Bowling Green Falcons College Football Pregame Quote, 08/28/2023

SCOT LOEFFLER: Thank you for all for coming this afternoon and exciting to get to back into football season before we get going. I do want to wish all our fall sports here at BGSU the best of luck. There are some teams that have really started out quite well. There are some teams that are battling some really good competition right now and it’s the wonderful thing about BG is that we are a community here and it’s super exciting to watch all our four fall sports tests success. And we’re going to have a great fall, for sure. Hands down before I came in here, I thought about the last 20 some odd years of coaching and these last nine months, in my opinion, has been a complete 180 in comparison to how business is normally done in college football. There’s a ton of turnover from team to team. Schedules are different, summers different and we’ve, in my opinion, have adapted quite well to the new changes that we were presented. We were able to go out, recruit a bunch of really good guys, and I’m super, super thankful that we have a veteran staff. The old days of going out and recruiting towards your system, those are over and we’ve got a veteran staff that can adapt and adjust and we’ve had to. We’ve had to change significantly what we’re doing on defense. We’ve had to change what we’re doing on offense to adapt to our personnel, so I’m very excited that our coaches were able to adapt and adjust the way that they have. I’m excited to get going. I know our players are. We’ve had a good training camp, a training camp in which we were banged up, particularly early with a lot of players that that couldn’t participate for the first couple weeks. We’re slowly but surely getting healthy, and I’m sure that’s the problem with everyone right now is being able to get through that training camp and maintain some health super excited to announce our captains, on defense it’s Darren Anders, Anthony Hawkins, Davon Ferguson and on offense it’s Levi Gazarek and OJ Hilaire. So super proud of those guys. I think our team elected those guys and any time your team elects the right guys, you know that you’ve got a chance. I’ve been on teams that that they haven’t elected the right guys and I’m super excited that we picked some really, really good captains. I think you’re going to hear from them this afternoon a ton of respect for Liberty.

I think they’ve over the last couple of years have done a great job of dumping a ton of money into football and they’ve completely changed and moved the needle of that program. I know Jamey Chadwell coming from Coastal Carolina is going to do a great job at that at Liberty, great scheme, fun to watch on tape. We are super excited to go down and really be in a game equivalent to, probably the best talent that we’re going to see in our conference. Liberty has got very good football players they play hard, and I know Jamie’s scheme is difficult and we got to go down there and play our best football to get a win down in liberty.

Q. On the starting quarterback situation

LOEFFLER: We do. And I’m not going to announce it until Saturday. Our team knows exactly who’s starting, and it doesn’t give us any advantage whatsoever to say who’s starting and who’s not right now. So, we do, we have a starter and we will handle that just like we would any linebacker position or receiver position. That’ll be announced on game day.

Q. It’s been 20 years since the Falcons and the Flames have played against each other, but Liberty got a taste of the MAC last year, falling to Toledo in the Boca Raton Bowl. And what are you expecting the biggest challenges that they will pose?

LOEFFLER: I think they’re super talented. I put their talent equivalent to a MAC championship type of team. That’s why the game came right down to the wire last year with Toledo and Liberty. We’re going to have to go and play a game like we played against Toledo. We’re going to play our very best football. They’re extremely talented. And there’s a lot of unknown because of they’ve got a new staff there.

These openers are weird because of the turnover that you have with players. It’s just like I said, significantly, we’re different on defense, we’re different on offense than what we’ve ever been, and we have to, we got to adapt and adjust to our talent. Now the days of recruiting towards your system, those are over, and you got to adapt and adjust to what you have. And I think we’ve done a good job with that.

Q. You mentioned that you have a veteran staff also have a lot of veteran players.

How does that benefit you guys? Having transfers that have had time on the field.

LOEFFLER: It’s night and day compared to all those kids that were able to make it through those dark years, the stories that we have are priceless. We could all write a book, and it would all be a best seller to say the least. But I’m very proud and very excited where we’ve come. Like I said last year, we went from being god awful to being relevant again, and now we got to take those next steps and we’ve got a challenge in front of us because of the schedule but we are going to play and go see what happens.

