GAME 1: OHIO STATE v BOWLING GREEN

GAME 1            OHIO STATE v BOWLING GREEN

September 3, 2016                             Ohio Stadium              Columbus, OH

Bowling Green Falcons

Location: Bowling Green, OH

Stadium: Doyt Perry Stadium (24,000)

Coach: Mike Jinks (1^st year): 0-0 first head coaching job

Series: OSU w 4, Bowling Green 0

Last Meeting: 10/7/2006: OSU 35, Bowling Green 7

Coach Meyer: (5^th year) 50-4 at OSU/154-27 overall, 0-0 v Bowling Green

2015 Bowling Green Falcons (10-4)(8-1)MAC          2015 Ohio State Buckeyes (12-1)(7-1)B1G

30        Tennessee                   59                                42        at Virginia Tech                      24

48        at Maryland                27                                38        Hawaii                                      0

41        Memphis                     44                                20        Northern Illinois                      13

35        at Purdue                    28                                38        Western Michigan                   12

28        at Buffalo                    22                                34        at Indiana                                27

62        Massachusetts            38                                49        Maryland                                 28

59        Akron                        10                                38        Penn State                               10

48        at Kent State                0                                49        at Rutgers                                 7

62        Ohio University           24                                28        Minnesota                               14

41        at Western Michigan    27                                28        at Illinois                                   3

28        Toledo                        44                                14        Michigan State                        17

48        at Ball State                10                                42        at Michigan                             13

34        Northern Illinois          14                                44        Notre Dame                            28

(MAC Championship)                                                  (Fiesta Bowl)

27        Georgia Southern        58

           

2016 Bowling Green Falcons                                     2016 Ohio State Buckeyes

S3        at Ohio State                                                   S3        Bowling Green

S10      North Dakota                                                  S10      Tulsa

S17      Middle Tennessee                                           S17      at Oklahoma

S24      at Memphis                                                     S24     

O1       Eastern Michigan                                             O1       Rutgers

O8       at Ohio University                                           O8       Indiana

O15     at Toledo                                                        O15     at Wisconsin

O22     Miami University                                             O22     at Penn State

O29                                                                             O29     Northwestern

N5        at Northern Illinois (N1)                                  N5        Nebraska

N12      at Akron (N9)                                                  N12      at Maryland

N19      Kent State (N15)                                              N19      at Michigan State

N26      Buffalo (N25)                                                  N26      Michigan

The 2016 season starts off with the Bowling Green Falcons paying a visit hoping to get their fifth win over a B1G school in the last three seasons.  Brand-new collegiate coach Mike Jinks has drawn a tough first assignment., yet the Falcons are expected to once again contend for another MAC Championship game appearance this year.  

