BOWLING GREEN — One more time, Bowling Green football coach Mike Jinks is circling the wagons.
Problem is, the wagon is on fire, the wheels are falling off, and a dangerous Ottawa River crossing looms.
Consider Saturday the final judgment for Jinks and the Falcons.
If Bowling Green stuns Toledo, let us keep our minds cracked open. If the afternoon is the snoozer oddsmakers anticipate — the Rockets are a 20-point favorite — let us lock them and toss the key.
Sorry, it is time.
That became clear in conversations this week with several well-placed Bowling Green check writers.
For these top Falcons supporters, a rivalry that usually inspires unconditional excitement has given way to a quiet dread, so beaten down are they by a once-proud program that hit bottom last year and is mining for molten iron this season.
“A total train wreck,” one booster said.
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“What’s most frustrating is any time the Toledo-BG thing used to come up, it felt like they were 50-50 games where turnovers would decide it,” another told me. “Right now, we’re not even in the ballpark with Toledo. If we can somehow go up there and pull this off, then I suppose they can evaluate the rest of the season. But my God, I can’t even imagine it.”
“I love Mike,” a third booster said, “but, yes, it’s time.”
On that note, Roll Along!!
I don’t mean to pile on, but if it is hard to imagine the Falcons swooping this low, that’s because we’ve never seen it.
Evidence the College Football Fan Happiness rankings released the other day. ESPN rated every fan base from 0 to 100 based on seven factors, including team success, revenue growth, and Twitter sentiment.
Bowling Green was dead last of 130 teams, earning a Blutarsky-ian 0.0 grade. Hell, BG made Rutgers fans look like Pollyanna.
Which brings us to this crossroads — a mess left behind by former AD Chris Kingston, who in December, 2015, made the put-your-neck-on-the-line hire of a career high school coach with three years experience as a college assistant, then bailed in the night weeks later.
Cash-strapped or not, Bowling Green must decide what is more costly: buying out the final two seasons of Jinks’ five-year, $2.1 million deal or risking that fan anger becomes apathy.
Barring a major turnabout that begins Saturday, the answer is clear.
It is not just that the Falcons are coming off the worst two-year stretch in their 99-year history and are winless against FBS opponents this season.
It is that they are not competitive, falling short of no expectations. (BG is 4-13 against the spread the last two seasons.) It is the lack of player development. The alarming attrition from their well-regarded recruiting classes. The empty talk.
There are no more excuses. Jinks has had time to rebuild his untried staff and recruit three classes, and still it is the same story: a little promise on offense, a lot of problems on defense, and a product that resembles a mid-level FCS program.
The past three weeks, the Falcons allowed more yards rushing (389) than they produced overall in a 42-35 comeback win over FCS-level Eastern Kentucky, fell behind 31-3 against otherwise winless Miami (Ohio) in a must-win league opener, and rolled over in a 63-17 loss at Georgia Tech. The drive chart from the Yellow Jackets’ first seven possessions: Touchdown. Touchdown. Touchdown. Touchdown. Touchdown. Touchdown. Touchdown.
If anything, Bowling Green is backsliding, leaving Jinks to play out the string.
At least in the eyes of those close to the program we granted anonymity to candidly gauge which way the political gusts are blowing.
Even the boosters who continued to support Jinks said the Miami loss was the final straw, and while athletic director Bob Moosbrugger would never tip his hand, one longtime supporter told me there is “zero” chance Jinks is back next year.
Don’t rule out a midseason change, either. The insiders left open the possibility should Bowling Green lose — and look bad doing it — its next three games against Toledo, Western Michigan, and Ohio.
“We have a 10-day period between the Saturday Ohio game and a Tuesday game against Kent State,” one said. “If things continue to go south, it would seem to me that’s the most logical time for it to happen. That would have given Mike and the staff time to try to turn it around.”
Jinks, for his part, believes Bowling Green will. He became animated when I asked him if he believes he can win back support.
“This book has a bunch of chapters left to be written,” Jinks said, “and when the book is written and it’s dead and closed, then you can go write and you can go post what you want to post. There are a lot of guys that have been sitting in the same situation I have. ... This is not an impossible thing to get done, by any means. It’s been done before. We’re doing things the right way, we’re getting quality student-athletes in here, and we will have success.”
Bowling Green's 2018 football schedule
I hope he is right. We’re rooting for him, as always. It’s just hard to see.
Jinks compared his situation to the early struggles league rivals Chuck Martin and Lance Leipold endured at Miami and Buffalo, respectively. The difference is those coaches had experience building college programs — Martin won two Division II national championships at Grand Valley State; Leipold won six D-III titles at Wisconsin-Whitewater — and fielded bowl-eligible teams in their third year.
If Bowling Green rallies to go bowling — or even win five games — we’ll gladly revisit this discussion. Otherwise, three years is time enough to reveal if a coach has that indefinable it quality. Not counting the current bosses, every coach in MAC history who won 10 games or less in his first three years went on to eventually resign or be fired.
Jinks is 7-22 and, unfortunately, traveling the same well-worn road. He still believes he’s the man for the job, but short of a season-reviving upset of Toledo, he may soon be the only one.
Contact David Briggs at dbriggs@theblade.com, 419-724-6084, or on Twitter @DBriggsBlade.
First Published October 2, 2018, 10:20 p.m.
