Falcons Host WMU Saturday As Part Of Legacy Weekend

BGSU Falcons (5-2, 3-0 MAC)
vs.
Western Michigan Broncos (3-3, 1-1 MAC)
ESPN GamePlan/ESPN3/BCSN
BGSU Radio Network (Todd Walker, John Gibson)
Complete Game Notes (.pdf)
Live Stats | Live Audio

Television
* Saturday's game will be available live on ESPN GamePlan, ESPN3, and BCSN. Greg Franke (play-by-play) and Tom Cole (color analyst) will have the call.

Radio
* Falcon Radio Network with Todd Walker (PxP) and John Gibson (analyst)
* Radio coverage can be heard on the flagship station for BGSU Football WFRO 99.1 FM in Fremont, Ohio as well as WCIT 940 AM (Lima, Ohio), WXKR 100.7 FM (Toledo, Ohio), WONW 1280 AM (Defiance, Ohio), WHKW 1220 AM (Cleveland, Ohio), and WHKW 1420 AM (Cleveland, Ohio).
* The Bowling Green Radio Sports Organization (BGRSO) broadcasts home games and select road games on 88.1 FM in Bowling Green.

Websites
* BGSUFalcons.com is the internet home of Bowling Green State University athletics
* Coverage of Western Michigan University athletics is available at WMUBroncos.com

Social Media
* Falcon fans can follow Falcon football all season long through several social media outlets which will provide in-game updates throughout the year.
* On Twitter, fans can follow @BGAthletics or @BG_Football (in-game updates), while on Instagram Falcon Athletics can be found at bgfalcons.

Online Coverage
* Live stats can be found at BGSUFalcons.com under the football schedule page
* Live audio can be heard via the Falcon Radio Network on BGSUFalcons.com
* Live video can be accessed online via WatchESPN.com

The Teams
* Bowling Green enters the game with an overall record of 5-2. The Falcons are 3-0 in the Mid-American Conference. BGSU is coming off a 31-13 win at Ohio on Saturday (Oct. 11).
* Western Michigan comes into Saturday's game with a 3-3 record. The Broncos are 1-1 in MAC action. WMU overcame a halftime deficit last week to defeat Ball State on the road, 42-38.

Series Info
* Saturday's game will be the 52nd all-time meeting between the Falcons and Broncos. BGSU leads the all-time series with a record of 31-17-3, but haven't won since 2004. Western Michigan has won three straight games, outscoring the Falcons 131-42 since 2005.

Falcons Look To Become Bowl Eligible Saturday Against WMU
• The Bowling Green State University football team (5-2, 3-0 MAC) will host Western Michigan (3-3, 1-1 MAC) on Saturday afternoon inside Doyt L. Perry Stadium. Kickoff is set for 2:00 p.m.
• The Falcons are currently on a three-game winning streak, having defeated Ohio on the road this past Saturday, 31-13.
• With a win against Western Michigan, the Falcons would become the first team from the MAC to gain bowl eligibility in 2014. BGSU is the only team in the conference that can become bowl eligible this week.
• The Broncos enter the contest off of a win at Ball State, where WMU overcame a large halftime deficit to defeat the Cardinals 42-38. Western Michigan outscored Ball State 28-7 in the second half.
• Saturday's meeting will be the first between the two programs since 2011. Western Michigan has won three straight meetings, dating back to 2005.

A Win On Saturday Would...
• Make the Falcons 6-2 overall and 4-0 in Mid-American Conference play.
• Give BGSU their first win over Western Michigan since a 52-0 win in 2004.
• Maintain Bowling Green's perfect record at Doyt L. Perry Stadium in 2014, improving the Falcons to 4-0 on the year.
• Mark the first 6-2 start since 2004 -- a team that went 9-3 overall and won the GMAC Bowl.
• Be the first 4-0 start in the MAC for the Orange and Brown since 2003 -- a team that went 7-1 in the MAC and played in the MAC Championship Game.
• Make BGSU 4-0 at home for the second straight season. The Falcons finished 5-1 at home in 2013.

