Bowling Green 2010 Review

Bowling Green Falcons
2010 Record: 2-10 (1-7), Tied 5th MAC East
2010 Bowl: None

     What has happened to the Falcons in the last few years? Bowling Green was considered one of the class teams from the MAC for years, and they were always competitive, pushing for a spot in the upper tier of the conference season after season. Now, they have been deflated to bottom feeder, and the program seems lost in space.
     One area where the Falcons were always strong was at QB. That was not the case last fall, as they handed the football to freshman Matt Schilz, and he struggled badly. Schilz played in 10 games, and he passed for 2223 yards on the season with TDs, but he tossed a miserable 14 ppicks, destroying his ratio. In his defense, he was called to pass an average of 37.7 times per game, which is a ton for a freshman with no experience in the college game, He simply was not ready to do that. One thing that he had going for him, is that he completed his passes 60.7% of the time, which is a good starting point.
     Bowling Green had one of the better RBs in the conference last fall, but he was woefully underutilized. Willie Geter was highly thought of by most in the media, but he was only handed the football 16 times per game, which is really wierd considering that he was a senior, and Schilz was a freshman QB. Geter finished with 718 yards and scored 6 times, but he could have done so much more. There was absolutely no depth behind him.
     Kamar Jorden really busted lose at receiver last fall, as he posted a line of 96-1109-4 last fall as a junior. Jorden basically became a MAC game changer, and was good for over 11 yards every time that he touched the football. Four other Falcons caught 20 passes or more last season, including Tyrone Pronty (36-513-3), Alex Bayer (22-298-1), Geter out of the backfield (31-236-1), and Calvin Wiley (25-201-2). Pronty and Wiley had their eligibility expire at the end of the season, as did Geter.
     The Falcons were a disaster on defense, as they gave up 432 yards per game last fall. Dwayne Woods was a busy guy at LB, as the sophomore led the team with 134 tackles on the season. DB Jovan Leacock (91), LB Eugene Fells (88), DB Keith Morgan (67), and and LB Calvin Marshall (62) were all highly active as well. They had to be, considering that nobody was being stopped at the point of attack. The one interesting note is that the Falcons forced 11 fumbles, so they were hitting something.
     Sophomore Chris Jones was actually trying his best up front, as he collected 11 TFLs to lead the team. He was joined by Fells who had 10, as defenders that tried to get the job done up front, but the front 7 still allowed for opposing run games to break out for an average of 207.4 yards per game. Jones was the leader with 6 sacks as well, but the Falcons gave up twice as many sacks (35) as they collected (17).
     The Falcons had playmakers against the pass, but they still managed to get lit up for 224.6 yards per game through the air. Robert Lorenzi, Cameron Truss, and Dwayne Woods all led the team with 7 passes defended, and Calvin Marshall had 6. Keith Morgan led the team with 3 picks, and the Falcons had 14 as a team, but they gave up 20 picks.
     The kicking game was a wreck. Bryan Wright only had 9 attempts on the year, but he only nailed 4 of those kicks. Kyle Burkhardt gave it a try as well, but only nailed 1 of his 4 attempts. The two of them also combined to miss 4 PATs on the season. Wright had more success as a punter, as he averaged 40.49 yards per punt on the season, but they lose him. Jerry Gates had some success in limited chances in the kick return game, averaging 24.36 yards on kick returns, and he managed to score once as well. He was a freshman last fall, so he gives the Falcons some dynamic potential in the return game. Eugene Cooper brings hope in the punt return area as well, as he took 2 returns to the house last fall, and averaged over 11 yards per return.
Final Notes
     I have been a Falcon fan since the 80's, and friends used to make fun of me for it. I would seriously get made fun of today, that's for sure. I am not exactly sure how it got so bad so fast, but this mess needs cleaning up. Dave Clawson has lost this team, and he needs parts almost everywhere. My suggestion is to develop a run game, ditch the pass happy spread to allow Schilz some development time, and get the ball to Jorden as much as possible. Create a blitzing scheme with speed rushers on defense, and plug those holes. Something has got to give. This program has much too good a reputation to have sunk this far into the muck. Urban Meyer...please come back!!!