Athlon rips BG with brutal outlook in 2021preseason mag

[guest44]

Choosing Scot Loeffler to be the highest paid employee in the history of the school...just saying it out loud is funny. Hiring a coach looking to hire Carl Pelini (high school), Jim Hermann (retired again), Steve Morrison (out of college football until Loeffler called him, & Brian VanGorder (high school)...is crazy. Knowing the highest paid employee in school history was 11 months from being fired at his previous job...now that's just sad. On Twitter, Bowling Green Football is headed to the moon. Back in reality it is 128 of 130, or stuck in Poe ditch. So little sizzle.

The over/under on wins is 1.5 with Murray St. & Akron on the schedule at home.

[Flipper]

Ok....your choices appear to be the following

Sack everyone in the department and hope for the best

Eliminate sports entirely

Build a time machine....sack everyone involved in the Loeffler hire

Behave like an old man yelling at the wind by continuously kvetching about the same things every time you post

Which will you pick?

[TommyG]

You could get rid of the AD and a couple of the Associate ADs and the department would be better off. I’d vote for that.

[guest44]

Well Moose is still running with many of the people Kingston hired. In fact, people hired in very similar form to the way Mike Jinks was hired. Kingston is off making money off schools like BGSU who don’t have competent enough leadership to understand that they aren’t Ohio State, and can handle many of the functions Learfield does while saving huge amounts of money. BGSU hired a search firm, then listened to Kingston’s right hand man & hired Loeffler. In large part because of Boston College & Tom Brady (Boston fan boy). 2.5 years later Bowling Green has its 4th defensive coordinator. We want to compare this to Clawson. Clawson had his coordinators, he wasn’t scrolling his retirement list to find people willing to come back for a final paycheck. It was incompetent and without a plan from the announcement of retaining Pelini. That was all a show for Twitter. They never had a plan. Nobody did.

Easy solution 1, never ever give any coach a 5 or 6 year contract. That would be the key place to start.

[BGSU33]

I don’t even have to read it. It’s the easiest piece to write, knowing zero about a team: the worst team in the league the last season ( in ANY conference, any sport really) , and pile on them until they prove otherwise. There is no way anyone from Athalon set foot at BG and observed a practice. We all know far more here than they do about the team. People seem to get upset when a magazine doesn’t fawn over your team, city, school, etc.

I don’t disagree that die-hard fans probably know as much, if not more, about this team than whoever writes a preseason page for a team for a magazine preview. I’d be willing to bet most anything up against most anyone when if comes to that. That said, I can’t recall ever seeing such a horrible outlook for this program in all the years I’ve been following it in any form of a publication. And I left out another part where they quote an opposing MAC coach.

The quote was equally brutal - “Last year they looked like the very worst team in college football. They have some pieces but no direction. They’re just not good in anyway we could see.”

I don’t get upset about all this negative press, because I 100% agree with it. There’s really nothing about what was written that should be changed IMO. Hell, it’ll probably be one of the most accurate preview pages you’ll see from this magazine looking back at it at the end of the season. But what I do get upset about is that we’re in year 6 of this mess with no signs of improvement yet. In fact, it has actually gotten worse in that time and not better. Yes I know the reasons for it and yes I know all the layers and what has taken place to get here. But we’ve reached the point now where it needs to start to turn around. It must now or it won’t.

I’m beyond tired of hearing all the reasons and excuses (from fans all the way to our head coach) for how we got here and why we are still here. The honeymoon is over. Jinks has been long gone now for years, as are most of his players and those problems, and a lot of money is being spent to fix this problem, not to continue to drag it out. We are coming off the heels of a season like no other where we were allowed to return EVERY single player, and we failed miserably at that nationally and within our own conference. And when you look at all those players we lost that we could have returned, a bunch of them landed at other schools. Some at Power 5 schools, some at other FBS schools and some at FCS schools. Meaning, they were wanted. Other schools saw talent from a large group of guys on a horrible team. These guys didn’t just enter the transfer portal and disappear like some of our current coaching staff hinted at. They landed at other schools in large numbers. That speaks volumes. And if you noticed, some players made a point about telling our staff just that. It didn’t go unnoticed.

It’s time to start seeing improvements. Now. Something. Anything. And that doesn’t have to even come in the form of wins this year. Simply looking like we belong on the same field as our MAC East peers would be a start.

[roguewarrior]

I don’t even have to read it. It’s the easiest piece to write, knowing zero about a team: the worst team in the league the last season ( in ANY conference, any sport really) , and pile on them until they prove otherwise. There is no way anyone from Athalon set foot at BG and observed a practice. We all know far more here than they do about the team. People seem to get upset when a magazine doesn’t fawn over your team, city, school, etc.

It’s time to start seeing improvements. Now. Something. Anything. And that doesn’t have to even come in the form of wins this year. Simply looking like we belong on the same field as our MAC East peers would be a start.

I agree. Fall 2020 was a disaster, and I will give a Covid pass. The QB was a disaster and I will give an injury pass, although I know that happened later in Fall.

If this season looks anything like 2020, coaches have to go. The thugs/lazy/fail outs are gone. There are focused, tough “locals” in place, the numbers are close to right..... all that’s left is a good schemes and game execution. They have to get 3 wins and be in another 3 games late, to get another season. Talent is there, to their credit.... but W’s are now necessary.

[Flipper]

You could get rid of the AD and a couple of the Associate ADs and the department would be better off. I’d vote for that.

Which associate AD's do you fire and why..why do you fire Moose?

[MarkL]

Simply looking like we belong on the same field as our MAC East peers would be a start.

