Photo by J.D. Pooley/Sentinel-Tribune
Coach Loeffler: BGSU football will soon be out of this world
Drew Terhall
Jul 13, 2021
The BGSU football team is still working its way toward being MAC contenders.
Head coach Scot Loeffler talked about the state of the program at an Exchange Club luncheon at Stone Ridge Golf Club on Tuesday.
Loeffler said the theme for this season is going to the moon. He got the idea while coaching at Virginia Tech from then-head basketball coach Buzz Williams.
The theme is about getting the right people to do the job. In this case, Loeffler is getting the right people in the BGSU program to turn it around.
“People are what put a man on the moon, it wasn’t technology. Right now what we are doing is just that,” Loeffler said.
He said that the program is about halfway through its business plan.
Loeffler knew the first two years would be rough. Since taking over as head coach in 2019, the Falcons are 3-14. They didn’t win a game last year going 0-5.
Loeffler said this year, in year three, he wants to see the light at the end of the tunnel. This year should show some positive signs towards being a competitive team.
In year four, the team should be competitive. In year five, the Falcons should win the MAC, he said.
Loeffler said there are two big things he had to do in order to get the program back on track.
The first was to hire a great staff with a ton of experience, he said. Loeffler said between all of his assistant coaches, there is over 250 years of power five experience and three Super Bowl rings. Five of the coaches, including Loeffler, have coached in the NFL.
The other thing Loeffler stressed was recruiting in a four-hour radius. Loeffler wants to have talent from around the area, something that was missing when he first got to Bowling Green.
“When Bowling Green has won the championship, 75% of the roster comes from a four-hour radius. When I was hired here, it was roughly 17%,” he said.
There is youth on the roster. Loeffler said they only have eight seniors on the team. The team has 46 players with four years of eligibility left and 27 players with five years of eligibility.
“At Bowling Green whenever you’re old and you have the right kids, you’re going to win. There’s no if, ands or buts about it. When you’re young, at times you’re going to win. You’re not going to win on a consistent basis,” Loeffler said.
Loeffler said he told his team they have five choices in life. He said his players could be bad at what they do, be average, be good, be excellent or be elite.
It is all up to the coaches to teach the players what it takes to be excellent or elite.
“Our biggest challenge is taking these young football players and teaching them how to be extraordinary, or teaching them how to be elite, when there’s no one they can watch do it. They have to listen to the coaches,” Loeffler said.
There is a positive to this roster.
“This young football team we have are the right people. They’re really good kids and they’re talented,” Loeffler said.
Loeffler did talk about the new transfer rules and the name, image and likeness rulings that were past these past couple of months. The new rules will change how the program has to plan for the future.
Loeffler said he is sticking with his plan to build the team through recruiting. He will take some transfers to get some older players on the team.
With each college team only being able to take 25 scholarship players each year, Loeffler will still fill a bulk of the scholarships with recruits.
With the NIL rules, Loeffler said he is all for the players being able to make money. He also said the coaches are trying their best to help teach the players lessons that will help them in real life.
Loeffler said college football will look and be different with these two rules in place. It’s another challenge he will have to overcome to get BGSU back in MAC contention.