Tom Arth

[jpfalcon09]

Mike Houston at James Madison should get a very hard look.

[zete]

Exactly a year from now we will be preparing for the Norte Dame game..........

[mbenecke]

Vince Kehres from Mount Union, too...

[MarkL]

Normally I decline to participate in these threads. But since reporting suggests the decision has been made, here are some names I like. Note, I want to go defense this time.

Nick Holt, Defense Coordinator at Purdue
Mike Tressel, DC at Michigan State
Harlon Barnett, DC at Florida State
Brent Pry, DC at Penn State
Don Brown, DC at Michigan (probably too expensive)
Matt Canada, Offensive Coordinator and interim Head Coach at Maryland
Joe Rudolph, OC at Wisconsin
Jim Chaney, OC at Georgia
Chip Long, OC at Notre Dame
Bo Pelini, Head Coach at Youngstown State
Mike Houston, HC at James Madison
Mark Staten, Offensive line coach / recruiting coordinator at Michigan State
Greg Studrawa, Offensive Line coach at Ohio State

[mbenecke]

I would love to be a defense/trenches-driven program. Something about smash mouth football just makes me so excited. That's why 2013 was my favorite team to watch in a very long time. 2015 may have been more exciting offensively, but 2013's defense was just incredible.

[hammb]

If they hire a defensive minded head coach I may never attend another BG game ever.

That's not the way the game is played anymore, and it sure as hell shouldn't be the way we try to play the game at Bowling Green. We will NEVER beat P5 teams by out "defense and trenches" them. Cannot happen. We need to find an innovative offensive mind who will put up points. That's what football is. Defense is ancillary...get enough stops to win, preferably force a couple turnovers.

Now if you can find the rare Belichick-esque defensive coach who is all in on a wide open score points offense? Sure, go for it, but there aren't many of those guys, and you don't find out who they are until they're already head coaches. Almost all defensive coaches worry about the offense protecting their defense, and they do so to a fault.


JUST SAY NO to any defensive head coaches. As I said before, our coaches should be plucked from the lower divisions, guys with head coaching success, preferably offensive success.

[Schadenfreude]

We need a builder. While we have talent here and there, this is primarily a rebuild job.

Dave Clawson was a builder. Bring in the next Dave Clawson, and we'll be more than okay.

[hammb]

We need a builder. While we have talent here and there, this is primarily a rebuild job.

Dave Clawson was a builder. Bring in the next Dave Clawson, and we'll be more than okay.

Exactly why I would focus solely on guys from lower divisions that have had success.

[mbenecke]

You bring up a good point about not being able to match P5 schools in the trenches. That's a very fair point, and it's a battle we would never win.

I just feel like defense can win in the MAC. And I would rather be 8-4 or 9-3 in Detroit every year than 6-6 with a flashy offense that upset someone like Purdue. Ya know what I mean?

[hammb]

You bring up a good point about not being able to match P5 schools in the trenches. That's a very fair point, and it's a battle we would never win.

I just feel like defense can win in the MAC. And I would rather be 8-4 or 9-3 in Detroit every year than 6-6 with a flashy offense that upset someone like Purdue. Ya know what I mean?

That's fine. I'll readily admit (and have for years) that I got more joy over our big wins over Purdue, Maryland, and IU than I ever have from a MAC championship. I will always believe if you build a team that can compete with and beat those P5 teams, then winning the MAC should come with it. We've seen it work out that way in recent years as well.

For me football is all about offense. Hell, as Gregg Brandon's greatest detractor I could even see the case that he may have been ahead of the curve in that regard. Yes, you need to get some stops or turnovers on defense to win games, but I don't think building a team around a defensive mantra is the right way to do things anymore. For decades, probably since the beginning of the sport, we've heard it preached that "defense wins championships" and "a good defense will stop a good offense." I just don't think these things are really true anymore. Today's modern offenses, the spread concepts, the proliferation of athletes, the better QB play, the RPOs are, to be quite honest, NOT truly stoppable. At least not consistently. Even the OSU/Alabama's of the world that have prized themselves on defense (and basically put out NFL probowl teams worth of NFL players) have games every year where they cannot stop the opposing offense. Offenses nowadays are just too good.

