Bowling Green is back on the road in week two of Midweek MACtion. 

This week, the Falcons make the trip two and a half hours east at Dix Stadium, matching up with the Kent State Golden Flashes. 

And they may be without a key cog in their offense. 

Terion Stewart left Wednesday’s game with a leg injury, and the team won’t know if he can go or not until closer to game time.  

“We’ll know more towards the end of the week if he’s going to be good for this week or not. That’ll be more of a game-time decision of what we’re going to do with him,” head coach Scot Loeffler said. “He’s a great player, there’s no question about that. Obviously, if he couldn’t play this week, we would miss him. But we got the opportunity last year to learn how to play without him, which was not fun, don’t get me wrong, but we’ll make that decision more towards the end of the week.”  

If Stewart can’t go, there’s still plenty more firepower in BG’s backfield.  

“No question about it, and they all do things different. [Ta’ron Keith] is more of the hybrid, can do it all, really involved in the pass game. We know what Terion is, and Jaison (Patterson) is kind of a mix of both. We’ve got some guys back there that are experienced, that have done some good things. We’ve just got a good backfield,” Loeffler said.  

Keith is coming off of his best game of the season against Ball State, touching the rock a total of nine times for 60 total yards and a receiving touchdown.  

Even with the great backs ready to go, the team may still have to rely more than usual on the right arm of Connor Bazelak.  

“I’m ready for whatever we need to do to win. If we need to throw 65 times, I’m ready – I did it last year in a game,” Bazelak said. ”We’ve got great running backs, that whole room is really good; JP and TK, [Jamal Johnson], PaSean (Wimberly), they’re all great, they’ll all help contribute. Terion’s a great part of our offense, breaks a lot of tackles, runs hard, huge energy guy. So, we’ll have to see.” 

On to Kent State, who have struggled lately, but seem to be finally putting some of the pieces together.  

“We all know the offense, you guys say the offense here back whenever Dino was here, when Sean was running the offense. We know that scheme – it’s difficult. It’s very hard to prepare for. I think defensively, I think they cause a lot of problems,” said Loeffler. “I think their defensive line is good, I know they’ve lost some backers in terms of injuries, but I like the backups, I like who they are. I think this is one of the better secondaries we’ve played this year. I think this secondary is excellent – they can run, they cover well, they’re aggressive. They’re a quarters organization that’ll fire zone you, man fire you, play man coverage. I like them. Just like I said, records in this league mean nothing.”  

This week also feels a little bit like déjà vu – last year BG was riding a three-game win streak into the Kent State game and got flattened, 40-6.  

But Loeffler and the team isn’t worried about last year, or even last week. They’re worried about the week ahead of them with Kent State. 

“We’re trying not to worry about the future, we’re trying not to worry about the past. Our goal is to try and be 2-0, and to try to play the best football we can in November,” Loeffler said.  

“We’re just trying to 1-0 in the MAC right now. Last week was a great start, so now we’re focused on 2-0 in the MAC. We just keep focusing on the games ahead of us, keep preparing, don’t let anything get in the way of that,” sophomore linebacker Joseph Sipp, Jr. said.  

The team is also still trying to adjust to the switch to Midweek MACtion.  

“It’s kind of crazy, we go from playing on Saturdays and now on Saturday, you’re practicing, so it’s kind of a weird transition,” Sipp said. “After the first week you get used to it, you just forget what day it is. Once you get into the groove of it, it’s not as bad as you think.”  

“I feel like it’s been, as a team, it’s been pretty smooth. It definitely helped having the bye week, I think they scheduled that pretty well knowing we’ll have a short week. The coaches did a great job of giving us some time off, and then transitioning into that new schedule – the Saturday and Sunday practices, and then obviously playing during the week,” Bazelak said. “It’s like anything, you learn how to do it.” 

The weather may also be a factor. The current forecast for Kent projects for an 80% chance of rain Wednesday night with a low of 47 degrees.  

But don’t let Bazelak know until 48 hours before kick. 

“I haven’t really looked at it yet – I try to stay away from that more than two days away from the game because it’s Ohio, you never freaking know,” he said.  

Bowling Green and Kent State square off on November 8 from Dix Stadium. Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m., and with a win, Bowling Green becomes bowl eligible for the second consecutive season.  

For more stories related to BGSU Athletics, follow Falcon Media Sports Network on X (@bg_fmsn).