Coming off of a win against Ball State, the Bowling Green football team will head to Detroit for the Marathon Mid-American Conference championship game against Northern Illinois.
Bowling Green and head coach Dino Babers have had this championship game clinched for the last few weeks but did not know if they were going to face Toledo or Illinois until last Friday when the Broncos pulled a 35-30 win over the Rockets.
This is the third year in a row that the two teams will face each other for the MAC title. General consensus would look at this to be a rivalry match for the teams, but that is not the case for Babers.
“For this to be a rubber match I have to win one,” Babers said. “It can be a rubber match for my players but I’m 0-2. I just want to play a fantastic game and get our best effort forward.”
Last year’s match-up against the Huskies during the regular season was the first under Babers and his Falcon fast offense. The second was the championship game, which was a lopsided win for the Huskies as they took the game 51-17. The Falcons were held to under 300 yards in that match-up.
The difference this year could potentially be in starting quarterback Matt Johnson. Johnson was out in last year’s championship game due to injury, but was very much present in the 2013 championship win.
Bowling Green defeated the Huskies 47-27 at Ford Field in 2013. Johnson had 393 passing yards in the game, which at the time was a career record. He also added 5 touchdowns. He was named the championship game MVP that year.
Johnson is second in the nation so far this season in passing yards. He is also ranked among the top five in the country in passer efficiency.
Johnsons 4,465 passing yards this season currently rank second most all-time in the MAC. He trails only one quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers, who played for Miami 2000-04. Roethlisberger holds the lead with 4,486 yards and Johnson will look to beat the record on Friday.
This year, it is Northern Illinois in the similar spot Bowling Green was in last year. The Huskies will be playing without their starting quarterback and they are expected to play with a two quarterback rotation with their back-ups. The Bowling Green defense has had little film to go over with these two quarterbacks.
“It’s definitely a unique situation,” said senior defensive lineman Zach Colvin. “We know Northern Illinois has great players and coaches that are going to be prepared to come in and play us. We just watch the film that we have and … game plan for their scheme and we’ll be ready for whatever they throw at us.”
The game will kick off at 8 pm on Friday at Ford Field in Detroit.
