BOWLING GREEN — The Bowling Green State University football team has fallen on hard times since winning the Mid-American Conference in 2015, having gone 12-36 in the past four years.
The downfall started at the administrative level, and the current administration and new coaching staff has spent the past 18 months trying to undo the damage and repair the program to a championship level once again.
Although Bowling Green's roster construction slacked even before former director of athletics Chris Kingston hired Texas Tech assistant Mike Jinks in late 2015, the Falcons were not short on NFL talent during the 2016 and 2017 seasons.
During those two seasons, Bowling Green had future NFL players at quarterback, wide receiver, and left tackle, another receiver who played in the XFL, and many other solid to very good college players — yet won six games and allowed more than 900 total points in 24 across those two seasons.
Attrition has decimated BG in recent years, but many players from the era still went on to bigger and better things.
James Morgan
Former coach Dino Babers' recruiting classes didn't hold up over the long term — more than half of his signees did not finish their eligibility at BG and only two of his offensive line recruits ever started a game at BG — but there is no denying his ability to spot skill players.
Morgan, a quarterback from Wisconsin, was a stop-the-presses recruit who agreed to come to Bowling Green, and to this day, Morgan remains the highest-rated 247Sports recruit to ever sign with BG.
The problem was that Morgan's best football happened only after he left. By the time he ascended to the starting role, Babers had left for Syracuse, and his first year starting brought a new offense and a coaching staff on which no one had ever been an FBS coordinator.
In two years, Morgan completed 51.9 percent of his passes with 25 touchdowns compared to 22 interceptions, and lost the starting role to then-true freshman Jarret Doege in 2017.
Morgan blossomed after graduate transferring to Florida International, where he set the school record for touchdown passes in a season (26) and the record for career efficiency (143.4). He became a fourth-round pick of the New York Jets on Saturday.
Ryan Hunter
A Dave Clawson recruit, Hunter became one of the top offensive linemen in the MAC. He started every game at left guard during the Falcons' 2015 conference championship season before moving to tackle for his final two years.
Hunter was not selected in the 2018 NFL draft, but signed with the Kansas City Chiefs and has been there ever since. He was on the practice squad for the Super Bowl champions during the past season.
Scott Miller
The speedy wide receiver had only one scholarship offer at the FBS level, yet left Bowling Green as one of the most productive pass-catchers in school history.
Miller piled up more than 2,800 yards receiving and 23 touchdowns from 2016-18 and was named all-MAC three times.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers selected Miller in the sixth round of the 2019 NFL draft, and he quickly impressed during the Bucs' organized team activities and made the 53-man roster. He caught his first-ever NFL touchdown at Ford Field, the same place he won a MAC title as a freshman in 2015.
Teo Redding
Another Clawson recruit, Redding was second team All-MAC as a senior in 2017 and led the team in touchdown receptions with eight. He was not selected in the 2018 NFL Draft, but signed contracts with three teams and played on the practice squad with Green Bay and Washington.
He most recently appeared with the New York Guardians of the XFL, which suspended play after the outbreak of coronavirus.
Attrition
Stable, starting-caliber players like cornerback Marcus Milton, defensive end David Konowalski, and offensive lineman Jack Kramer all finished their careers at Bowling Green — but the program's biggest issue has been that those types of players have been few and far between.
Only four seniors who had signed with BG out of high school remained with the program at the end of 2019, and 38 of 60 players signed in 2016 and 17 were gone by the end of 2019.
Former starters like Austin Valdez (Syracuse), Cam Jefferies (Cincinnati), and Doege (West Virginia) transferred to bigger programs, while many others simply washed out altogether.
The Falcons finished the 2019 season with fewer than 70 scholarship players, and second-year coach Scot Loeffler filled BG’s entire class of 2020 with only high-school players to help mend gaps long-term. After just 12 combined wins during the past four seasons, Bowling Green is in the midst of its worst-ever four-year stretch.
First Published April 27, 2020, 6:46 p.m.
