Greg Studrawa is a Bowling Green guy.
He played here. He’s coached here. And after what he calls a brief hiatus away, he’ll coach here again.
Studrawa left the town he’s loved for Salt Lake City and the bright lights of Mountain West Conference football, but when he got there, he couldn’t get into it. He couldn’t get excited about life without the brown and orange.
So when Gregg Brandon called him to tell him he had just been named the head coach here, “Stud,” as he is affectionately referred to in these parts, hoped he may have a shot at coming back to his old job.
When Brandon asked, Studrawa jumped.
“We had to get Stud, that was huge,” Brandon said in late December at a press conference announcing the staff changes. “You talk about a Falcon, you talk about Greg Studrawa. I kind of knew that when Stud left, he might want to come back. He’s an Ohio guy, and I think he felt like he didn’t want to leave. I called Urban after I got the job and told him I want to get Stud back.” Studrawa said he has experienced a wide range of emotions since last week, since he initially left for Utah with Meyer.
“I’ve felt excitement, depression, excitement and depression,” Studrawa said on Dec. 19. “It’s been a whirlwind, really, since last week. I’ve been all over Utah, and in Dallas-Fort Worth, and all over Texas recruiting. And now, it’s over. I couldn’t be more happy.”
Studrawa started at left tackle for the Falcons in his playing days, and is a native of Fostoria, Ohio. In his new role as both the offensive line coach and offensive coordinator, he will not only be responsible for the entire offensive line, but the entire offense, as well, something he expects to be a challenge.
“When I first got here [last year], I told Gregg that I didn’t have a lot of familiarity with this offense,” Studrawa said. “I had always been at Ohio State or Cincinnati where we ran I-formations. Two years ago, I had no grasp of how to run an offense like this. Now, I’m very comfortable with this offense — I know what the best things out of our packages are, I know how to protect the quarterback. I told Gregg that two years with him has prepared me to do this two years later.”
Anyone who has seen Studrawa on the field knows another challenge he will face: Staying calm enough to keep the offense moving, even if one of his linemen miss a block.
“I have to get a grip on that, and tone myself down enough to save those tirades for when they come off the field,” Studrawa joked. “I still have to have those. … I think I’ll be able to make that transition when we have the ball, just when we don’t have the ball is when I’ll go off.”
(This story was originally published on www.bgnews.com on Thursday, Dec. 19, 2002.)
