vs. Liberty (9/2)

[mbenecke]

It’s game week, folks.

Our Falcons are looking to follow up on last year’s step forward and they will start on the road at Liberty. Game will be Saturday, September 2 at 12:00pm on CBSSN.

Throw your predictions and game thoughts below.

[jpfalcon09]

It’s game week, folks.

Our Falcons are looking to follow up on last year’s step forward and they will start on the road at Liberty. Game will be Saturday, September 2 at 12:00pm on CBSSN.

Throw your predictions and game thoughts below.

BG +10, opened +12.5. New coach for Liberty so a lot of unknowns there. The Flames have a lot of new faces all over their roster, which can be a good or a bad thing. BG has same question marks as last year. Can the OL block, will the defense struggle early after losing Brooks & Anderson, and will the effort be consistent?

BG has their most talented team on offense since 2015. Playmakers at every position. Replacing Sims will be a challenge, but there's plenty of depth at WR and RB. I expect Bazelak to start but would not be surprised to see Orth still get a series of two as a change of pace.

Liberty will likely will have a dynamic offense and they added some P5 talent in Cooley and Jointer at RB. QB play will probably still be very good. The x-factor is how well implemented Chadwell's offense is. They did lose a good amount of production on defense.

My belief is BG can win this game if the defense plays well. Put me in the camp of this being a choppy game given the factors and the Falcons pulling out a one-score victory, 28-24.

[Flipper]

Liberty 35. BGSU 10

[TommyG]

Liberty 45- BG 24
Everyone wakes up and realizes BG signed up for an extra 2 years of this.

[roguewarrior]

SL is pretty decent at scripting the plan going into games. Problems arise when the script goes out the window. In this case, not much to script for with new coach. Strike one. We have not done well against running qbs, which is what the new LU coach does. Strike 2. Looks like 85 and sunny at LU Saturday. New coach and team with chip on Shoulder and a teammate that passed away unexpectedly recently for even more motivation.. I think we hang for a minute, then get smoked.

[mbenecke]

Loeffler is giving his presser right now. He says the team knows who is QB1, and it will be announced publicly on Friday.

['92Falcon]

Just don't have faith in this coaching staff.
Liberty is going to roll...48-14

[jpfalcon09]

Loeffler is giving his presser right now. He says the team knows who is QB1, and it will be announced publicly on Friday.

If it's not Bazelak I'll be extremely surprised.

[ZuluWarrior]

BG - 38
Liberty - 30

[jpfalcon09]

Depth chart is out. Some items of note outside of the QB discussion:

Kicker is listed as OR between Alan Anaya and Jake Sauder. I think this is an area of concern.

Terion Stewart is listed as the starter at TB, with Patterson and Keith rotating in.

Looks like center hasn't been fully decided. Padgett listed as the starter but Burns/Deyo fighting for the backup spot.

All seniors starting at WR - Hiliare, Ibrahim, Osborne

Expect a heavy rotation on NG with four guys listed on the depth chart.

Only two freshmen on the two deep.

[roguewarrior]

Of note… the depth chart is generally not updated or exactly accurate as the season unfolds. Coaches aren’t running to make sure the published depth chart is . The true 1 or 2 is not necessarily what you see there…whether it is injury or choice.

[Flipper]

This whole "we know who our QB is...but you won't know til Friday" reeks of HS level "cleverness"

[mbenecke]

This whole "we know who are QB is...but you won't know til Friday" reeks of HS level "cleverness"

Maybe. But there's also legitimately no competitive benefit to them announcing it ahead of time. So I get it.

Do I wanna know? Yeah, of course. Do we think it's probably going to Bazelak? That's certainly my assumption. But you force Liberty to prepare for both if you don't name a starter, so why not wait and make them be ready for anything?

There's actually quietly a good chunk of teams that haven't announced their QB yet. As of Monday, something like a third of P5 teams hadn't announced it yet - and I would imagine the G5 is around that figure, too.

[Flipper]

Because it's not like we're going to run a drastically different offense or see a widely varied skill set between the two...it's just pointless gamesmanship...trying to look smart.

In the interest of full disclosure..my default reaction to pretty much anything SL does right now is "that's stupid"

[mbenecke]

Because it's not like we're going to run a drastically different offense or see a widely varied skill set between the two...it's just pointless gamesmanship...trying to look smart

Hubris? From Scot? Never.

I will say, my understanding is that Orth is a bit more athletic and Bazelak has a better arm. So there is some level of difference in the dynamic between the two. But with him saying both are probably going to play anyways, it's probably a silly/pointless move to not announce the starter at this point.

At least the team knows and can prepare accordingly. That's what's most important.