Next up: The bottom of the barrell...Kent St

[BillyLP]

We're not getting rid of a coach that brought us to back to back bowl games. Zero chance.

He will probably be let go the second he dips below a winning record for a season, but for now, he's our guy. I don't know if we can win a MAC title with him (I lean towards no) but he will be the guy until it goes south.

I'd like to think next year is our best shot. Bazelak and Orth are back, Stewart and Keith are back, Fannin is back, 4/5 of the O-line is back. Should be a darn solid team next season. We're not beating Penn State or Texas A&M on the road, but every other game is winnable.

Agree with this. I don't love the coaching staff but we are in a better spot than 5 years ago, and his "keep the job" number this year was six wins, regardless of how it was managed. I think the number next year is 7 wins, especially with a low buyout number.

[Roll Along!]

If OU and Miami are the measuring stick

We are currently tied with Ohio in the MAC standings. Miami and BG are both 9-5 in MAC play over the past two years. Yes, BG lost to both. But BG has proven to be the most consistent program in the East over the last 2 years. Ohio lost to NIU this year, Miami lost to Buffalo, BG (yeah, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!!!!) and WMU just a year ago. Looks like we are fairly even with the two measuring stick programs depending on how you judge the program. And I'd rather judge the program over the course of a season than over the course of 1 game.

Good thing I can enjoy this ride! Thank you SL!

[jpfalcon09]

Akron, BSU and Kent are three of the absolute worst teams in FBS football. Losing to one of them would have been a disaster. Beat UT and WMU and the season would have to be called an unexpected success

This. Especially given the butt kicking that they took from both OU and Miami.
Those teams are the measuring stick and how SL should be evaluated, not Kent and Akron, and the Falcons lost those two games by a combined score of 65-7. That is nothing to be encouraged about.

Consistency and discipline continue to be an issue; two things you'd hope to be past in year 5 with the same coach.

I still maintain that if BG has a goal of ever getting to a MAC title game again (and winning it), they'll need to make a coaching change. SL did a good job of rebuilding this roster after it was basically decimated, but I'm hoping the AD has higher aspirations.

This is solely focusing on the negatives to fit a narrative.

The positives:
P5 road win, in rather decisive fashion against a team that has picked up some decent wins in the ACC.
A strong showing at Michigan. JJ McCarthy still only has three interceptions on the season. Guess who they were against? The 31 points scored against BG are also the fewest against an opponent for UM, up to this point.
The defense leads all of FBS in forced turnovers. We've griped about how abhorrent the defense was early in his tenure. It's undoubtedly the strongest aspect of this year's team.
Fine to be upset about the OU and Miami games. The team also didn't give up on the season. They've run off four straight wins. You play who you're scheduled to play. It is what it is. It shows Scot still has the attention of his players, and there's a good leadership core here.

I guess I don't understand the willingness to move onto a new coach after seeing what Kent looked like last night after Lewis bolted. They're not even a good FCS program. Do we really want to go through that again here? I don't.

[Flipper]

Hey...beat UT...or even WMU...and I will admit that Loeffler improved this year and deserves to return..he's going to any way. I honestly think mediocre MAC is the ceiling for him here...but if he goes beyond that, great...I'm wrong

[hammb]

I don't know what to think. I'm probably ready to say he's a better coach than Mike Jinks, but that's about it. He's not going anywhere, that much is clear. He's still not a real great coach, and I hate hearing him talk or watching his teams play. I guess credit for (finally) winning against the absolute worst teams in college football the last 2 years.

On the one hand I think he sucks because Miami & OU are winning the division and blew us out, those are our peers. But on the other hand the rest of our peers are the bottom 10 teams in all of college football and we're clearly not that. The team has shown more fight than expected, and that GT win was nice. Beating UT would go a long way towards fooling me into believing we've made progress since those early MAC defeats.

I don't know if it's a good sign or a bad one...he's enshrined me in apathy towards the program and him, so whatever. I did watch a couple plays last night. KSU was awful. I moved on with my life. I don't really watch much college football in general anymore, so maybe there's nothing BG can do to rekindle that relationship anyhow.

[Globetrotter]

Is it possible for a bad coach to get better? Sure

I just don't see how thats the case here. He seems likable enough, so I would love for it to happen.

Guys like Anders and Ferguson came back. Stewart came back. He got an elite level QB to come here. There has to be something going on that is positive.

[Flipper]

The MAC is...overall...a very sorry football conference. Now that the Sunbelt is keeping more of their talent in their region...it's tougher for us to find those Omar Jacobs or Charles Sharon or Fred Coppet level guys.

Every league has its dregs...but there's three pretty good teams in the MAC. WMU and CMU are decent. We're somewhere below that...I think...maybe on par with EMU? After that...it's crap.

I think we got spoiled in the early 2000's...BGSU, Toledo, NIU, Miami, Marshall, Akron came on for a bit...any one of those teams would probably win this league in a walk

Globe...are you related to Bazelak...or is this just some schtick on your part?

[Bgsu2016]

Is it possible for a bad coach to get better? Sure

I just don't see how thats the case here. He seems likable enough, so I would love for it to happen.

Guys like Anders and Ferguson came back. Stewart came back. He got an elite level QB to come here. There has to be something going on that is positive.

