Remain calm...all is well..pretty much

[Flipper]

Yeah..a couple guys are hurt...couple of guys are always hurt. Yeah the coaches are new and maybe not as smart as we like...when has there ever been a time where people here said "man...our coach is the sharpest tool in the shed". We all thought we'd be 1-1...we're 1-1. The MAC east is awful and we should improve (coaches included) over the coming weeks.

So..take a depth breath...it's OK. Unless it isn't. Even then...so what? Boss isn't going to fire you if we lose. Sig other isn't going to withhold "fun time". World won't stop spinning and the center will hold.

Remain calm...all is well...

[BGSU33]

The Good:

- We won. It wasn't pretty and we should have lost, but an ugly win looks better than any kind of loss any day.
- The uniform combination looked much better (orange/orange/white)
- Scott Miller on deep, middle of the field routes.
- Gus Schwieterman doing his best Chris Jones impersonation.
- Joe Davidson's punting.
- James Knapke in the first quarter.
- The offense in the first quarter.
- The defense in the first quarter.
- The play calling in the first quarter.

Also, something that jumped out at me these first two weeks is that I feel like I'm watching a few former Falcons out there when I watch some of the current players (some are good comparisons, others are not, you decide):

Josh Cleveland = Willie Geter
Scott Miller = Ryan Burbrink
James Knapke = Matt Schilz
Jake Suder = Kyle Burkhardt/Matt Norsic

[Schadenfreude]

The new field looks good.

[Falconfreak90]

Josh Cleveland = Willie Geter
Scott Miller = Ryan Burbrink
James Knapke = Matt Schilz
Jake Suder = Kyle Burkhardt/Matt Norsic

These are dead on, IMO.

And the new field turf is awesome.

[BGSU33]

The new field looks good.

I thought so too. The only thing I don't really like the way it looks is the south endzone with "Falcons" in it. It looks too small, like it could have been spaced apart a little bit, it looks too bunched up in the middle of the endzone with all kinds of space to the left and right. The north endzone with "Bowling Green" looks much better IMO. It fills out that endzone nicely and is what we had on the previous field in both end zones. I do like the font we used in the end zones, and I also really like that we used our font on the field numbers too. I thought that was a nice touch, same with the team and coaches box colors. I was on the fence about the lighter-darker green every five yards, but once the game starts, I don't even notice it. I guess I'd say I like it too. I also think the grandstands actually looks nicer as well. The greyish sealant they used actually looks better than the bare cement visually, and the new colored chairs offset the aluminum bleachers nicely. I also noticed a windscreen on the lower fence/bars in front of the first row, it adds a little more coloring with the orange that's on it. The fencing around the practice fields looks really nice with the brick posts and black fencing. Something like this needs to be done around the stadium now!!! The chain link fence looks terrible. Years ago it at least had ivy growing on it to help blend it in some. It just looks really cheap and bad when you get up on the stadium. The resurfaced blacktop looks better under the grandstands as well.

[bgsufalcon24]

Gotta agree with Flipper here. I mean yes, we didn't play well the first two weeks and were one play away from being lumped in with the likes of Miami, Kent, and Buffalo, but I think there's still too much opportunity for improvement in the coming months to say that we're screwed.

IMO, you guys may think I'm crazy...but if we grab victory in Athens on 10/8, it's hard to imagine a scenario in which we don't end up in Detroit. Pretty much every other team on our schedule not named Toledo are all teams that we can (and in the case of Miami, Kent, EMU, and Buffalo) should beat. I guess that leaves Akron but c'mon, when do the Zips actually ever win big games and live up to their potential?

The division race is going to be one of those crazy races from the Brandon era where teams are tripping up each week and it's a race down to the final night on Black Friday. If we get to the last 2 home games vs Kent and Buffalo tied or leading in the standings I will feel very confident that we'll be going back to Detroit.

[BGSU33]

IMO, you guys may think I'm crazy...but if we grab victory in Athens on 10/8, it's hard to imagine a scenario in which we don't end up in Detroit. Pretty much every other team on our schedule not named Toledo are all teams that we can (and in the case of Miami, Kent, EMU, and Buffalo) should beat.

