘what else is there?'” Meyer said. “But we didn’t. I’m interested in Bowling Green. I have been contacted by one school, but I’m not interested.”
That disappointing finish to the season will be fuel enough for a team who had once been mentioned as a possible Bowl Championship Series buster. At 8-0 after wins over Big XII teams Missouri and Kansas and an overtime thriller over Western Michigan, BG led the nation in scoring and was poised to run the table.
It will be a different offseason than last year, though, as the Falcons will need to somehow rebound from those three losses in their last four games. A season ago, BG was riding high from three straight wins, including a 43-42 win over Northwestern in Evanston. They carried that momentum into the offseason, and clearly into this season as well.
This year’s season took a turn for the worse after a Family Weekend win over Ball State, as the Falcons fell behind the Northern Illinois Huskies 17-0 in De Kalb, eventually losing 26-17. The loss virtually ended any hope BG had for a BG MAC championship. A subsequent 29-7 loss to South Florida in Tampa and a season-ending loss to Toledo at the Glass Bowl ended any bowl hope the Falcons may have had.
Some are disappointed with the finish, but compared to the team of two years ago, the Falcons look like gods. That team, at 2-9, ranked lower than 100 in total offense, scoring offense and rushing offense in Gary Blackney’s final year at the helm. This year, upon setting numerous schools records, the Falcons ranked eighth in the nation in total offense, third in scoring offense and 15 in rushing offense.
The team also set school records in most points in a season, touchdowns in a season, touchdowns (rushing and passing), first downs, plays and yards.
With the good comes the bad, though. BG will lose a great group of seniors, including all-time leading receiver Robert Redd and other captains Andy Sahm, Chris Haneline and Jon Mazur. Redd finishes as the BG record holder in receptions in a season with 83, most receptions in a career with 211 and receiving yards in a career with 2,726.
Quarterback Josh Harris set records in plays in a season (539), touchdowns scored or passed for (41), touchdowns scored (22), rushing touchdowns (20) and most yards of total offense in a season (3,162), while placekicker Shaun Suisham set records for most point after touchdown attempts in a season (59) and PATs made in a season (57).
The team also set two conference records and tied another, setting the records for points in a season with 490 and touchdowns (rushing and passing) with 61. They tied the record for most touchdowns, with 65, a record set by Marshall in 1997.