If that is the case, the coaches should all get lifetime extensions because that would be such an incredibly high bar to clear IMO. Reason is the BG team in 2021 will have freshmen starting at near every position, and will be going up against highly veteran teams like Kent, Miami, Ohio, and Buffalo. Those are well managed teams that are led by multi year veterans.
BG will have a majority freshman offensive line. Nobody else can say that, and I don't mean that as a compliment. A yet-to-be-determined and possibly freshman QB will be standing behind that freshman offensive line handing the ball off to a freshman RB and throwing the ball to a bunch of freshman WRs. There will be at least a few veterans on defense, but undoubtedly there will be freshmen starting at each level of the defense.
On the flip side, Kent State will have one sophomore starting on offense - at RB. Everyone else is junior or senior, per projected depth chart. Similar story with Ohio, where there are three sophomore starters and everyone else is junior or senior. The only other MAC east team projected to start a bunch of freshmen is ... unsurprisingly .... Akron.
If that freshmen dominated team looks like it belongs on the same field as veteran teams, I'll be absolutely stunned and thrilled. But that's just not a realistic expectation. This is going to be a year of developing a bunch of freshmen to build the foundation of a program, after the foundation left by years of mismanagement and poor character recruiting totally collapsed. I hate to be the "wait it out another year" voice but this is the reality of the situation. Loeffler has a plan and that plan may not be a lot of fun to watch right now. If it works, it will pay off down the road.

[roguewarrior]

I don’t expect to win the MAC, or even win 6 games. We just cannot look like we did in Fall; because, regardless of age, there is talent. Some of those “freshman” and true sophomores.... are in their third Camp.....If they win 3 games, and compete in others, coaches deserve to stay.

[guest44]

"Loeffler has a plan and that plan may not be a lot of fun to watch right now. If it works, it will pay off down the road".

Was Doege staying to be the quarterback for 5 months before opting to leave to WVU part of the plan? It's why BGSU couldn't throw the ball in year 1? Year 2 was his horrible evaluation of McDonald as a quarterback.

Was Pelini staying on board part of the plan? It lasted a month. How about the hire of Jim Hermann? It lasted 2 months. Why was his Associate Head Coach not hired until 5 months after taking the job and after multiple assistants left before coaching a single game? Were all of these parts of the plan?

My argument would be if Loeffler really had a plan the roster wouldn't look like this. It would be much further along.

[Flipper]

Didn't Doege leave in a snit because his brother didn't get hired? I kinda recall his departure being timed to create the most problems

[jpfalcon09]

Didn't Doege leave in a snit because his brother didn't get hired? I kinda recall his departure being timed to create the most problems

Part of it. Seth wasn't retained by Loeffler and wound up at USC along with Jinks. What a coincidence. Rogue might know than me but I was told Jarret didn't feel like Loeffler's system matched his skill set. He gave it a go at spring ball in 2019 and then noped out. Obviously he made the right choice given his current situation.

[jpfalcon09]

Simply looking like we belong on the same field as our MAC East peers would be a start.

If that is the case, the coaches should all get lifetime extensions because that would be such an incredibly high bar to clear IMO. Reason is the BG team in 2021 will have freshmen starting at near every position, and will be going up against highly veteran teams like Kent, Miami, Ohio, and Buffalo. Those are well managed teams that are led by multi year veterans.
BG will have a majority freshman offensive line. Nobody else can say that, and I don't mean that as a compliment. A yet-to-be-determined and possibly freshman QB will be standing behind that freshman offensive line handing the ball off to a freshman RB and throwing the ball to a bunch of freshman WRs. There will be at least a few veterans on defense, but undoubtedly there will be freshmen starting at each level of the defense.
On the flip side, Kent State will have one sophomore starting on offense - at RB. Everyone else is junior or senior, per projected depth chart. Similar story with Ohio, where there are three sophomore starters and everyone else is junior or senior. The only other MAC east team projected to start a bunch of freshmen is ... unsurprisingly .... Akron.
If that freshmen dominated team looks like it belongs on the same field as veteran teams, I'll be absolutely stunned and thrilled. But that's just not a realistic expectation. This is going to be a year of developing a bunch of freshmen to build the foundation of a program, after the foundation left by years of mismanagement and poor character recruiting totally collapsed. I hate to be the "wait it out another year" voice but this is the reality of the situation. Loeffler has a plan and that plan may not be a lot of fun to watch right now. If it works, it will pay off down the road.

This year will undoubtedly be tough. I do believe Loeffler has fewer excuses in his arsenal. The guys he didn't like - or who didn't want to be here, have largely left. If you can get a core group of guys to buy in and become leaders for the next 4-5 years, things will change. Lots of work to be done.

I think you can begin to judge Loeffler after this season. There will need to be improvement in the first few games from the dreadful 2020 campaign, and then improvement thereafter. Break the season into four segments and how the program fares. Then we'll have an idea of where this thing is likely headed.

[Bgsu2016]

It took Bergeron 4 years to record his first winning season. A lot of good young pieces, but boy is it one heck of a rebuild

[FalconTurf]

https://sports.yahoo.com/why-ball-state ... 31013.html

This article describes the patience with their football coach at Ball State. Based on the success at BSU the other MAC schools like BG will hope to repeat this recipe. I've got no problem with this plan but at what point, 5, 6, or 7 years, do you abandon a coach and start over again? For now I believe we should stay the course.

In a climate in college athletics where athletic directors often see firing coaches as a path to career advancement, Goetz showed rare patience.

“It is a results-oriented business and everybody wants the quick fix,” Neu said. “And it's unpopular to choose this avenue of, ‘Let's give them some time here to grow the program.’ I'm very proud and appreciative of the fact that they stayed patient and let us see that process through.”