I'm with you man. October 8th, BG at OU, it's going go be THE deciding game in the East. In fact I said the same thing back when the schedule was released. If it doesn't directly relate to who wins the East, it's gonna carry big time weight in a tie breaker scenario. But it's our most important game on the entire schedule. And save me that the Toledo game is. It's not. We've lot to Toledo 6 straight times and have won the East three straight times in seasons we've lost to UT. The key has been that we've beaten OU 4 straight times (including the last three where we went to the MACC). Yes, MAC crossover games count the same as division ones do in the standings, but winning or losing division games matters more for the actual division race. Look back at last year. BG went 7-1 in the MAC and OU was second at 5-3. But had BG lost to OU last year, BG and OU would have finished tied at 6-2 and OU would have won the tie breaker. OU won 3 MAC East titles and went to the MACC 3 times in a 6 year span. Dave Clawson stated during that time that BG needed to become a team like them, and when we did, we overtook them and the East and haven't lost a division games since 2012. Toledo might be our rival, but the key to us winning the East and getting to Detroit was supplanting Ohio. It's no coincidence that beating Ohio has led to our MAC Championships.

[Flipper]

OU sucks...their band is full of douchebags and their mascot is seriously ghey

[bg1984]

No question that once again it seems like the OU game is THE game that decides the East. We have owned them recently and I only hope that continues. I'll be in Athens on October 8th for the entire weekend with about 12 other BG grad/friends to support our Falcons. I also hope you are joking about Athens. I just had a daughter graduate from OU and I've spent many a weekend the last 4 years in Athens and it's a great college town. They have some issues with attendance and student apathy with football like us but the "college atmosphere" in Athens is just great! I've never had anything but fun there. For me it's second only to BG in ranking MAC towns. But had I not gone to BG, Athens might move to the top. At any rate the Falcons need to take care of business in Athens. I hope we have another good showing of fan support like we have in the past. It's their HC so "event weekends" in Athens make hotel reservations challenging. We are staying in a cabin in Hocking Hills.

[kdog27]

Knapke has been disappointing. A senior with 15 starts under his belt should be able to carve up an FCS defense. He's no better than he was 2 years ago.

[Flipper]

Seems that way...he had Zimmerman open running accross the field and he made him stop and catch instead of leading him and letting him run through the route. The DB's were able to close on him and limit his YAC to a few yards instead of 20. That seems to happen a lot with him

[jpfalcon09]

Knapke has been disappointing. A senior with 15 starts under his belt should be able to carve up an FCS defense. He's no better than he was 2 years ago.

This certainly seems to be the case after two games. His inconsistency from play to play is incredibly frustrating but isn't much different than what he did in 2014. It's obvious that Jinks believes this as well given his comments and that Morgan saw the field in the 2nd quarter on Saturday.

[slashba33]

Seems that way...he had Zimmerman open running accross the field and he made him stop and catch instead of leading him and letting him run through the route. The DB's were able to close on him and limit his YAC to a few yards instead of 20. That seems to happen a lot with him

I am worried about Knapke. When able to stand in the pocket and deliver a pass he is still questionable. We all know he can't scramble or throw on the run like MattyJ, which is another problem. We do not have vertical play makers in this receiving group, which was his go to play 2 years ago.

We have a lot of kinks to work out with this coaching staff and new group of players, but in the MAC, QB play means EVERYTHING to lead to overall success. I think the comparison of Knapke to Schilz is dead on and that's not good.

[Redwingtom]

Yes, Morgan is going to make mistakes...but the upside far outweighs the downside...or the status quo with Knapke. It's time to let Morgan start and learn on the job. Let him learn these next two weeks in games we're likely to lose anyway. Then he'll be ready for the MAC schedule...the only thing that matters for us.

As was the case two years ago, Knapke is not the guy to lead us to a championship. All the same bad habits are still here and are not going away.

[Schadenfreude]

The next two weeks represent a big opportunity to get team on track. I hope we are making the most of them. I love winning nonconference games as much as anyone, but the focus this season needs to be on getting ready for conference play and putting ourselves in the best possible position to win the East.

Personally, I'd like to see Morgan get more time and start to learn on the job a bit. Maybe let Morgan and Knapke split time and let's see where we are in two weeks. But there are obviously some potential downsides to that approach.

In any case, we pay Mike Jinks to make these decisions. We will see what happens.