Bowling Green Football: Falcons look to build for future in 2020

Bowling Green football will continue its rebuilding process but they have the potential to surprise some teams as the 2020 season progresses.

It wasn’t too long ago that the Bowling Green Falcons were once on top of the MAC. From 2012-15, the Falcons were competing for a divisional title every season. After some internal changes, the Falcons now find themselves near the bottom.

Scot Loeffler enters his second season as the head coach of the Falcons not only to win some games on the field but also to rebuild the program. The program was left in shambles after three seasons with Mike Jinks as head coach of the Falcons from 2016-18. During that time, the Falcons accumulated a record of 9-27.

Loeffler was hired after three seasons as the offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach of the Boston College Eagles from 2016-18. The Falcons needed a smart, strategic coach to take over the program to provide some spark and to help with the recruiting. This is a program that had Urban Meyer as their head coach for two successful seasons.

The Falcons were a surprise this past season even if it was minimal. Bowling Green was projected to finish last in the MAC East just behind the Akron Zips. They finished 2019 with a 3-9 record (2-6 in conference play) and two of those wins were a 35-6 victory against Akron and a 20-7 upset of the Toledo Rockets.

This season, the Falcons are projected fifth place in the East ahead of the Zips by multiple sports media outlets including Athlon Sports. Bowling Green is looking to not only reload with starters but rebuilt as a program. Most of the starters they have returning are not players that will be contending for an all-conference selection.

There is some positivity going forth for the program as the Falcons just finished with the second-best recruiting class this season behind Toledo. There is hope for the Falcons to become a top-tier conference team once again, but it will take patience.

Even if the Falcons only win three games as they are projected to, they must develop their young players for the future to be more experienced and familiar with the program.