Now that the news has settled Scott Loeffler will be taking another job as a quarterbacks coach for the just recent Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. Many will have different opinions on his tenure and how to rank it.
With the news being announced that Eddie George will be the next head coach for the Falcons heading into next season. It means that the Scot Loeffler era in Bowling Green is now officially over.
So what’s the best way to lay everything out there?
Pros and Cons: Let’s dive right into it.
Pro #1—Loeffler inheriting a bad program and turning it into a respectable ball club:
He knew walking in the door that he would have to inherit one of the worst if not the worst, programs in FBS Division 1 for the previous three seasons.
From 2016 to 2018, the Falcons went 9-27 with only seven MAC wins during that span. Since Loeffler took over, the Falcons went 27-41 and 16-10 in MAC play.
On paper that doesn’t look too great, but he took over one of the worst programs in the country at the time. Some grace has to be awarded there.
Pro #2—Loeffler made the Toledo Rivalry alive again:
Everyone in BG knows that no matter how bad a season was. The one game that could make an unsuccessful season into a success is the Battle of I-75.
The Toledo game is and always will be the most important game on the schedule, and unfortunately, the Falcons before the Loeffler era, the Rockets had Bowling Green’s number for the previous nine seasons, dating back to 2010. 2009 was the last time the Falcons defeated the Rockets.
But when Loeffler stepped through the door? Things changed for the better.
In his first year, Loeffler defeated the Rockets 20-7. He had finally broken the nine-game losing streak at Bowling Green. The six times that they faced off, Loeffler went 3-3 against our arch-rivals.
Pro #3—Competitiveness against the Power 5:
Typically when a Power 5 school plays a team from the Group of 5, it usually means payday for whichever Group of 5 team was playing—not for Loeffler.
Loeffler made a lot of Power 5 coaches sweat a little harder, game plan a little more, and overall gave some coaches all he had, which sometimes resulted in monumental wins for the program.
In 2021, the Falcons marched up to Minnesota to take on the Golden Gophers, and they walked away with a 14-10 victory, which was easily up to that point, Loeffler’s biggest win.
Two seasons later, his next Power 5 victory would come about. On the last day of September, the Falcons would defeat Georgia Tech 38-27. Don’t let the final score fool you; Bowling Green dominated this matchup as they held the ball for over 40 minutes in the time of possession category.
In 2023, the Falcons even went up to Ann Arbor and faced the eventual National Champions, Michigan, and went into halftime only down by seven points. The final score and box score do not do this game justice, as BG fell 31-6 but intercepted a top 10 pick in the 2024 draft, J.J. McCarthy, three times.
If key players for the Falcons didn’t get injured, we could be looking at that game a whole lot differently.
Which brings us to this past year. No wins over the Power 4, but the competitiveness in the games and environments that they were tested in let the whole country know that the Falcons weren’t messing around this year.
BG walked into Happy Valley and gave Penn State all the business they could handle. Bowling Green at times looked like the superior team compared to Penn State, who finished in the semi-finals this past season. Unfortunately, the job couldn’t be finished as they fell 34-27.
Two weeks later they traveled to Aggieland to take on Texas A&M and again fell by just one score. They never held a lead in this game, unlike the Penn State game. But the Falcons only lost by one score, 26-20.
Now onto the cons of his tenure.
Con #1—Never made a MAC championship:
Winning a conference is one of the hardest things to do in college football, but the Falcons didn’t even get to sniff Detroit for a MAC title until this past season.
The expectations going into this previous season were pretty high. MAC championship or bust is what the mentality seemed to be for the players and coaches.
This previous year was the closest any of his teams had gotten, as the final game of the season was a win in a scenario when they faced off against Miami, unfortunately, the Falcons could never get a grip on that game as they lost 28-12 and lost out on a chance to play for a MAC title.
There was a lot to be happy about this past season, but looking back, it was a “disappointment.” With all the talent and aspirations that this team had, to not get to Detroit was a bit underwhelming.
In the 2022 season, again it came down to the final day of the regular season, but only this time, they needed some help.
The Falcons had to beat OU and needed a Buffalo loss, and they were in the MAC title. The Falcons fell to the Bobcats 38-14, losing any chance they had.
Con #2—Head-scratching losses:
Every coach in the country goes through these kinds of losses, but they’re a con, and they still damage your reputation no matter what level.
Let’s start with the most recent head-scratcher against Old Dominion on homecoming. Other than Toledo, homecoming is another game where it is highly anticipated that you win.
This past year against Old Dominion might’ve been the worst.
Bowling Green entered this game after two phenomenal performances against Texas A&M and Penn State. Old Dominion came into this game winless as well but was still a very strong team that Bowling Green should not have taken lightly.
It was a back-and-forth affair, but Bowling Green never felt comfortable; it seemed like they just weren’t ready the entire game. The Monarchs scored with just 26 seconds left and defeated the Falcons 30-27.
The 2023 Toledo game is another head-scratcher. As mentioned in the pros, this game could have easily gone to Bowling Green, which would have given Loeffler a 4-2 record against UT. The Falcons went into halftime of this game up 28-10 on the Rockets. The final score ended 32-31 in favor of Toledo.
Three points were scored by the Falcons the entire second half, and it was just an unfortunate meltdown by Scott Loeffler and the Falcons to lose in such heartbreaking fashion against your arch rivals, and it had you leaving the stadium that night scratching your head.
In 2022, one of the worst losses in the Loeffler era came when the Falcons lost to FCS opponent Eastern Kentucky at the Doyt in seven overtimes.
No matter how good or bad you are in any season, losing to an FCS team is not a good look for any program. The Falcons were a bowl-eligible team that season, so Loeffler had a veteran squad, which made the loss even worse.
Con #3—Winless in bowl games:
Every college football fan’s favorite time of year—bowl season.
Loeffler managed to make three bowl games with BG and went winless in all of them.
Two of them were in Detroit for the Quick Lane Bowl, a 24-19 loss against New Mexico State in 2022 and a 30-24 loss against Minnesota in 2023. This past season was at the 68 Ventures Bowl in Montgomery, Alabama, in which the Falcons lost 38-31 to Arkansas State.
All have a pattern of being one-score games. Loeffler just couldn’t ever get over the hump in the postseason.
So what’s the grade?
To wrap everything up on Scot Loeffler’s tenure here at Bowling Green:
I would say a B- is the grade I would give Loeffler.
No MAC championships or even appearances for that matter do put some damage on it, but to see how far this program has come under his control was very fun and enjoyable.
But make no mistake, Loeffler made coming to Bowling Green games fun again after a few years of irrelevance in the landscape of the Mid-American Conference. Mix that with a few Power 5 wins and make the Toledo game competitive again, and I’d say it’s hard to go any lower.
If Loeffler had appeared in a MAC title game, it could’ve boosted him in the B+ to A- range. If he had won a MAC title, now we’re talking in the A to A+ range.