Like, I said, if you find a "defensive minded" head coach that is willing to embrace modern offense, then that's fine. But to me attempting to play defense first, and protect the defense offense, is a fool's game. Simply looking at MAC champions every champion for the last decade or more has fielded an offense that could score 40+ on any given Saturday. I don't care how good of a BG defense you build you're probably still going to have days, even in the MAC, where you have to score 40 to win.

[MarkL]

There's a reason I listed Nick Holt first. Incredible defensive turnaround at Purdue last year. But has been tied at the hip to Jeff Brohm, one of the best offensive minds, since 2014. Defensive coordinator, midwest for 5 years, turned an awful Big Ten defense into a top tier defense in one year, works along side an exciting fast offense. Easy to like the idea.

[hammb]

There's a reason I listed Nick Holt first. Incredible defensive turnaround at Purdue last year. But has been tied at the hip to Jeff Brohm, one of the best offensive minds, since 2014. Defensive coordinator, midwest for 5 years, turned an awful Big Ten defense into a top tier defense in one year, works along side an exciting fast offense. Easy to like the idea.

That could work, then, although I still would prefer to look at guys who have built programs at the lower divisions.

Nice thing about Holt is that Purdue has "Co-Defensive Coordinators" and as such his salary is "only" $500k. Means he would at least be a candidate where we wouldn't have to talk about him taking a paycut to become our HC. Plenty of other P5 coordinators are off the board for that reason.

[BGSU Athletics Nut]

No, some of these posts have been funny. I am not Tom Arth's agent and have never met him. I have read posts on here for a while, but have never created an account until now. I am just the son of two Falcon alumni. When I was a student at BGSU, the football team was very exciting under Urban Meyer after the end of the Gary Blackney years. We were blowing so many teams out.

I agree with the one post about the 2013 season. It was such a magical run the team was on the second half of the season and for like the first time since I followed the Falcons, we had a defense. Jerry "Boo Boo" Gates was one of my favorite players then. He was so dynamic. He could take any ball to the house. I still remember the Buffalo game at the Bills Stadium the day after Thanksgiving. As soon as you wiped the snow off the seats, they would be covered again. I think that East Division clincher was like 21-7.

I always hope to bring in former Falcons as the coaches and Greg Studrawa was one of my thoughts too. Matt Johnson could be good with like 5 more years of experience. Do we get an older guy who is looking to stay at one place or a younger guy who is on his way up?

I wonder how many other colleges can say that all of their past head football coaches since 2001 are all current head football coaches? (Meyer, Brandon, Clawson, Babers) I haven't done the research, but I can't think many. These past 2+ seasons have just been hard to get excited about.

[Beaker]

I've said before that I see no reason that having a good defense and having a good offense need to be mutually exclusive.

I think the goal should be to have strong units on both sides of the ball. I'll take a balanced team that's good on both sides over a team that's top of the heap at one and bottom of the heap at the other.

If you take a look at some of the best BG teams in the last 30 years, like '91, '92, '03, '13, they were well balanced offense/defense and that translated into a heck of a lot of success.

I'm well aware of limiting factors like our budgetary restrictions and what conference we play in and things such as those keep us from getting top shelf, established coaches/coordinators and 5 star recruits. I'm not talking about thinking we can compete on par with the O$U's of the world, just saying if we want to be successful then we shouldn't choose either an offensive philosophy or a defensive mindset and disregard the other. It seems like focusing solely on offense is what we saw under Babers and Jinks has tried to continue that and we see the results. I don't care how good your offense is (and ours is not, right now) if you have no ability whatsoever to stop the other guy's offense, you're just not going to win with any consistency.

[Flipper]

He's a run first guy from the South...but Kennesaw State's Brian Bohannon has done some great things in the three years his program has existed. We'e mostly been a "passing school" in my memory, but a spread option run attack might make a lot of sense here up north.

Bo Pelini would be fun...keep Carl on as DC. Bo brings his experience and nationally recognized internet memes with him. Could make for a quicker turnaround