BOWLING GREEN — Aug. 29 is eons away by football standards, and Bowling Green is using its ample time to experiment.
The Falcons, in their first 15 practices under new coach Scot Loeffler, are doing a bit of everything on offense during the spring. The Falcons’ offensive identity, at least for now, is liable to change by the day.
A longtime offensive coordinator, Loeffler said Bowling Green is in the process of installing several different concepts to see what is best suited to the roster on hand.
“What we’re doing is we’re putting more in than we ever have,” Loeffler said. “We don’t know who we are, so we’re trying to find who we are.”
Bowling Green, which ran mostly spread offense under former coach Mike Jinks, can’t say for sure what its offense will look like when it takes the field in the season opener against Morgan State.
What the Falcons do know is most of the offense is coming back. Quarterback Jarret Doege led the Mid-American Conference in touchdown passes during the regular season as a sophomore. The entire backfield, including starting running back Andrew Clair, returns, as do four of five starting offensive linemen and receivers Quintin Morris and RB Marlow III.
Bowling Green thinks it has the pieces in place to experiment now.
“I feel it’s great for what this offense needs and this team needs from a personnel standpoint,” senior offensive lineman Jack Kramer said. “It kind of throws teams off because you don’t really know what to expect.”
So far, the Falcons’ playbook has been an offensive buffet.
Loeffler said the Falcons are blending everything from pro-style concepts to spread offense to power looks and even the option.
“The cool thing about the offense is it’s extremely flexible. We can go in any direction we want to go,” Loeffler said.
Bowling Green still has six practices remaining this month, including its annual spring game at noon April 20 at Doyt Perry Stadium.
Loeffler said he wanted to use these 15 practice to mold a system to his players, not the other way around.
“We’re trying to put as much in as we can right now to identify who we are, what we can do, and what our kids can do,” Loeffler said. “In the summertime, we’ll taper it and make it tight. Then in training camp, it’ll be more of what we’re totally used to as a staff.”
Bowling Green is thin in terms of personnel at many positions, something Loeffler and the coaching staff will attempt to address.
But so far this spring, the Falcons’ adaptation to new concepts has been a mixed bag.
“There are some really good things at times, where you go, ‘OK, we’ve got a shot.’ Then there are times you go, ‘What are we doing?’” Loeffler said. “At times, even when you have a championship football team, that’s what spring football feels like anyway.”
However, BG thinks this is only the start of what could become one of the better offenses in the MAC next year.
With nine practices in the books, the Falcons see promise in what their offense could look like when actual games arrive.
“As the weeks go on, we’re just implementing those installs into the ones we’ve already installed, and just keep things rolling,” Kramer said. “Things are fitting really well together right now. Everything is going really well.”
First Published April 8, 2019, 6:54 p.m.
