When Bowling Green football’s team plane touches down on the tarmac at Mobile Regional Airport, it will be the first time that many Falcons have stepped foot into the state of Alabama.
On Dec. 26, BG will take on Arkansas State in the 68 Ventures Bowl. For most, it’s an opportunity to play in a game outside the harsh December conditions of Bowling Green, Ohio, and finish the season with a win.
For two players, it’s a return to the place they once called home.
After spending two seasons at Tennessee Tech, junior halfback Justin Pegues transferred to Bowling Green in May of 2024. He had 451 yards and three rushing touchdowns on 105 carries and added 230 receiving yards and three more touchdowns on 30 catches in his career at Tennessee Tech.
But before he was a Falcon or a Golden Eagle, he was a Thompson Warrior.
Born in Birmingham and raised in Alabaster, a southern suburb of Birmingham, Pegues turned to football to stay on the right path of life.
“I feel like growing up, football was just the way to escape and stay out of trouble. I feel like that’s what a lot of people don’t understand about Birmingham and Alabama, period, is you go one way, or you go the other way, and the other way is not really a good way to go,” he said. “That’s the hard part about coming from Alabama and being from Alabama.”
At Thompson High, Pegues helped lead the Warriors to three straight AHSAA Class 7A state championships before heading to Cookville, Tenn., to play for Tennessee Tech.
In his first season in Orange and Brown, he’s already playing deeper into the year than ever before.
“To even still be playing in December is a blessing for me because the last two years, I haven’t really been on the winning side of things and been able to play further than November. It also being the last game of the season and it being in my home state is like a dream come true,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to play a college game in my home state, and this will be the first time.”
Despite the distance, Pegues says that he’ll still have plenty of his own personal fan club in attendance, expecting about 10-12 of his friends and family members to be in attendance.
Senior defensive back Jacorey Benjamin also joined Bowling Green through the portal, coming in from Texas Southern in December of 2023.
Benjamin was born in Mobile. He spent the first years of his life living in the city, playing football at Crawford-Murphy Park on South Ann Street.
That was until August of 2005 when Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast region of the United States.
With not much more than the clothes on their backs, Benjamin, his mother, and his two brothers fled Mobile, seeking asylum in Houston, Texas.
“We went down there with nothing, so we had to sacrifice a lot. We left everything back in Alabama because it was flooded,” he said. “So we really just went down there with a new lifestyle. My mom had to work from scratch, and she did it. We made it happen. She made it happen.”
Benjamin credits the hard times brought on his family by Hurricane Katrina for shaping him into the man he is today.
“Just seeing my mama used to not coming home and having nothing to eat, to coming home now and having dinner on the table. My mom knew this was my dream, so she was just like, ‘Keep pushing, son. Keep pushing; you’re almost there,” he said. “Just yesterday, my mom called me crying, just saying that she’s so happy and proud of me and just keep on going. Don’t let nothing get in my way; don’t let nothing stop me.”
A return to Azalea City means more to Benjamin than just playing in the place where he spent the first years of his life.
It means many of his family members will get to see him play football live for the first time.
“This is a surreal moment for me because, to be honest, my dad has never seen me play in person, and my whole family really because I’ve been playing football in Texas,” he said. “When I found out the bowl game was in Mobile, it was like a surreal moment for me, just because my daddy can see me play and the rest of my family that haven’t seen me play. The 80-plus family members that I’ve got coming to the game on (Dec. 26) is going to be crazy.”
Among those more than 80 family members in attendance will be Benjamin’s grandmother, who is dealing with illness.
“My grandma never got to see me; she’s sick right now. I don’t know how many days or years she’s got,” he said. “I’m really happy to go back home and see her because I haven’t seen her in three years since I’ve been playing college ball.”
For Benjamin, who is in his final year of eligibility, he feels capping off his college career in the very same place his football journey started is a full-circle moment.
For two different men from two different backgrounds and two different parts of the state, they each want the end result to be the same: another one in the win column.
Pegues says he wants the win to send the more-than-30 seniors out on top.
“I want to get this W for the guys that built this program,” he said. “Just for me, I just want to win and be a part of something bigger.”
For Benjamin, who fits into that category of the 30 seniors, he just wants to win.
“To be honest, this is a great way out. I just want to win,” he said. “There don’t gotta be a pick or nothing. I’m playing in front of my family.”
Kickoff from Hancock Whitney Stadium is set for 9 p.m. on Dec. 26.
