The 2014 football schedule

[BGSU33]

I hope I live to see a MAC team take Osu's head off and bring it back on a platter to Oxford, Athens, Toledo, Akron, Kent or better yet Bowling Green!

BG, OU and UT have all come close to doing it in recent years. BG lost 24-17 in 2003. I remember the TD pass that Craig Jarrett dropped in the end zone. On the next play we threw an INT and got no points on that drive. Killer. Also, had we been awarded that fumble at the end, we'd have had the ball at the 50 with more time for that final drive. We outgained OSU for the game and had more first downs, we just couldn't close the deal. In 2008, OU led OSU 14-12 in the fourth quarter before the Bobcats suffered a costly fumbled punt deep in their own end. In 2011, UT really looked like they were going to do it. The Rockets led 22-21 at the end of the third quarter, then trailing 27-22 with about a minute to go from the OSU 20 and a fresh set of downs, UT turned it over on downs. I was actually surprised the Rockets lost it, I thought they were going to pull it off.

[zete]

...and the 2000 Miami game with Mike Bath calling the signals. With OSU up 20-10 in the second half, the RedHawks scored a TD but their kicker missed the PAT. A while later the same kid missed a short field goal which would have knotted the game at 20. If it weren't for his miscues, Miami may have used the momentum to their advantage. Ohio St went on to win 27-16 I believe.

[Falcon137]

New coach, replacing a ton on defense, 2 Big10 teams, tough game to open. Wouldn't be surprised to see a 1-3 start.

[Schadenfreude]

Wisconsin will be tough. I'd like to think we could take it to the wire with Indiana this time. And, let's be honest; while I think we will win, Western Kentucky does have a chance.

[BGSUFanatic7]

As far as defense, this is where the extra redshirt years and depth that Clawson created really benefit us. I see zero reason for this defense to not be the best in the conference next season. And returning two defensive assistants gives us some added continuity, and it also tells me that we are at least going to keep a good amount of defensive concepts from previous years. The uptempo offense may lead the defense to be out on the field more. And the rest that this bunch has received over the years through our solid time of possession has definitely contributed to our success. But our talent, experience and depth on the defensive side of the ball is BY FAR levels above any other defense in the MAC.

Coming into next season, this is a breakdown of the amount of years that most of the guys have been in the program:

4 YEARS (will be the start of their 5th year) - Ryland Ward, Jude Adjei-Barimah, Charlie Walker, Bryan Thomas, DJ Lynch, Gabe Martin, Justin Ford, Kendall Montgomery

3 YEARS - Brain Sutton, Zach Colvin, Bryan Baird, Taylor Royster

2 YEARS - Will Watson

1 YEAR - Isaiah Gourdine, Paul Senn

*** ALSO, Darrell Hunter will return from injury and will most likely be our top CB. He started 7 games as a true freshman and started every game as a sophomore.

Notable guys that could make an impact:
- Terrance Bush - DL (6'2'' - 229 lbs), will be a RSo. Was very good on special teams, but also made several nice plays on defense. Some in meaningful minutes as well. I believe he had a sack in the MAC championship game. Finished the season with 12 tackles while appearing in 11 games. Also had 0.5 of a sack, 2 pass breakups and 2 pass deflections, 1 QB hurry.

- Terrell Jackson - DL (6'3'' - 275 lbs). Was originally a 3-star recruit that transferred from Pittsburgh and will have three years of eligibility with BG.

- Jhalil Croley - DL (6'2'' - 253 lbs). Came in as a linebacker and was immediately changed to defensive end. He carries over some added speed to the position. He played more and more special teams as the season went on. This will be his redshirt sophomore season. I don't think he'll have a huge impact, but he could be a good spell guy, sort of like Royster was this year. Maybe he'll find some snaps after the departure of Ronnie Goble.

- We also have guys like Izaah Lunsford, Mike Minns, Victor Osbourne and Alphonso Mack. Although these guys have either seen extremely limited action (Lunsford, Minns) or been put primarily on special teams (Mack, Osbourne), all of them have been in the program for at least two years, and they can add depth.

Overall, I really like that our three projected linebackers, rover (depending on the system) will be entering their 5th season in the program in Lynch, Martin and Ford. I think our defensive line, despite losing the interior strength in Ouellet and Campbell, will be solid. We have a lot of returning guys at the position and even a few returning starters. I also like that the same coach will be back to coach this group. Defensive backs obviously take a huge hit in losing BooBoo, Truss and Foster, but we still return Ward and get back Hunter. Coach Monroe has been fabulous at this position, and I think the talent is still definitely there. True freshman hardly played under Clawson, and Will Watson has been solid in his playing time. He played extremely well when Truss went down in the bowl game.