Protecting The Doyt
• Through the first seven weeks of the 2014 season, Bowling Green has been perfect at home at Doyt L. Perry Stadium. The Falcons are 3-0 thus far.
• A win on Saturday against WMU would make the Falcons 4-0 to start the season at home for the second straight season.
• The Falcons are on the quest for a perfect record at home in 2014. Although three games remain, a perfect home record has not been accomplished by Bowling Green since the 2004 team went 5-0 at home.
• While 5-0 is great, this year's team hosts six games inside of the Doyt. 2003 marks the last time that BGSU has gone undefeated at home in a season where they played at least six true home games.

Head Coach Dino Babers
• Dino Babers is in his first season at Bowling Green in 2014, and his third as a head coach overall.
• He has a 5-2 record at Bowling Green, but holds a career record of 24-9. Babers has won a conference title in each of his first two seasons as a head coach.
• Babers has also been named conference coach of the year in both seasons as a head coach, after taking a last-place team and winning two Ohio Valley Conference crowns.
• Babers has an impressive pedigree of mentoring NFL-caliber players. His quarterback at EIU, Jimmy Garoppolo, was drafted in the second round of the 2014 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots. In total, Babers has coached more than 30 NFL players.
• On top of individual player success, Babers knows how to get the most out of his teams. Babers' teams have been to the postseason eight times in the past 10 seasons.

Falcons Will Honor The Past With Legacy Weekend
• A motto brought to BGSU by Director of Athletics Chris Kingston was "Honor The Past. Create The Future." While the future is currently being created, BGSU Athletics will take time to honor the past this weekend.
• Legacy Weekend will recognize the 50th anniversaries of both the Falcon Club and Athletics Hall of Fame, as well as heritage sports (those no longer sponsored) at BGSU.

Davidson Shines At Ohio
• Joe Davidson was effective in Saturday's game at Ohio, flipping the field and putting the Bobcats in poor field position all day.
• On Saturday, the redshirt freshman punted eight times for an average of 47.8 yards per punt.
• Coming into the game, Davidson's season-long punt was 57 yards. In Saturday's game, Davidson had punts of 57 and 62 yards.
• A native of Findlay, Ohio, Davidson landed four punts inside the 20 yard line, including punts which led to Ohio starting at their own 1, 4, and 7 yard lines.

Knapke Controlling Competition
• James Knapke (Fort Wayne, Ind.) has started the last six games for the Falcons, following a season-ending injury to opening game starter Matt Johnson.
• Knapke has led the Falcons to a 5-1 record in his six starts, with his only loss coming at Wisconsin.
• The Falcons are 5-0 when Knapke completes at least 20 passes and throws at least one touchdown in a game.
• A redshirt sophomore, Knapke has had several notable performances during the first six starts of his career:
• His 443 yards passing at UMass (Sept. 27) were the fourth-most in school history for a single game.
• Against Indiana (Sept. 13), he completed 46-of-73 passes (both school records).
• In his debut as a starter, Knapke completed 22-of-31 passes for 237 yards. His 22 completions were the most for a first career start in a Bowling Green uniform since quarterback Matt Schilz went 22-of-43 at Troy on Sept. 4, 2010.
• Omar Jacobs was the last quarterback at BGSU to complete more passes than Knapke during a first career start. Jacobs completed 24-of-41 passes in a loss at Oklahoma on Sept. 4, 2004.

The Ohio Difference
• After playing games in four different states during the first five weeks of the season, Bowling Green plays the final seven games of the season inside the state of Ohio -- including four at the Doyt.
• The Falcons have a combined record of 11-1 in games played inside the state of Ohio since the start of the 2013 season.

