The Bowling Green Falcons will head on the road to Kent State on Saturday for their second road conference game of the season.
Falcon Media Sports Network’s Sean Connelly and Aiden Brueck will have the call from Dix Stadium on Falcon Radio, streaming on bgfalconmedia.com.
Matchup History
Saturday’s game will mark the 93rd time these two squads have met, which makes Kent State Bowling Green’s most frequent opponent of all time.
Bowling Green leads the all-time series 62-24-6 with their last meeting being a year ago at the Doyt when the Falcons won 27-6.
Their last meeting at Kent State was in 2023, when the Falcons snapped their five-game losing streak to the Golden Flashes, winning 49-19.
Scouting Bowling Green
Bowling Green looks to rebound after their 27-6 loss to Central Michigan, just a week after the monumental 28-23 win over Toledo.
The biggest question when looking at Bowling Green is the quarterback situation.
Head coach Eddie George still believes that Drew Pyne is day-to-day and will be evaluated Saturday to see if he’s good to go.
“He’s still making progress,” said George. “I can’t give you an update in terms of if he’s going to go or not this week, but he’s getting closer.”
But if Lucian Anderson III gets the nod for the third straight week, it will all come down to coaching, and George still believes Anderson is a great quarterback.
“We just have to continue to coach him and be better, and we cannot put too much on his plate that he can’t handle it. But everybody has to understand and rally around that, to understand that we have a quarterback that’s young and going through growing pains, said George. “He’s going to make great plays. He’ll make some bonehead plays. But we have to support that. To understand that, hey, we’re going to support him, and we have to do our job. To put our head down, chop wood and carry water.”
On the defensive side of things, Bowling Green still ranks around the middle of the pack at seventh in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) in total defense.
A defense led by linebacker Gideon Lampron, who ranks fourth in the nation in solo tackles (40) and eighth in total tackles (70).
A defense that played lights out in the second half of the Toledo game, when they didn’t allow a single point to the Rocket offense.
Scouting Kent State
It’s safe to say that Kent State has fallen on some hard times.
Since 2020, Kent State has gone 18-43. Only five FBS schools were worse over that span.
But this year is led by first-year head coach Mark Carney, who was dealt probably the worst hand when it came to out-of-conference scheduling.
Kent State this year has faced Texas Tech, which is now a top-10 team, Florida State, which was a top-10 team at the time they played and Oklahoma, which was a top-five team when they faced off.
All three teams scored 40+ points against the Golden Flashes, with two of them scoring 60+.
So when looking at this team, it’s hard to put the numbers together because of how much they’re skewed by playing top-10 opponents, something George knows and understands.
“I’ve learned…Have always known that the MAC schools are highly competitive. You don’t look at the records, you don’t look at necessarily what their statistics are in rushing, throwing the ball. You wanna play a competitive ball game every single week,” said George. “So we’ve got to come in with the right mindset, first of all. Come in with the mindset to come to work to learn the details of our plays, to simplify things so we can so we can play fast and have confidence in what we’re doing.“
Quarterback Dru DeShields has shown light on this team, but is still very young in the process, being listed as a freshman.
DeShields has thrown for just under 1000 yards while throwing 10 touchdowns to two interceptions in six games this year.
Kent ranks 10th in total offense and dead last in total defense in the MAC. In any other conference, this would be a silver platter for any team. However, this is MAC play, and anything can happen.
George knows these numbers are skewed because of the competition played.
“It is, and that’s why I don’t look into it. I mean, when you play teams like what, Texas Tech, ranked in the top of the country, top-25 Oklahoma, Florida State. They played Toledo last week,” said George. “So you don’t necessarily look at the statistics. You look at the quality of the team. They’re well coached. They have some ball players on that side of the football, on both sides of the football.“
Falcon Four Players to Watch
RJ Garcia II (Bowling Green No. 2)
Garcia has put up some pretty good numbers thus far, having 22 receptions for 227 yards, but is still looking for that breakout game.
Myles Bradley (Bowling Green No. 23)
Myles Bradley is still coming off a huge game against Toledo two weeks ago, where he had three tackles, a sack and a forced fumble, which set up the Falcons for the go-ahead score in that game.
Cade Wolford (Kent State No. 21)
Wolford is listed as a running back for Kent, but is their leading receiver on offense as he’s put up 329 yards on 13 receptions with five touchdowns through the air. The freshman looks to continue his threat in the receiving game.
Mason Woods (Kent State No. 0)
Woods is a part of the Kent State linebacker crew that is stellar. Woods leads the team in tackles with 47 total, 21 solo and one sack as well.
