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Former Bowling Green coach Dave Clawson, who is entering his seventh season at Wake Forest, has counseled current coach Scot Loeffler as the Falcons attempt to revamp the program.
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Clawson's model, and his advice, still prevalent at Bowling Green

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Clawson's model, and his advice, still prevalent at Bowling Green

BOWLING GREEN — By the end of the 2019 season, Scot Loeffler's preseason observation had been laid bare in front of all to see.

The Bowling Green coach said low numbers — in reference to the amount of scholarship players at BG — would be a major issue, and the Falcons' 3-9 season provided ample evidence.

The Falcons finished Loeffler's year with fewer than 70 scholarship players available due to attrition and injuries. They started three true freshmen in the defensive backfield at one point, and had one available scholarship running back for multiple games. At one point this offseason, transfer Matt McDonald was the only scholarship quarterback on the team.

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But the not-so-distant past yielded a model that Loeffler has leaned on frequently.

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"Coach [Dave] Clawson had the numbers perfectly right," Loeffler said at a November practice. "And that's what we need to get back to."

Aside from borrowing from Clawson's blueprint, Loeffler also has sought advice from the former Bowling Green coach, who is entering his seventh season at Wake Forest.

The two men experienced similar roster situations at BG, though under different circumstances. Loeffler's first team was the result of years of mismanagement, while Clawson faced scholarship reductions due to low Academic Progress Rate scores under the previous staff.

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If anyone understands what Loeffler is trying to accomplish at BG — a years-long refurbishment that prioritizes regional recruiting — it's Clawson.

"Scot and I still talk," Clawson said in an interview with The Blade. "He'll call me up and say, 'Why'd you do this?' or 'Why'd you do that?' He's really trying to do things right and build something that's sustainable.

"I think any coach that reaches out to you like that, you can't help but root for him."

Clawson inherited a front-loaded roster with 22 seniors, little behind them, and scholarship reductions right off the bat. Further, Clawson said a rash of legal incidents involving football players had eroded trust between the program and the university community at large, which weighed heavily on fans and donors.

During his interview with BG after the 2008 season, Clawson mapped out a vision almost identical to the one Loeffler laid out 10 years later: Repairing the roster with mostly Midwestern and western Pennsylvania recruits, prioritizing character, and developing high school players over time.

"I laid out my plan, and I said, 'I'm not taking this job to try and get out of there in one or two years and move on,'" Clawson said. "I wanted to approach the job as if I would be there forever, and build it in a sustainable way where we will have university and community support. I wanted people to feel good about our football program."

The APR penalties set up Clawson with a situation in which, even if the program were to retain every player and sign a full recruiting class, BG would still have scholarship numbers in the mid-70s at best.

The Falcons knew the storm was coming, but opted to think long-term anyway.

"Not only were we going to be young, we were going to be short-handed," Clawson said. "We knew that second year was going to be really rough, and we just said, philosophically, rather than playing a bunch of freshmen who aren't going to be ready, let's bite the bullet. If a kid is truly ready, let's play him, but let's not rush him and compromise the future of the program."

BG went 2-10 in 2010, but after weathering an 0-11 year at Fordham earlier in his career, Clawson said there was no panic among the staff.

BG improved to 5-7 in 2011, then the Falcons went 18-8 in Clawson's final two seasons at BG, culminating with the 2013 Mid-American Conference championship, the school's first since 1992.

Currently, the Falcons are in the early stages of revamping the roster once again, and Clawson said he has been happy to be a resource for Loeffler so the program can return to where it once was.

"It's just one of those places where there's something about that community that just traps you and you fall in love with it," Clawson said. "I have great memories of Bowling Green, and we felt like we made lifetime friends at Bowling Green.

"I always want to see that program do well, and I'll always consider myself a Falcon."

First Published May 9, 2020, 1:00 p.m.

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Former Bowling Green coach Dave Clawson, who is entering his seventh season at Wake Forest, has counseled current coach Scot Loeffler as the Falcons attempt to revamp the program.  (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
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