Bowling Green Football: Can the Falcons rebound from winless season?
![Matt McDonald, Bowling Green Football. [Jeff Lange/Beacon Journal]](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape%2Fcover%2Fsport%2F8944e1f6a11a61ccd397faa16fb9ebff08965aefe95b4b2cae8daf6752eda3d5.jpg "Matt McDonald, Bowling Green Football. [Jeff Lange/Beacon Journal]")
![Karl Brooks, Bowling Green Football. [Jeff Lange/Beacon Journal]](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape%2Fcover%2Fsport%2F979117aa2dd3e87a7ec55dc701f0ce6a77b1dde99ef4034eb02ca559427dafad.jpg "Karl Brooks, Bowling Green Football. [Jeff Lange/Beacon Journal]")
Bowling Green hopes coordinator change can help spark woeful defense
As bad as the Bowling Green offense was last season, the defense was just as bad. Bowling Green football was 126th in scoring defense, giving up 45 PPG and surrendering 476 YPG, which was 117th in the country.
Bowling Green is hoping that new defensive coordinator Eric Lewis can turn around one of the worst units in the country and the first order of business for Lewis will be trying to turn around the worst rushing defense in the country.
The defensive line is a young unit and the only two guys returning that have a lot of experience are junior defensive tackle Walter Haire and junior defensive end Karl Brooks.
Brooks was tied for the team lead in sacks, but he only had two and the team overall had seven. Expect freshmen Anthony Hawkins and Blaire Spires to round out the starting unit up front, that is very young but does have some athleticism and that should be enough to help keep the Falcons from being the worst rushing defense in the country.
Last year’s leading tackler Darren Anders is back and after posting 55 total tackles in five games last season, he should be over the 100 mark and he will be pivotal in helping Bowling Green turn things around on defense.
Two guys that could be starters this year at linebacker are Brock Horne and Charles Rosser and those are two more inexperienced guys that are going to be counted for this defense this season.
The lone bright spot for the Bowling Green defense was the passing defense, which finished the season ranked as fourth overall.
Now when teams can run all over your defense, they are probably going to throw the ball less and that can lead to deceptive statistics.
However, this is still the best and most experienced unit on the defense. At safety, Sy Dabney and Jordan Anderson return and they should be the leaders of the defense. At corner, Diata Burns is back and look for Kansas transfer Davon Ferguson to get in the mix for a starting job.