Defense Has Big Day At Ohio
• The Bowling Green defense came up big on Saturday at Ohio, allowing just 13 points and one touchdown.
• Despite being on the field for 110 plays in the contest, the Falcons allowed the Bobcats to gain just 4.66 yards per play.
• Four Falcons tied for the team-high with 11 tackles in the game, including true freshman Nick Johnson. Johnson's 11 tackles (10 solo) were a career high.
• Brian Sutton had 11 tackles and a team-high two tackles for loss. He also forced a fumble, which was the first of his career.
• Jude Adjei-Barimah set a career-high with nine tackles in the game. He also recorded a career-high three pass breakups and his first career sack.
• Defensive lineman Shannon Smith recorded two tackles in the game, including the first sack of his career. His fumble recovery late in the game was also the first of his career.

Back-To-Back In The MAC
• Bowling Green is looking to become the first team in the Mid-American Conference to repeat as champion since Miami University in 2003 and 2004.
• In fact, no team from the MAC East Division has even appeared in the Marathon MAC Championship Game in back-to-back seasons since Miami in '03 and '04.

Lewis Making A Difference
• Roger Lewis (Pickerington, Ohio) has had an impressive start to his career in the Orange and Brown, catching 51 passes for 695 yards and three touchdowns through the first seven games.
• Lewis has had at least 100 yards receiving in four of his first seven games.
• Against Indiana (Sept. 13), Lewis set a Doyt Perry Stadium record with 16 receptions. His two-yard TD catch with nine seconds left capped off a 149-yard day and a 45-42 Bowling Green win.
• Lewis sits inside the top 10 nationally with 695 receiving yards. He is third in the MAC, just 12 yards behind Miami's David Frazier.
• He also ranks inside the top four in the MAC (and top 18 nationally) in yards and receptions per game.

Greener Pastures
• Travis Greene (Carol City, Fla.) has proven to be a valuable commodity in head coach Dino Babers' offense this season. Greene has 730 all-purpose yards and nine touchdowns this season.
• A converted wide receiver who rarely saw the field at the position, Greene was moved to running back before the start of the 2013 season.
• Greene has found much success at the position, recording 2,194 rushing yards in his career, good for 8th-most all-time at Bowling Green. He is one of just 12 players to ever surpass 2,000 career rushing yards in BGSU history.
• A redshirt junior, Greene had two touchdowns (one rushing, one receiving) on Saturday against Ohio. It was the eighth multi-touchdown performance of his career.
• Greene set a school record in 2013 with 1,594 rushing yards.
• He also set a school record last season with nine games of 100-plus rushing yards.

Moore Problems For Opponents
• True sophomore Ronnie Moore (Sanford, Fla.) has been known as an explosive player throughout his career at Bowling Green.
• In just his 21st career game (Saturday at Ohio), Moore surpassed 1,000 career receiving yards. He is just the 33rd player in school history to reach that mark.
• Moore led the team with seven receiving touchdowns in 2013 and already has four this season.
• Moore has been a part of 18 plays of 20-or-more yards this season, most on the team.

Finding A Rhythm
• The Bowling Green offense has scored 30 touchdowns through the first seven weeks of the season.
• All 30 touchdown drives have been under 3:40.
• BGSU has only had three scoring drives of 4+ minutes, all resulting in field goals.
• On Saturday the Falcons registered their longest drive of the season. The 11 play, 66 yard drive lasted 5:46 and resulted in a Tate 27-yard field goal.
• The Falcons recorded a 3 play, 79 yard drive in :33 seconds, resulting in a TD, at Ohio. In 2014, BGSU has two TD drives of 70+ yards in under 45 seconds.

Homecoming Win Streak
• Bowling Green's three-game winning streak has coincided with a stretch of Homecoming games in which the Falcons have been a part of.
• The Falcons defeated Buffalo in their annual Homecoming game on Oct. 4, beating the Bulls 36-35.
• The Orange and Brown have gone on the road and sent two other Homecoming crowds home unhappy, knocking off both UMass and Ohio in their annual Homecoming games.