BOWLING GREEN OFFENSE v OHIO STATE DEFENSE: Bowling Green’s offense put up quite a bit of yardage and points a year ago.  In order to replicate that, BGSU hopes that the new starter at QB, James Knappe, will be a good replacement for 2015 MAC Offensive Player of the Year Matt Johnson.  Knappe comes in with a good deal of experience, having started most of the 2014 season after Johnson sustained a season-ending knee injury.  He threw for 395 yards against Indiana and 443 against UMASS in 2014.  Fred Coppet will be the new starter at RB, but he managed very well in a back up role last year, getting 825 yards and over 5.5 yards per carry,  a short, “scat-back” kind of runner, Coppet possess speed and elusiveness.  The Falcons like to spread the field and will play quite a bit of four, and even five wideout sets.  Knappe will look to take short drops and get the ball out quickly, usually to his favorite target Ronnie Moore, who hauled in 72 receptions for 951 yards and six touchdowns a year ago.  Teo Redding, Scott Miller, and Deric Phouthavong are all short, quick receivers who will look to exploit seams and gaps in OSU’s zone coverages.  Off those three, Redding has the most experience, grabbing 13 receptions for 222 yards and three scores in 2015.  Miller had seven receptions and Phouthavong is a newcomer to the starting lineup and may line up tight from time to time to give Bowling Green some extra blocking to the strong side.  The Falcons enter 2016 with probably the most experienced offensive line in the country.  Bowling Green returns players who have accounted for 114 career starts in Logan Dietz (41), Tim McAuliffe (28) Ben Steward (15), Ryan Hunter (15), and J.J. Beggan (15).  They will be at the focal point of the battle if BGSU is to make headway against a talented, if inexperienced OSU defensive front.  Sam Hubbard and Tyquan Lewis have the most experience of Ohio State’s front four.  Hubbard had a great performance in the Fiesta Bowl win over Notre Dame in place of Joey Bosa after he was ejected for targeting.  Of his 28 tackles a year ago, eight were for loss, including six sacks.  Tyquan Lewis figures to be just as good, if not better at the other DE spot as he accounted for 54 stops and a whopping 14 tackles for loss and eight sacks.  Tracy Sprinkle and Michael Hill take over in the interior of OSU’s defensive line.  Hill had 12 tackles and Sprinkle four in limited action as backups.  When Bowling Green runs the ball, they may try to run between the tackles and see if their experienced offensive line will allow them to run straight at Hill and Sprinkle, figuring they’d have a better chance there, than trying to run at Lewis or Hubbard.  Chris Worley and Dante Booker had some experience at OLB in their backup roles a year ago with 17 and 22 tackles respectively, but it will ne MLB Raekwon McMillan that will be the leader of this defensive unit.  The leading tackler a year ago with 119 tackles, McMillan figures to be on the cusp of a breakout year as he can play run support and cover the short passing routes with equal skill.  The Buckeyes figure to use him quite a bit in covering some of those short, quick hitch routes while blitzing either Worley or Booker in passing situations.  Ohio State’s secondary returns only one starter in CB Gareon Conley and figure he will match up and try to take away the deep threat from BGSUs Moore and allow the quick Denzel Ward and Malik Cooper to play run support and stop the quick throws into the flat.  Junior Damon Webb could also rotate over on Moore and allow Conley to cover other receivers depending on down and distance.

                                             QB James Knappe

BOWLING GREEN DEFENSE v OHIO STATE OFFENSE: Bowling Green defensive coordinator Perry Eliano inherits an opportunistic defense that returns six starters.  BGSU’s defense ranked eighth in the country in 2015 with 20 interceptions and 13^th in turnovers forced with 27.  Senior DE Terrance Bush leads the way up front with 50 tackles a year ago, including eight TFLs and six sacks.  Next to him will be classmate Izaah Lunsford, who got in on 17 stops, including 3.5 TFLs and 2.5 sacks.  Shannon Smith and David Koniwalski will round out the BGSU defensive front with 18 and five tackles respectively a year ago.  The linebackers are destined to be the backbone of this defense with returning starters Trenton Greene and Austin Valdez,  In fact, Valdez was named first team All-MAC in 2015 and led the team in tackles with 101.   Greene was second team All-MAC and was also second on the team in tackles with 97.  Jack Walz had 3.5 tackles in limited playing time last year.   The BGSU secondary is relatively young, with junior Alfonso Mack leading the way at CB.  Mack leads the secondary in tackles with 49.  He is also BGSU’s best cover man, with six interceptions last year.  Senior Will Watson will get his first start in the secondary at the other CB , while Jamari Bozeman and Joseph Davidson, both sophomores, will be in at the safety positions.  Ohio State’s offense may try to steer clear of Mack and go after the inexperienced safeties with deep routes over the top with Noah Brown and Corey Smith.  With H-back Curtis Samuel thrown into the mix, it could make it hard for the BGSU linebackers to cover the short routes, especially if their defensive line is having trouble at the line of scrimmage with Ohio State’s ground game.  Ohio State’s offense will test the perimeter of the BGSU defense with Samuel and the dual-threat capability of quarterback J.T. Barrett.

                                              LB Austin Valdez

Special Teams: BGSU will have a new field goal specialist in sophomore Jake Suder, while sophomore punter Joseph Davidson is on the Ray Guy watch list after averaging over 46 yards per punt.

SUMMARY: Bowling Green is once again poised to be a force in the MAC and has talent on the offensive line and at linebacker.  They will want to test their offensive line against Ohio State’s interior defensive line early to see if they can get any kind of ground game going and may try a lot of zone running plays.  Western Michigan had some success with those kinds of runs against the defense last year.  If they can’t, they’ll have to rely on their line to try to negate the speed of Ohio State’s pass rush with Hubbard and Lewis off the ends; a very tough duo to stop.  Bowling Green is good enough to be able to hang in there for a while, but they cannot match Ohio State’s athleticism, speed, and depth.

                                         OHIO STATE 38, BOWLING GREEN 14