The Bowling Green football team enters the second week of the college football season 1-0 after defeating Fordham 41-17 at Doyt L. Perry Stadium on Thursday night.
BGSU head coach Scot Loeffler, senior quarterback Connor Bazelak and junior inside linebacker Joseph Sipp Jr. were all made available to the media in the team’s weekly press conference on Monday afternoon.
Here are the major takeaways from the media availability:
Loeffler was pleased with the performance but was not satisfied, explaining he knows they have some things to clean up.
“There’s some things that we did well, and there are some areas in our play that need to improve over these next few weeks to put ourselves in a position to do the things that we wanna do,” he said at the press conference. “So, generally, I’m happy about how we played, but, just like I said, there’s some things that we definitely need to improve upon to make a run at this thing.”
This week’s opponent for BGSU is a Penn State team that Loeffler has the utmost praise for and acknowledges the tough challenge that lies ahead.
“I think [Penn State head coach James Franklin] and his staff have done an unbelievable job. You look at their talent, and it’s as good as any Penn State team I’ve seen in a long time,” he said. “They don’t have too many holes at all, if any. They’re really well coached, super talented and they’ll make a run, in my opinion, for the BIG 10 championship.”
How does Loeffler prepare the team for a game and environment they will face at Happy Valley?
He states the preparation stays the same on a week-to-week basis.
“We don’t approach these big games any differently than we would a MAC game. We really don’t,” Loeffler said. “I think it’s the consistency with our preparation and how we do business. I think our kids understand our process.”
Sipp believes the experience they had in recent years, specifically last season against Michigan, will help them gear up for this week’s battle against the Nittany Lions.
“It helps us a tremendous amount because now that we have the experience of playing at Michigan, we don’t get too rattled going into a stadium like Penn State,” he said. “I think our team is used to it, so we’ll be alright.”
Bazelak preaches much of the same when it comes to facing a high-level opponent like Penn State.
“I think, obviously, last year, our team showed that we can go into a crowd of 100,000 and play really well,” Bazelak said. “It’s gonna be loud, obviously, and you just gotta figure out a way to manage that. We showed last year that we could do that against Michigan, and expecting it’ll be no different this week.”
For Bazelak, this game may have a bigger chip on his shoulder than the rest of the team. Tom Allen, Penn State’s defensive coordinator, was the head coach at Indiana when Bazelak played there in 2022.
Bazelak has nothing but respect for coach Allen and is looking forward to crossing paths once again.
“It’ll be great seeing him; we had a great relationship when I was there, at Indiana, and obviously, he’s moved on to Penn State,” he said. “Luckily, I was able to practice against his defense for a year at Indiana.”
Loeffler was happy with Bazelak’s performance on Thursday and this development while at Bowling Green.
“I thought fundamentally last year, there were still things to change with him and we’ve changed it with him. On Thursday night, he looked like a big-time quarterback,” Loeffler said. “He was on rhythm the entire game. There was zero indecisiveness, his body position was awesome in every aspect of the word and he was accurate. I thought he made great decisions.”
When Bowling Green walked into the Big House against Michigan a year ago, they intercepted the 10th overall pick in this past year’s draft, JJ McCarthy, three times, the most of any team he faced in his collegiate career.
So, how does Loeffler expect to match that?
“You gotta be able to create a couple of turnovers early, create some momentum swings, hit a couple of plays that you’re not supposed to hit and most importantly, the offense and the special teams taking care of the ball,” Loeffler said. “We’ve gotta find a way to either punch the ball out, get a strip sack from behind or force an interception, all of which are very difficult versus this team.”
All three results would give the Orange and Brown a chance at winning the upcoming game, and that’s all Loeffler wants.
“Give yourself a chance in that type of environment; the turnover war, like anything else, like any other game, is critical,” Loeffler said. “But really, whenever you’re going in and you’re such an underdog, you gotta be able to create some turnovers and create some momentum swings very early in that football game.”
Sipp says that all the defense emphasizes in practice is attacking the ball.
“We emphasize that all week in practice, to punch out the ball, go for the ball. We’re just a defense that really emphasizes attacking the ball,” Sipp said. “So, when game day comes, when we see the ball with a little bit of space in it, we’re gonna attack it. So, that’s a thing we work on a lot in practice, and if you do it in practice, it should carry on into the game.”
Loeffler and the Falcons know the kind of test they have in front of them and know flinching first can only set you back. Gear up, Falcon fans; we are heading to Happy Valley.