Elite!? Hahahaha

SL is just frustrating because the guy tries ridiculous crap like TE end arounds and his teams are heavily penalized all the time. If he kept things a little simpler I think we would be a more consistent team

[Falconfreak90]

Akron, Ball State and Kent State aren't good. But two of them we blew off the field and Ball State only lost to tsun by 7 and beat NIU on the road the other night. MU beat Kent 23-3. The OU and MU games are so incredibly effin frustrating because we didn't even step off the bus. 4 losses this season. At #25 9-0 Liberty and #2 9-0 Michigan are no shame and we played good games. Obviously the Ga Tech win kicked ass, we did what we should have against EIU. Road win at Buffalo was cool. We def commit way too many penalties. The play calling can be bizarre at times. But the D is pretty solid and our kicking game is good. And here we sit 6-4, 4-2 MAC and 2nd in the East. The team didn't pack it in after Miami. Uh Huh. Imagine if we had an elite QB and a strong O Line. Our OL is average now....better, but not top notch for the MAC.

This is Coach Loeffler's biggest game of his career here. I called for his job after embarrassing defeats. He has a shot to beat tsun back to back years. Run the table and finish 8-4, 6-2 MAC. That would be improvement, even though we look like dog scheiss at times. For sure the MAC title game is a must next year. We prolly aren't gonna win the East as MU ends w/ Buffalo at home and at Ball State. OU ends w/ CMU in Athens and at Akron. We have the tougher schedule w/ tsun and @ WMU.

But if he punks tsun again, I'd want him back. 3-2 against them after Clawson, Babers and Jinks beat them a total of 1 time. Ya gotta beat that team on Bancroft. Prove you can take down the best team in the league and you'll quiet a lot of folks, me included.

BEAT TOLEDO

[kdog27]

Is it possible for a bad coach to get better? Sure

I just don't see how thats the case here. He seems likable enough, so I would love for it to happen.

Guys like Anders and Ferguson came back. Stewart came back. He got an elite level QB to come here. There has to be something going on that is positive.

Elite!? Hahahaha

Right!? Am I the only one that thinks Orth should be the starter. Bazalak only looks good with a perfect pocket. If his timing is impeded in the slightest it’s going be a horrible throw. Orth brings more in my opinion.

[Falconfreak90]

Is it possible for a bad coach to get better? Sure

I just don't see how thats the case here. He seems likable enough, so I would love for it to happen.

Guys like Anders and Ferguson came back. Stewart came back. He got an elite level QB to come here. There has to be something going on that is positive.

Elite!? Hahahaha

Right!? Am I the only one that thinks Orth should be the starter. Bazalak only looks good with a perfect pocket. If his timing is impeded in the slightest it’s going be a horrible throw. Orth brings more in my opinion.

Our whole tailgate group thinks Orth should be the guy the whole game. The guys seem to respond more to Orth when he's out there. He isn't perfect but he's big and strong...and he isn't afraid to mix it up. Guys love a QB who goes for it. Bazelak is ok...we've seen some good things from him but some bad as well. I don't think he's more than a back up, personally. Just give the ball to Orth and stick with him.

[jpfalcon09]

Is it possible for a bad coach to get better? Sure

I just don't see how thats the case here. He seems likable enough, so I would love for it to happen.

Guys like Anders and Ferguson came back. Stewart came back. He got an elite level QB to come here. There has to be something going on that is positive.

Elite!? Hahahaha

Right!? Am I the only one that thinks Orth should be the starter. Bazalak only looks good with a perfect pocket. If his timing is impeded in the slightest it’s going be a horrible throw. Orth brings more in my opinion.

Our whole tailgate group thinks Orth should be the guy the whole game. The guys seem to respond more to Orth when he's out there. He isn't perfect but he's big and strong...and he isn't afraid to mix it up. Guys love a QB who goes for it. Bazelak is ok...we've seen some good things from him but some bad as well. I don't think he's more than a back up, personally. Just give the ball to Orth and stick with him.

Orth definitely has that gamer mentality that the offense enjoys. Both guys have their pros and cons. Bazelak is better with deep throws. An effective run game makes Orth more dangerous, as evidenced by that TD to Keith where the fake QB power sucked in the Kent linebacker.

[Globetrotter]

Orth is an atrocious passer. What makes him ok is that his legs are a threat and they can simplify things for him when he's in there. The rotation is great because they truly use both of their strengths AND Orth can pass a bit. Bazelek is clearly the better QB, if not the best QB that has ever played at BG.

[Beaker]

Orth might be a more effective passer if they let him throw the ball. Aside from when he was briefly playing full time with Bazelak out, Orth typically comes in for a play or a few plays and 90% of them are runs, usually with him running it. Defenses are on to that. I agree that he gives us a more dynamic threat but they need to let him throw the ball and not just take the snap and run almost every time he comes in. With defenses keying on that, some throws should be there for him off of run fakes.

I think back to Josh Harris. When he first saw the field he was a great runner, but when it came to passing he showed some flashes but wasn't consistently accurate and I remember questioning why he is playing QB instead of RB. There were growing pains BUT he improved so much as a passer by the last year of his career. Orth would never become another Josh Harris, but he reminds me of him because of his size, running ability and inconsistency as a passer (early on for Harris). He's made some good throws at times, I just think if they had been giving him more than a handful of running plays here and there, he may have been able to develop his passing game. I may be wrong, but I think he has another year of eligibility left if he wants it. I'd be interested to see what he could do if he stuck around and got the chance to play full time and was given the entire playbook.

[Falconfreak90]

Orth is an atrocious passer. What makes him ok is that his legs are a threat and they can simplify things for him when he's in there. The rotation is great because they truly use both of their strengths AND Orth can pass a bit. Bazelek is clearly the better QB, if not the best QB that has ever played at BG.

Dripping with sarcasm I hope...