Q. Last year, the transfer portal you talked about being weary of it and just selecting individuals that could help positionally where you needed help. It sounds like that has changed in the last 12 months or so. You are kind of looking now at the what the best players that are available and tweaking your system compared to what you’re able to bring in here or talk about your philosophy.

LOEFFLER: It changed significantly where we were recruiting before the transfer portal. It was going to be the four-hour radius, high school kids. And just like I said in year three, we probably could have gone down the same path that we went down last year and probably would have the same results, but we chose to go down the high school year, one more, one more go-around. This year we’re recruiting a ton of high school kids, to be honest with you. It’s just where we’re at with our roster, there’s some spots that we have some very good players at that we can go get high school kids and develop them behind the kids that we have. The COVID year is over so we’re going to have a big class this year in terms of, a lot more spots than what we’ve ever had. And now there is no such thing as having 25 counters. We could possibly be bringing in 40 new kids, but we’re doing a significant right now I believe in the state of Ohio and Michigan, we’re doing a really good job with the commitments that we have right now. So will the transfer portal, will we not recruit from there? Of course, we’re going to recruit from there, but this whole thing can be completely changed. Our game plan of how we’re doing business right now could be totally changed in December and all of a sudden you lose 15, 20 guys and your whole philosophy needs to adapt and adjust. So, I think it was at the beginning of my statement, you got adapt and adjust every minute of the day. These last 9 months we’ve had to adapt and adjust and just like I said, with the one-time transfer rule and the ability for kids to move on. Your whole recruiting board can change significantly fast in two weeks, so you put a plan together, you go attack the plan and you better be able to adapt and adjust fast.

Q. You mentioned after the bowl game that you’re going to run the ball this year, what’s the running game looking and what’s the offensive line looking like? Is that that unit, especially the offensive line, ready to take the next step?

LOEFFLER: They’re better, Greg Nosal I think has done wonderful job with them and we’ve got some guys that are banged up in that area right now, but we are better. We’re much improved having the running backs back help and just like I said, you’ll see some things that are totally different with us right now and it’s all predicated on the new personnel that we have.

Q. With the five road games in the first seven games. I mean, obviously there’s tough opponents in there, but how do you embrace the fact that you guys are really going to be away from home here a lot this first month and half.

LOEFFLER: It’s completely out of our control. The Michigan Game is at 7 o’clock at night and the Ohio U, Iowa State games at noon. And they’re in Athens. You got adapt and adjust. It is what it is. We have no control over that whatsoever, but what we do have control over is tomorrow’s Tuesday’s practice.

Wednesday’s practice, and I’ve told our team, we’re not looking, we’re not even looking ahead to or towards Liberty’s game. We’re going to worry about Tuesday’s practice, to be quite honest with you, and that’s the life that we’ve got to live when you got a tough schedule, the way that we do, you’ve got to take advantage of every single day you let a day slip by, and you start your mind starts wandering about. Georgia Tech, Michigan, Ohio U, Eastern Illinois, if you’re, if your mind starts wandering, you’re going to get your tail pretty quick. So, we’re focusing on tomorrow’s practice to be quite honest with you.

Q. Even though you are kind of taking it day by day, it is week one. But how does it feel like in the locker room?

LOEFFLER: I don’t know if I have just done this a long time. But I know that the players are excited.

I do know it’s just what you know when you’re done around a bunch of veteran coaches. It’s just what we do, it’s how we’re used to it. So, is it exciting for the players? Absolutely. And I’m excited for them.

And I would go out play and they put a lot of work into it. They have let a lot of guys come into their locker room, and they’ve molded together. And just like I said, the thing that makes me proud is that if you talk to Darren Anders and you talk to one of our transfers that just got here in the summertime, they are the same guy, you really can’t tell the difference between our transfers and our guys that have been around here. So, I think we’ve done a good job of bringing the right guys in here and it’s a slippery slope. You bring two or three bad apples into that locker room you can ruin it pretty fast.