Bowling Green football’s head man, Eddie George, has officially finalized his staff, bringing along multiple familiar faces from his four seasons in Nashville.
Dewayne Alexander will serve as assistant head coach and a tight ends coach for the Falcons. Alexander was previously at Sewanee University as an offensive line and tight ends coach. He also spent time as the Tennessee Tech head coach from 2018-2023.
As previously reported by The Athletic’s Michael Silver, Brandon Fisher, son of George’s former NFL coach Jeff Fisher, will be joining Bowling Green as defensive coordinator for the 2025 season.
In 2024, Fisher’s defense ranked top-50 in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) in points per game and 36th overall in yards per game.
Prior to Tennessee State, Fisher was a defensive analyst at Auburn University for the 2020 season, serving as the defensive coordinator for the 2021 Citrus Bowl, where the Tigers fell to Northwestern, 35-19.
Fisher has been in coaching since 2010, getting his start as an offensive assistant for the Tennessee Titans.
According to BGSU Athletics, the other names following George up from Tennessee State are defensive backs coach Richard McNutt, associate head coach and linebackers coach Joe Bowden, offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach Travis Partridge, defensive line coach Clyde Simmons and running backs coach Josh Crawford.
McNutt, a former Ohio State defensive back, has been on George’s staff for two seasons and has spent a multitude of years in not only the state of Ohio but the Mid-American Conference as well.
Out of college, he spent two seasons as a student assistant with Ohio State, specializing in working with cornerbacks and special teams. In 2007, he first broke into the MAC with Toledo before moving on to the Cleveland Browns, working with the defensive backs and helping them finish second in the NFL in interceptions.
From there, he spent two seasons with Kent State, helping the Golden Flashes finish 10th in total defense and 17th in pass efficiency defense.
He spent two more seasons in the MAC on Dave Doeren’s staff at Northern Illinois before following him to North Carolina State before spending time under Bo Pelini at Youngstown State.
Bowden, who has been George’s right-hand man since his hiring in the spring of 2021, coached the linebackers and served as the associate head coach.
A former teammate of George’s with the Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans, Bowden played in the NFL for nine seasons after a standout career at the University of Oklahoma. In 1991, he was named an All-American and the Big Eight Defensive Player of the Year.
He began coaching with NFL Europe before getting into the NFL with the Washington Redskins as a defensive and special teams intern.
Prior to Tennessee State, he served as the defensive coordinator for Missouri Baptist University, where he produced five all-Mid-States Football Association players and a two-time all-conference safety.
Partridge is moving up after just one season with the Tigers. He was hired in the spring of 2024 by George after spending two seasons coaching quarterbacks at the University of Tennessee at Martin.
He played quarterback at Missouri Western State from 2009-13 under his father, Jerry Partridge, who is now the assistant head coach at UT-Martin. In his career, he passed for 6,609 yards, 68 touchdowns and 32 interceptions. He ran for another 1,501 yards and 36 more touchdowns.
At UT-Martin, he coached All-Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) quarterback Dresser Winn, who threw for 2,928 yards and 18 touchdowns in 2022.
Simmons, a 15-year NFL veteran and two-time first-team All-Pro, has been a member of George’s staff since May, 2021.
He’s been in coaching since 2008 and has helped coach players like Robert Quinn, Aaron Donald and Myles Garrett.
With the St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams, Quinn set a single-season franchise record with 19 sacks under Simmons’ tutelage, while Donald won the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year award in 2014 and later broke Quinn’s sack record with 20.5 in 2018.
Bruce Johnson will join the staff, filling the wide receivers coach position. Johnson has previous experience coaching in the Big Ten and SEC, with his most recent job being the wide receivers coach at Central Connecticut State.
George has retained the following four coaches: Alex Bayer as the special teams coordinator (previously the tight ends coach), Derrick Johnson for defensive backs, Greg Nosal for offensive line, and Brian White for senior analyst and running backs.
With the staff now officially complete, George and company can focus solely on spring practice and recruiting for the upcoming 2025 season.
