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| | Saturday, September 2 Bowling Green rolling for winning season | |||||
| By George Porter Special to ESPN.com Bowling Green Falcons 1999 record: 5-6 (3-5 MAC) Coach: Gary Blackney Returning starters: 14 (5 offense, 9 defense) Outlook The pressure is on coach Gary Blackney to produce the first winning season since 1994. How will the players adjust to five new assistant coaches brought in by Blackney? Andy Sahm gets the job at quarterback after sharing most of the season with Ricky Schneider. Sahm will still be throwing passes to junior wide receiver Kurt Gerling, but will miss speedster Robert Redd, who transferred to Louisville. The backfield is packed with speed behind junior running backs Joe Alls and Godfrey Lewis. Last season the twosome combined for 1,092 yards and ten touchdowns. The Falcons did struggle near the endzone, as evidenced by K Jason Starrer's huge point total. They will need to improve on that this season. The defense is returning nine starters, but still has some work to do. The front seven only recorded 17 sacks last year as opposed to 29 by their opponents. Linebackers Khary Campbell and Gary Fisher need to have big seasons. Chad Long and fellow junior safety Karl Rose are back to combine arguable the best safety combination in the MAC, but the cornerbacks are huge question marks. Last year, Long lead the team in tackles with 111 as a safety, but someone has to stop the ball from getting to Long or it will be another disappointing season for coach Blackney. Keep an eye on ... Chad Long. He's a playmaker on defense, but it sure would be nice if he didn't have to make every single one of them. It's a good season if ... Andy Sahm can make the adjustment of being the premier quarterback. Having Joe Alls and Godfrey Lewis repeat their success of last season will help, but if Sahm plays well, Bowling Green could get a winning record. |
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