Bowling Green Falcons College Football Pregame Quote, 09/22/2025

Question: Thoughts on diving straight into tough MAC play?

Coach George: On to the next team on our schedule. I think it’s good that you see a quality opponent early on in the in the MAC schedule. It’ll set the tone moving forward. A lot of ball has to be played between now and November, but like you said, they’re very talented. They’re the defending champions and this will be our first real big test, in terms of in-conference, on the road coming off of last week. So, we have our hands, our work cut out for us this week.

Question: What stands out from watching Parker Navarro?

Coach George: Parker Navarro is a phenomenal player, probably the best quarterback in the conference.

His playmaking ability with his arm, certainly with his legs, the ability to extend plays. He’s really smart with the football, doesn’t make a lot of mistakes at all. He’s very careful in terms of protecting the football and getting it to the wide receivers, but his legs make the difference, you got to get him down.

Especially on critical downs, he’s able to make those these plays happen. So, we want to be really mindful of both, and do a great job of putting us in position to make plays.

Question: What do you like most about what you’ve seen these last four games? What do you want to see improved?

Coach George: I think we’ve improved week to week, even through our setbacks and losses. I’ve seen some improvement last week. Our goal was not to give up any sacks. We did just that, zero sacks against a unit that’s produced 10 on the year.

We’re able to move the football fairly effectively, develop some type of efficient run game. We didn’t give up the explosives in our pass game like we did a couple of weeks ago. So, we’re showing some growth in the back end of our defense.

We won the fourth quarter, yet again, in a loss. Every game that we play, we pride ourselves and really focus on winning the fourth quarter, regardless of the score. So those things were growing. Now where we have to get better at, is our passing game.

I believe in Drew. I think we were doing the right things. Just getting out of rhythm, certainly last game didn’t help matters. Throwing two picks didn’t help matters. A bad read on his behalf, on the first one. The second one was a miscommunication

Those guys did a nice job of scheming some things up, of having a week to prepare for us. So, there’s an opportunity to grow and learn. The encouraging part is that we finish strong, we threw a touchdown pass at the end, but we have to be more effective and efficient in our passing attack.

When the opportunities are there, we got to hit the open receiver. When the receiver’s hands are there, and the ball is there, better catch it. That’s how we’re going to build momentum by marrying the run game with our passing attack and building an offense that can score points in the red zone.

Again, we’ve got to be able to score touchdowns and not turnovers, not penalties. That’s setting us back from keeping it going. So, I’m fairly pleased with our effort, the things that we can control. Our effort, our attitude, our attentions, our physicality, it’s showing up. So, you got to be really mindful of that. Discipline is something that we’re always talking about in our program. The discipline of staying onsides, eliminating the mental errors, eliminating penalties that can put us in positions to not be successful. Those things are never ending. So that’s the ongoing thing for the rest of the season.

Question: Lucian Anderson III was successful running the ball, how important is it for him to be a passing threat as well?

Coach George: Yeah, Lucian has improved tremendously since the spring. I really tip my hat off to him and his ability to not get down on himself, not go in the tank. To find ways to get better when he’s not getting reps. You often see him behind the first team offense going through mental reps, going through the body language as if he’s out there, going through his progressions as if he’s getting a rep. That’s paying off dividends for him, for us.

We felt like Lucien’s legs is going to be a huge factor for us, certainly going into conference play. There are some things he can do throwing the football.

We don’t want to put a whole menu on him, in terms of the entire offense. I think there are some things that he can definitely do. You feel confident in him, and he feels confident in doing as well, executing, throwing the football.

We’re finding out this guy can roll. A 75-yard touchdown run against a really good opponent, we want to expound on that. So, we look for ways to make that happen this week.

Question: Any update on Dorian Pringle?

Coach George: Yes, Dorian unfortunately will be out for the rest of the year, out with a torn ACL. It happened against Liberty a week ago. We were optimistic that it would hopefully be a sprain, but it turned out to be what we initially thought it was going to be. So, it’s unfortunate for Dorian.

I think he was having a phenomenal year, really maturing into the quarterback of the defense, becoming one of one of our most valued leaders, really the MVP for our defense. He’s grown so much, and we will continue to do that off the field, but this is an opportunity for the younger guys to come in, step in, find out who they are, grow. We talked about the power of the unit. This is a part of it. You know, in football, you’re gonna have casualties in war, man. That’s unfortunately the bad part about it, but that’s what he preaches: you’re only one play away from being a starter and having a tremendous impact on our team. So, when you’re not getting the reps, or you’re not getting the opportunities, your opportunity is coming. So, you better be ready when it does come.

So, I think guys are starting to understand that and take ownership of that.

What can the team do to improve defensively?

Certainly, within our passing defense. I think you saw that.

Really good quarterback. Exceptional receivers. When you go up for 50/50 balls and the receiver comes down with one, you got to live with that. I was encouraged to see that guys weren’t being cut loose. The communication on the back end is much better, and it is what it is. You look at it, you say, hey, their receivers are pretty good. Their guys weren’t able to get them down and our defense was exposed to a lot of plays in that third quarter. We had nine plays with nine yards on offense in the third quarter, and our defense was out there quite a bit. It was hot, they were tired, but they fought.

We held a team that was explosive to four field goals in the second half, and that’s encouraging. You look to build off of toughness and mental toughness and typically in a game like that, a team that’s not mature or doesn’t have the physical or mental toughness to strong, that game gets way out of hand quickly and I didn’t want to see anybody quit. That’s important. You got to find out who is going to continue to compete regardless of the score and have pride in who you are, what you’re trying to do, what you’re trying to accomplish, and see the bigger picture. Nobody pointed fingers. Nobody got down. Nobody would say, hey, we’re throwing a towel. Everybody still fought.

We walk out of there not feeling the best, but feeling encouraged that, hey, we’ve got to continue to learn and grow and inspire again our self-discipline. We, this team, this unit, have to really tighten the screws on and that’s what we’re going to focus on this week.

Question: You’ve outscored your opponent in the fourth quarter every game this year, how important is that heading into conference play?

Coach George: Knowing we’ve done it, we can do it, it’s great. We’ve got to get off to a much faster start. That’s only going to be done with repetition, diligence and resilience.

That’s what we have to do is really harp on that. I mean, not every team in the country is dealing with something that they have to work on. There’s no perfect team out there. You know, you look at the number one team in the country. I’m pretty sure Ryan Day is finding out, hey, we have to get better at by seasons end.

So, the fact that we were, I guess, second in the country in terms of first-time starters, and we’re able to find ways to win in the fourth quarter, something that we preach and build on every single day that we’re in the building.

We talk about finishing strong in the fourth quarter, built for the 4th quarter. That’s what we call it. No matter what it is, we’re going to outscore you, out punch you, out last you, out hit you, in that final quarter and the final outcome will be what it’s going to be. That’s just the mentality.

So, to see that coming to fruition is really gratifying, and it tells me that we’re doing the right things. We got to continue to do those things, harp on it. It doesn’t mean you throw your helmet out there and hey, we finished the last four games strong.

We got to go out, put a whole game together and finish strong in the fourth quarter. I know that we can do it.

Question: When you think of the MAC, what comes to mind?

Coach George: Just talented football teams, great coaching. All the teams are relatively the same. A team with no wins? It’s more likely they can beat you on any given Saturday. So, the margin of error is very slim. Exciting football, tough nosed, hard, disciplined football. That’s what I think about when I think about the MAC and it’s going to be exciting to get into league play.