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5) BOWLING GREEN - Coach Gregg Brandon's Falcons have seen their lustre diminish the last two seasons. In Brandon's first two seasons at BGSU the Falcons were a combined 20-6 with two bowl appearances, a far cry from their 10-13 showing over the last two years and a poor 7-9 mark against the MAC's top foes and must competes CMU, NIU, Miami (1-3), Ohio, Toledo (1-3) and WMU.
Last year's underclassmen laden team suffered thru QB woes and horrible special teams play. However, 8 starters return on offense needing to replace two guards and a tight-end, while the defense returns 10 players including 4 of their top 5 tacklers along with all their DBs who accounted for 12 INTs. Defense was their strong suit last season finishing 4th in the league in total defense, 7th against the run, and 4th versus the pass. Still, the Falcons could only muster 7 sacks and were 11th in scoring defense giving up 26.8ppg. Erique Dozier is a mainstay with 82 tackles and 8 tackles for loss along with Dyial Briggs who has 11.5 sacks thru his sophomore year and should be even more of a force this year.
The question of potential lies with the Falcons offense. They ranked 10th in passing efficiency AND passing offense using no less than 3 QBs during the season. Anthony Turner saw the most time under center throwing for 1596 yards, running for 480 yards, and amassing just over one-half of the Falcons total offensive output with 2076 of their 4149 yards. Often used Freddie Barnes threw 50 passes for 210 yards, ran for 442 more, and even caught 20 passes for 203 yards in Brandon's wide open full throttle quarterback by committee philosophy. Chris Bullock was the leading rusher with 798 yards and a 4.8ypc average.
If BGSU can establish some solid play at the QB position they could make a move in the standings. Kicking was also a problem in 2006 with just under a 33 yard per punt average, 3 blocked FGs, and only 9 FG attempts making just 4. Two JUCO transfers have been asked to improve those numbers.