And the kickoff coverage is that good?  And, we still move the ball on offense.

My full report is posted, but I really think we are making progress.

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Click here……

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The 2006 Falcon football season is not one that will be held high in the memory of Bowling Green fans. There was inconsistent quarterback play, horrendous tackling techniques, not-so special teams, the worst loss in the history of Doyt Perry Stadium, a loss to perennial doormat Temple, and a five-game losing streak to close out the season. The home slate ended with missed field goal on what appeared to be Arnold the Pig’s play area. The off season saw an exodus of support staff coaches and the triple guessing of every move made by Head Coach Gregg Brandon. All seemed lost on the Falcon ship and the declining season-by-season record had many fans comparing this GB to a previous GB who saw early success on the Falcon sidelines only to see his teams slip away from him. Heck, going in to fall camp the starting quarterback position was up for grabs. Anthony Turner was supposed to be Josh Harris’ running ability with Omar Jacobs’ arm. He had an average first year as a starter last year but the bottom line was that a team with the M.A.C.’s most prolific aerial attack over the past few years had to nearly completely abandon the pass and ended up leading the conference in rushing.

We weren’t quite sure what we would see on opening Saturday as true sophomore Tyler Sheehan, who was named the starter earlier in the week, trotted out on the Metrodome carpet. Was it a ploy? Would he play a few downs only to have Turner come in? Were we going to run the ball and hope for the best? Could this green quarterback mature and at least get have a 1:1 td-interception ration? (Sheehan threw zero tds while passing for balls to the other team last year). Our questions were answered and answered rather quickly as the Falcons marched down the field in 4 plays to open the season with a touchdown. The wide open offense was back. Falcon Football Was Back!

After Minnesota overcame the 21 point Falcon lead at the half to force overtime it was Sheehan who once again came up big. He broke the huddle and barked out instructions to his squad like a cagey veteran and coolly delivered the two-point conversion strike to Freddie Barnes in the front corner of the end zone to lead the orange and brown past the Golden Gophers.

One week down, one victory in the books and it was on to Big Ten opponent number two. The Michigan State Spartans weren’t exactly Minnesota. This was a team that absolutely steam-rolled Alabama-Birmingham in week one. State literally plowed right over them as their back up bruiser of a tailback accounted for four scoring touchdowns. The one area that has become disgustingly worse over the past few seasons has been the Falcons ability to stop the run and specifically big powerful tailbacks. Brian Calhoun of Wisconsin still has dreams of running against BG… heck even A’mod Ned of Florida International sliced through the Falcon defense like a hot knife through butter. The Michigan State game would be a true test. The Vegas oddsmakers gave the Spartans an 18 point advantage. The Michigan State game would really let us see what kind of team we had this year on the banks of the Poe Ditch.

Did the Falcons beat the Spartans? No. But they held their own taking a tie game to the half and never staying too far out of contention. Sheehan and the boys kept the Spartan third stringers on the sidelines. We moved the ball well and more importantly showed we could contain a big time ground game. Nobody likes the moral victory implication from this game. We all wanted to win. We all wanted to feel the elation of knocking off two Big Ten foes in one season. We wanted the Cole Magner end around for two and a Chad Long interception or a fourth down Josh Harris to Charles Sharon catch. But what we got instead was a little more insight to the 2007 edition of the Falcon football team. They played hard, consistently, and continued to show great promise. It wasn’t a moral victory, but perhaps it could be best summed up as a morale victory. Ten months ago if I were offered a 1-1 split to start this year I would have taken it no questions asked. I’d still take an 0-2 start for a M.A.C. title, but that is out of my control. The fact that Falcon fans are even remotely and in all seriousness hinting at a run for the title is a testament to this team’s determination and the coaching staff’s focus. To that I say thank you, this looks to be an exciting year of Falcon football and you better believe that teams across the league have taken notice.

I’ll end this blog post with a quote that can be racked up to sophomore naivety, but I’d rather call it Falcon confidence:

“There’s no doubt losing’s hard. I don’t care who we’re playing, I think we should win. We could play the Indianapolis Colts and I think we’d have a shot to win.” –Tyler Sheehan.

That swagger is back, baby.

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Back at it this week, with a fresh new install of the Big Ten Network and a pile of web-related work to do, I’ll give the liveblog thing another shot.

About the Big Ten… it’s not that they’ve said anything patently untrue, but these pregame analysts make Karl Rove look like an undecided voter. And the sideline analyst for the BG-MSU game just looks angry. Maybe she’s just mad that Corey Partridge isn’t playing thanks to last week’s high ankle sprain. It’ll be a tough go without him, obviously, but as has been alluded to all week, the MAC is more important to this team, especially with a win against a Big Ten team already in the bag.