In my opinion, this will still be the top defensive unit in the MAC.

[Flipper]

Minns and Lunsford both played their way up the depth chart....Minns finished the year on the two deep and Lunsford made it to the third team by the time the EMU game came around. Lunsford and Baird looked pretty good in limited action and I think both are going to be quality depth guys next year.

Gourdine is a freak...he's going to have an impact next year and I would look out for James Sanford and Omar Pierre Louis next year as well

[Falcon137]

We'll see. Western isn't going to be a cake walk, on the road. I think the defense will be fine by the time MAC play rolls around. But, a lot depends on the health of Gabe Martin.

After watching IU manhandle was this year, I'm not exactly ready to chalk up a W.

[MacGuy]

To me, BG getting to the "next level" is winning the MAC Championship and the bowl game. Ending the season with a pair of "titles" cements your stature as the best. For years we racked up wins over BCS teams and even won a few bowls, but we couldn't win the MAC and a bowl. BG hasn't done that since 1992. This upcoming year will make 22 seasons since we last did it, and despite how good of a season we had this year, it ended sort of sour by failing to close it out with a bowl win. That is something next year's team could do.

I don't think there is a "next level" if you're talking about moving up to another league. MAC schools will be permanently demoted as the Power 5 conferences flex their muscles and force the NCAA to do their bidding.

[Schadenfreude]

To me, BG getting to the "next level" is winning the MAC Championship and the bowl game. Ending the season with a pair of "titles" cements your stature as the best. For years we racked up wins over BCS teams and even won a few bowls, but we couldn't win the MAC and a bowl. BG hasn't done that since 1992. This upcoming year will make 22 seasons since we last did it, and despite how good of a season we had this year, it ended sort of sour by failing to close it out with a bowl win. That is something next year's team could do.

I don't think there is a "next level" if you're talking about moving up to another league. MAC schools will be permanently demoted as the Power 5 conferences flex their muscles and force the NCAA to do their bidding.

I don't think that's what he's talking about. We have a great deal of room for growth. For me, the "next level" is beating programs like Pitt once in a while, then routinely. We can do that in the MAC.

[mscarn]

The experience of going to a bowl is arguably more important than the outcome. It's still a recruiting tool, still a reward for the players and still helpful to the growth of the program with the allotment of 15 extra practices.

If we had pulled out the Pitt game the reaction would have still paled in comparison to the euphoria of beating NIU and winning the league. If Ball State beats Akransas State in the Godaddy.com Bowl not a single person associated with their program would say they had a better season than Bowling Green. NIU still trots out the novelty of going to the Orange Bowl as something to brag about without even bothering to mention the outcome.

Of course winning would be nice but it would be just that. Something nice, not something monumental.

[BGSU33]

To me, BG getting to the "next level" is winning the MAC Championship and the bowl game. Ending the season with a pair of "titles" cements your stature as the best. For years we racked up wins over BCS teams and even won a few bowls, but we couldn't win the MAC and a bowl. BG hasn't done that since 1992. This upcoming year will make 22 seasons since we last did it, and despite how good of a season we had this year, it ended sort of sour by failing to close it out with a bowl win. That is something next year's team could do.

I don't think there is a "next level" if you're talking about moving up to another league. MAC schools will be permanently demoted as the Power 5 conferences flex their muscles and force the NCAA to do their bidding.

No, I wasn't talking about moving to another conference at all. I was talking about becoming and maintaining ourselves as "THE" team/program in the MAC. Meaning, consistently competing for and winning the MAC Championship, getting to and winning our bowl games, and getting some wins over a BCS team every year or so. BG has done all of these things (win a MAC Championship, win a bowl game, win against a BCS team) but it's usually one or two of those three in a given year. We went through phases in 1991 and 1992 of MAC Championships (and bowls wins), then phases in 2003 and 2004 of winning bowl games, and from around 2003 thru 2008 of winning games against BCS teams. The "next step" for BG IMO would be to combine those benchmarks in one season - such as get a win over one of the BCS teams we usually play each year while also claiming he MAC Championship and winning our bowl game. Those are all goals we have each year and ones we can obtain and we nearly did it this year. A season like that would have you likely going anywhere from 9-5 to 13-1 and those would all be the kind of seasons I would take all the time. This past season, we were 7 points away from a dream season of 13-1. If we would have won those three games we lost by 7 points combined, we'd have gone 13-1 with a MAC Championship, a win over a ranked team (NIU) and a win over a BCS team from the SEC (Mississippi State) while also having had a win in the bowl and an undefeated MAC record including a win over Toledo. Now that would have been a dream season.