MAC media day: BGSU football optimistic heading into 2023 season

DETROIT — Bowling Green State University’s football team was picked to finish fourth out of six teams in the East Division in the Mid-American Conference preseason coaches’ poll on Thursday.
That’s perfectly fine with Falcons’ fifth-year coach Scot Loeffler. He knows that his group has the potential to raise a few eyebrows this season.
“I like this group. I think they like each other, very similar to last year. I think we’re on schedule like we’ve said from the beginning how this thing was going to roll,” Loeffler said during Thursday’s MAC football media day at Fox Theatre in Detroit. “We’ll be a healthy football team from here on out in my tenure. We’ll have a chance every year to be competitive and have a chance to make a run at it.
“I like exactly where we sit, right in the middle. That’s where you want to be and, if you really look at the history of Bowling Green, besides that [2015] year, Bowling Green’s either dead last or in the middle, they win the championship.”
The overall mood in Bowling Green during the past several months has been filled with optimism as the Falcons aim to build off one of their best seasons in the past decade. Despite a two-game losing skid to end the season, including a 24-19 loss to New Mexico State in the Quick Lane Bowl, BGSU (6-7, 5-3 MAC) had its best record and first postseason appearance since 2015.
“The mood of the team, it’s all positive. We’re really, really excited for this season,” BGSU fifth-year senior linebacker Darren Anders said. “We’re just excited about our guys.
“We were disappointed last year in how the season ended. Making it to a bowl game was cool, but losing left a sour taste in our mouth. We’re definitely excited to get back to a bowl game and get back to a MAC championship and win that.”
The Falcons have been spending a lot of time in the weight room and with their conditioning since finishing their earlier-than-usual spring practice in March.
“We’re just grinding, man, trying to be better than we were last year,” BGSU fifth-year senior wide receiver Odieu Hiliare said. “We have something we say. There’s one difference between extraordinary and ordinary, and that’s extra, so we’re trying to put in a lot of extra work on our own without coaches being there, without coaches sending us to lift, run these routes, and do this.”
Loeffler has enjoyed watching the growth of his quarterbacks, including Indiana transfer Connor Bazelak and Camden Orth. Loeffler isn’t ready to name a starter yet to replace Matt McDonald, but feels that both players have complemented each other since Bazelak arrived on campus earlier this year.
“I really believe the best thing for Cam Orth was Connor coming in because he’s really made Cam change his game and step up,” Loeffler said. “They’re both really, really competitive right now.
“It’s going to be interesting to see how this thing pans out. Everyone gets nervous when you say you have two; that means you don’t have one. But that’s not the case here. We’ve got two guys, good players that are going to help our team.”
Hiliare, BGSU’s leader in receptions (58) and yards (747) last season after transferring from Alabama A&M, said he has liked what he’s seen from Bazelak and Orth as he has continued to build chemistry with them.
“With Connor, you can tell he’s an experienced player. He’s played on many different levels,” Hiliare said. “You can tell, he likes to throw with anticipation and things like that.
“With Cam, he knows the system a little better. He also has a very strong arm. He can make every throw. Both of them are great, they have great talent, and they’re both just competing. The more they compete, the better they both get.”
The running game, which Loeffler wants to be a strength of the offense after the Falcons ranked near or at the bottom in the MAC the past two seasons, should see significant improvement in 2023. Sandusky High School graduate Terion Stewart, who led the Falcons in rushing in 2020 and 2021 before sitting out last season, is in excellent form, according to Loeffler.
“It was a shame, he had the best training camp that he ever had last year and then had some [unfortunate] circumstances occur,” Loeffler said. “He’s back to that way, he’s in great shape. It’s going to be fun to be able to hand the ball off to him and watch in the fourth quarter how people tackle him, so it’ll be interesting.”
Loeffler has also liked what he has seen from the offensive line, perhaps the most important unit that will determine the Falcons’ success this season. Junior tackles Alex Wollschlaeger (6-foot-7, 290 pounds) and Tunde Fatukasi (6-5, 300) have been among the players in the trenches that have stood out recently to Loeffler.
“We just feel a lot more comfortable for the first time since I’ve been here at O-line,” Loeffler said.