BG wins the toss for the third time this year, and they’re taking the ball again. If they take more than four plays to score on this drive, I’ll be disappointed.
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At Glasstech, we build furnaces to temper glass. This process is both physical and chemical and works by heating things up to VERY high temperatures and then cooling them down again. This process creates stress in the glass and makes it much stronger and safer. Tempered glass is a requirement on all passenger automobiles and in many architectural applications.

I think the optimism among the Falcon Nation is fantastic. I love when we have something to cheer about and the Minnesota win was nothing short of amazing! An exciting finish to a great game that saw us knock off a Big-10 foe on their home turf. Great individual performances all over the place and some gutsy play calling that we haven’t been accustomed to recently.

HOWEVER, I think we need to step back a minute and remember what we’re dealing with here. 4 days ago, the opinions of this team were pretty low. Expectations from most were that we’d be a bottom-tier MAC team. Very few gave us much of a chance against Minnesota. But now, with an upset victory, all of the sudden “We’re BACK” and “We’ve got a great chance to win the MAC East” etc???

Look, I wear the Burnt Orange glasses as often as the next guy, all I’m asking is that we take a step back and look at the reality of the situation. We still have a young squad with a sophomore taking snaps as the QB. There are going to be ups and downs and, while Tyler looked great on Saturday, he may not every week. Personally, I’m going to temper my optimism by cooling it down a little bit. Hopefully, like glass that’s treated the same way, it will end up making me stronger and able to weather the ups and downs that are likely to present themselves this season.

I’d love nothing more than to go into MSU and come away with a “shock the world” type of upset, but the reality of the situation is that it’s a long season with lots of opportunities to win and lose. We look to be off to a great start! I’m going to approach each game cautiously though and guard my optimism.

This ends my public service announcement.

Now, about basketball season….

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But just how big was it?

In reading many reports following Bowling Green’s surprising 32-31 victory over Big Ten Conference member Minnesota I was struck by the lack of respect being shown the Falcons. On a day when the winning-est college football program of all-time fell to a national power from a subdivision below I found time and time again the BG win was being lumped into a similar category. Time and time again the reports, both AP and local Minneapolis media, were commenting on how the Gophers fell in the season opener to a lowly MAC school. A lowly MAC school that won but four games last season and racked up eight loses- including one to Temple- and lost five straight to close out the ’06 campaign.

Look, I get it. The name Bowling Green doesn’t resonate with the Notre Dames and Southern Cals of the world, but we ain’t exactly an upstart. I think most casual college football observers- read dudes that get their fix from SportsCenter and follow Big State U.- would have BG on their radars at the very least. We do have a strong history and rich tradition.
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Nothing like a win to make everything look better. After last year’s close, the program needed the win we got last night. It was a good win. We see we may have a Quarterback, and maybe the team was talented but young last season. Especially in the Eastern Division of the MAC, you have to believe every game is winnable.

Here’s my post on the game on Falcon Nation…

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In 21 minutes, the BG faithful get to finally settle in for another college football season. In what has been a ho-hum day of football outside of Blacksburg and/or Ann Arbor, there’s no denying the excitement of a packed house, the banging of drums and blaring of various shiny-like instruments and the hope that a new season brings.

To touch on the first two locales of note before winding up the gears for BG to take the field (in 19 minutes now), the Virginia Tech ceremony and College Gameday gushing was nice, and most likely appropriate, but at the risk of sounding cold, I hope it takes a backseat for awhile. Mike Tirico may think he’s at his best when he’s waxing poetic about current events, etc., but at some point, you have to shut up and call the game.

As for the Michigan loss, it has brought out a lot of what is right and a lot of what is wrong with college football today. The celebration of the Appalachian State players after the win is some of what makes the game great. The talk (and realization) that Michigan’s “season is over”, since they’re likely out of the national title hunt, shoves in our face the fact that big-time college football will never again be about the colors and pageantry of a fall Saturday afternoon, but it’s about business. The fact that not only do national publications push “Heisman candidates” before the lines are painted for the previous year’s bowl season, but the Big East now includes its own “Heisman hopefuls” in the official conference television commercial almost makes me ill. At the same time, it also makes me a billion times more excited for the Falcons to get underway (in 13 minutes). While wins matter as much as they do anywhere, and money games are as important as getting those wins at this level, there’s still a little something pure about MAC football (even on fake grass) that you can’t help but love.

A liveblog, or semblance of one therein, may appear after the fold. If not, here are a couple others you can follow along with:

The Futon Report
The BG News Sports Blog

GO FALCONS!
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