Tate Is Great
• Tyler Tate (Carroll, Ohio) has been named MAC East Special Teams Player of the Week three times already this season through the first seven weeks of the season.
• A redshirt junior, Tate has made 12-of-15 field goals and 27-of-30 extra points.
• Tate's 9.0 points per game (63 total points) are second-most in the conference and 32nd in the country.

Knapke To Lewis Is Lethal
• Quarterback James Knapke has found a connection with freshman wideout Roger Lewis. The duo has combined for five plays of 40-or-more yards.
• In four of the six games since Knapke has taken over, Lewis has had at least 100 yards receiving.
• On Saturday at Ohio, Knapke found Lewis on the first play from scrimmage following a missed field goal for 61 yards deep into OU territory.

Explosive Players All Over Field
• Bowling Green has had 59 plays of 20 yards or more through the first seven weeks of the season.
• 48 of those explosive plays have come from five players.
• Ronnie Moore leads the way with 18 plays of 20+ yards in 2014.
• Ryan Burbrink, Roger Lewis, and Travis Greene have all been a part of eight plays of 20-or-more yards, while Fred Coppet has had six such plays.

Sutton Named Player Of The Week
• Defensive back Brian Sutton was named MAC East Defensive Player of the Week on Monday (Oct. 13).
• Sutton had 11 tackles with 2.0 tackles for loss and a forced fumble at Ohio.

BT In The Backfield
• Bryan Thomas (Washington, Pa.) has been a force in the opponent backfield this season.
• Despite totaling just 17 tackles through seven games, Thomas has 6.5 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks.
• The redshirt senior also has one quarterback hurry and a pass breakup.
• Thomas has forced three fumbles this season, which is first in the MAC and 10th in the entire country.

Martin The Menace
• After missing the final six games of the 2013 season, Gabe Martin (Grand Blanc, Mich.) has returned to form in 2014.
• A two-time All-MAC performer, Martin is second on the team with 58 tackles thus far in 2014.
• The redshirt senior is tied for the team lead with 6.5 tackles for loss. He has added 1.5 sacks.
• Martin also has three pass breakups, an interception, one quarterback hurry, and a forced fumble on the season.

Schwieterman Stepping Up
• A redshirt freshman, Gus Schwieterman (Tipp City, Ohio) has stepped up nicely in the absence of senior defensive tackle Zach Colvin.
• Schwieterman is sixth on the team with 36 tackles this season. He is second on the team with 6.0 tackles for loss.
• He has also added a sack, a forced fumble, and fumble recovery in 2014.

Burbrink A Dual Threat
• Ryan Burbrink (Shady Side, Md.) has become a dual threat for the Orange and Brown. An All-MAC punt returner in 2013, Burbrink has turned into a force as a wide receiver as well.
• The redshirt junior caught five passes on Saturday at Ohio, giving him 100 career receptions.
• On the season, Burbrink has caught 31 passes and three touchdowns.
• Burbrink has also returned seven punts for an average of 15.6 yards per return. He has one touchdown, which came on a 75-yard return against VMI.

Forcing Turnovers
• The Bowling Green defense has been prolific at forcing turnovers this season, with 14 takeaways through the first seven weeks of the season. The Falcons are first in the MAC and 21st in the country in that statistical category.
• The Falcons have been especially good at forcing fumbles, with 10 fumble recoveries thus far. That puts them first in the MAC and second in the nation in that category.

Falcons In The NFL
• The Falcons currently have four former players on NFL rosters.
• Shaun Suisham signed a long-term contract extension with the Pittsburgh Steelers during the offseason. He will remain their placekicker through the 2018 season. Suisham is 11-for-12 on field goal attempts, and a perfect 13-of-13 on extra point attempts.
• Kory Lichtensteiger, a member of the Washington Redskins, made the move to center for the 2014 season. He has started every game since the beginning of 2012 for the Redskins.
• Chris Jones is in his second season in the NFL as a member of the New England Patriots. Jones was named the Patriots Defensive MVP following last season. So far this season, Jones has recorded 12 tackles and 1.5 sacks in five games played.
• Alex Bayer, an undrafted free agent, made the St. Louis Rams' 53-man roster. He led the Rams during preseason play with 10 catches.

