BGSU football is 1-1 through the first two weeks of the season, following a win over Lafayette and a loss on the road to Cincinnati. With the season being young, there are still many unanswered questions.
Here are some of the questions that were sent in for this week’s Falcon Media Sports Network mailbag:
Q (James Lautzenheiser — Convoy, Ohio): What happened on the 4th & 2 in the UC Red Zone? The OL were in four-point stances, like the play was tush push or we needed six inches. The run was stuffed, and we walked away with 0 points. Aside from the illegal substitution penalty on third-and-2 from the UC two-yard line (erased opportunity for a touchdown before settling for the field goal), the fourth-down stallout was the most frustrating element of the offense.
A (Sean Connelly): I think on the fourth-and-2, the play call was a fullback dive. A classic play to get two to three yards and nothing more. Initially, the play did look like a quarterback sneak or a tush push look like a play. With it being fourth-and-2, a fullback dive did make more sense than a quarterback sneak because it was longer than shown on TV. With that said, Cincinnati’s defense just had everything covered up the middle and wasn’t allowing anything up the middle. I’m sure the film has been watched, and if in that scenario again, maybe expect a similar look and have [Drew] Pyne fake the handoff and take it himself for at least the first down. I think in that situation, it was just too early to take that kind of chance as the score was only 14-0, and it was a long fourth-and-3 with where the ball was placed. Similar to something we saw last year at around midfield at Penn State. The question after the game was why did you go for it? Scot Loeffler had the offense out on the field and then called a timeout. After the timeout, Loeffler still elected to go for it around midfield and didn’t get it. Penn State then got the ball and kicked a field goal to tie the game at 17 with a couple minutes to go before half.
Q (Nick — Marysville, Ohio): We’re two weeks in now, and several notable transfers have yet to play (Boardingham, Acheampong). Is this a result of previous injuries, or are they simply not cracking the depth chart? Also, what happened to Mateo Sudipo? It looked like he was going to be the starting safety along with Lorfils, and now he’s not even on the roster.
A (Tyler Kavalecz): Thanks for the question, Nick. As I mentioned in last week’s mailbag, tight end Arlis Boardingham is still recovering and working his way back from a shoulder injury suffered last season at Florida, which required surgery in February. However, I don’t have much of an answer on defensive end Collins Acheampong. He came to BGSU as one of the top transfers, but has not recorded any statistics in the first two games. Similarly to Acheampong, all we currently know about safety Mateo Sudipo, who was also one of the highly-touted transfers this offseason, has been taken off the roster. There has been no explanation up to this point.
Q (Ben Shanahan — Lindenhurst, Illinois): If you could eat only one food for the rest of your life, and it had to be something available at any BG Athletics home stadium, what would it be?
A (Connelly): I think it’d be foolish not to say Polleye’s when attending a BG athletics event. With no research behind this, but what other college athletic event serves stuffed breadsticks?
To submit questions for next week’s mailbag, fill out the short form here. Questions will be accepted until midnight on Monday.
