The dust has settled around Scot Loeffler’s move to the NFL, and with Bowling Green conducting a nationwide search on the next head coach of BGSU football, here’s an opinionated list of who they should be looking at.
Mike Jacobs (Mercer HC)
Mike Jacobs was the first name to appear in this situation, popping up just a few hours after news broke of Loeffler’s departure. Jacobs, a native of nearby Maumee, has been in the coaching ranks since the early 2000s, working his way from an offensive line coach to a head coach.
Jacobs has been a head coach since 2016, getting his start with Notre Dame College (the one in Euclid, Ohio). He’s compiled an 85-20 record since his start, at other stops such as Lenior-Rhyne, and Mercer, where he just finished up his first season.
Hiring Jacobs would likely bring in an entire new staff, headlined at the defensive coordinator spot by former Bowling Green football captain, Jahmal Brown, who has followed Jacobs since Notre Dame.
Steve Morrison (BGSU OLBs)
According to a former player, Morrison should/would be the top choice for an internal hire.
Brought in by Loeffler in the spring of 2019, Morrison has spent time coaching linebackers (specifically inside linebackers) and was the associate head coach from 2019-22. He has 25 years of coaching experience and has been at the college level since 2002.
Hiring Morrison likely means the staff stays intact, and the players have a higher chance of sticking around due to the familiarity.
Brian Ward (Arizona State DC)
A familiar name to most who have been following Bowling Green football for 10 years-plus, Ward has bounced around the college football world since his time in Northwest Ohio ended following the 2015 season.
After following Dino Babers to Syracuse, Ward has coached at Nevada, Washington State, and now Arizona State. He’s been a defensive coordinator at the Division I rank since he was with Drake in 2011.
However, outside of the 2015 GoDaddy Bowl, Ward hasn’t been a head coach at any level of football since 2009, when he left his post at NAIA McPherson College to take the defensive backs job at North Dakota State.
Geoff Dartt (Mount Union HC)
For Dartt, who has been the head coach of the DIII powerhouse Mount Union since 2020, he’s been nothing but a winner. In his five seasons, he’s lost four games.
The Port Clinton native played offensive line for the Purple Raiders from 2005-07 before getting into coaching at Wheaton College, a private school in Illinois, in 2008. He worked his way up from offensive line coach to offensive coordinator before being hired as the head coach after his predecessor, who will be brought up down the line, departed.
Dartt comes from one of the most legendary coaching trees in football, stemming from the Kehres family. The patriarch, Larry, holds the record for the highest winning percentage in college football history – 92.9%.
Now, two large issues come to mind when discussing Dartt: all four of his losses have come in the playoffs, with two in the Stagg Bowl, which is the Division III national championship game.
Also, according to those with boots on the ground in Alliance, Dartt has a certain air around him that is less-than-enjoyable.
Vince Kehres (Toledo DC)
Kehres was the one who Dartt replaced at Mount when Kehres was hired to be Jason Candle’s defensive coordinator at Toledo in 2020.
As with all Mount Union head coaches, Kehres was a winner at the helm of the Purple Raiders, leading the way to a 95-6 record, and winning two national championships in his time.
In his time with Toledo, the Rockets have finished third or better in the conference in scoring defense for four of five years.
Kehres also has ties to Northwest Ohio, outside of the obvious coaching in Toledo. His father, Larry, spent time as a graduate assistant in Bowling Green some 50 years ago.
Matt Johnson (SDSU QB)
This one is just my name to toss into the ring.
Johnson, one of the best quarterbacks to step foot onto BGSU’s campus, has been around the coaching world, getting his start as an offensive quality coach with Dino Babers’ Syracuse team in 2017.
Since then, the former all-MAC first-teamer followed former BGSU assistant Sean Lewis around from Kent State, now to San Diego State, where Johnson now coaches quarterbacks.
He spent 2023 as the Golden Flashes’ offensive coordinator, where they averaged a conference-low 14.7 points per game.
His fault? Not necessarily – Kent State is in one of the largest rebuilds in the country.
Bowling Green still has multiple young quarterbacks who expected a quarterback guru to train them, and in this instance, they get to learn from a former MAC MVP and Offensive Player of the Year.