Several Falcons See First Action
• Through the first seven weeks of 2014, 11 Falcons have made their first career start.
• Gehrig Dieter (WR), Roger Lewis (WR), Tim McAuliffe (C), Nate Locke (LB), James Knapke (QB), Gus Schwieterman (DL), Jhalil Croley (DL), Paul Senn (LB), Austin Valdez (LB), James Sanford (LB) and Dernard Turner (DB) have all started games for the Falcons this season.
• 16 other Falcons have stepped onto the field for the first time in the Brown and Orange.
• Nick Johnson (CB), Monti Phillips (LB), Joe Davidson (P), Ryan Hunter (OL), John Klingerman (WR), Shannon Smith (DL), Cody Callaway (QB), Hunter Folkertsma (TE), Trevahn Beery (DB), Matt Robinson (DB), Dominique Carter (LB), Malik Brown (DL), Trevor Roop (WR), Brandon English (RB), Nilijah Ballew (DB), and Ben Hale (DB) have all made appearances during the first seven weeks of the season.

Falcons In The Spotlight
• Falcon fans all around the country will have the chance to watch every BGSU Football game in 2014. All 12 regular season games will appear via national broadcast on various platforms.
• The games against Western Kentucky (CBS Sports Network), Indiana (ESPNU), Wisconsin (ESPN2), and Buffalo (ESPN GamePlan) have all appeared on National TV.
• This weekend's game against Western Michigan (ESPN GamePlan), as well as upcoming games against Akron (ESPN2/ESPNU), Kent State (ESPN2/ESPNU), Toledo (ESPN2/ESPNU), and Ball State (ESPNU/ESPN3) will all appear on National TV.
• ESPN3 has broadcast games versus VMI, UMass, and Ohio thus far.

The Falcons By Class
• While the Falcons return a lot of experience in 2014, they are still fairly young. 63% of the roster enters the year with at least three years of eligibility remaining.
• 43 players enter the season with four years of eligibility remaining. The Falcons have 21 true freshmen and 22 redshirt freshmen.
• 20 players enter the year as sophomores eligibility-wise. The Falcons have just five true sophomores and 15 redshirt sophomores.
• The junior class has just 21 players, with 14 of them having redshirted.
• The 2014 senior class will consist of 16 players, while only four of them have not redshirted during their careers.

The Falcons By State
• Bowling Green has done a great job of recruiting their backyard in recent years. 70% of the roster hails from Ohio or states that immediately border the state of Ohio.
• 45 players on the 2014 roster are from Ohio. Florida (15) and Michigan (14) have the most student-athletes on the roster besides Ohio.
• The Falcons also have players from Illinois (6), Indiana (6), Pennsylvania (5), Texas (2), California (2), Massachusetts (1), Wisconsin (1), New York (1), Maryland (1), and Canada (1).

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Players Mentioned

Jude Adjei-Barimah

Nilijah Ballew

Alex Bayer

Trevahn Beery

Malik Brown

Ryan Burbrink

Cody Callaway

Dominique Carter

Zach Colvin

Fred Coppet

Joseph Davidson

Gehrig Dieter

Brandon English

Hunter Folkertsma

Travis Greene

Ben Hale

Ryan Hunter

Matt Johnson

Nick Johnson

James Knapke

Roger Lewis

Nate Locke

Gabe Martin

Tim McAuliffe

Ronnie Moore

Monti Phillips

Matt Robinson

Trevor Roop

James Sanford

Matt Schilz

Gus Schwieterman

Paul Senn

Shannon Smith

Brian Sutton

Tyler Tate

Bryan Thomas

Dernard Turner

Austin Valdez

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