Falcons Travel To Miami Looking to Keep Post Season Hopes Alive

Bowling Green (4-5, 3-2 MAC) at Miami (1-9, 1-5 MAC)

Miami, Ohio • Yager Stadium (24,286)
Nov. 12, 2009 • 6 p.m.

TV
None

Radio
Falcon Radio Network (99.1 FM) • Todd Walker (Play-by-Play) and John Gibson (Analyst)
WBGU (88.1 FM) • Kevin Zilch and Angelo Velotta
Listen on Online

Series
Series: Miami Leads 41-19-5
Last Meeting: Miami 27, Bowling Green 20 (Oct. 18, 2008)
Last Meeting at Miami: Miami 47, Bowling Green 14 (Oct. 13, 2007)
Notes: Miami is the lone MAC school to have a all-time winning record versus the Falcons

Football Game Notes vs. Miami (40 Pages)

The Bowling Green State University football team will travel to Oxford, Ohio, for a Thursday night tilt with the Miami RedHawks inside Yager Stadium. Opening kick is set for 6 p.m.

Scouting the Falcons
The Falcons are led by first year head coach Dave Clawson, who comes to BGSU after a successful career at Fordham and Richmond. Clawson, who is 4-5 in his brief Falcon career, is 62-54 overall in 10 seasons as a head coach.

The Falcon offense is led by third-year signal caller, Tyler Sheehan, who will be making his 35th consecutive start on Thursday. Through his first 34 games as a Falcon he has thrown for 9,056 yards (second-best in school history) and 59 touchdowns. This year alone the senior has thrown for 2,990 yards (332.2/game) and 16 touchdowns, while adding a team-high four more on the ground. Sheehan and the Falcons are first in the MAC and fourth nationally, averaging 338.2 yards per game through the air and are coming off a 316 yard effort versus Buffalo, their fifth-straight game of over 300 yards passing.

Sheehan's main offensive weapon is fellow classmate Freddie Barnes, who after nine games this season, has already amassed 107 receptions (11.9 per game), 1,176 yards (130.7 per game) and 10 touchdowns, all tops in the nation. Last week at Buffalo Barnes added eight catches for 122 yards and the game winning touchdown with 39 seconds remaining, but that is minor compared to what he did versus Kent State back on Oct. 10. The Chicago Heights, Ill., native recorded 22 grabs for 278 yards and three touchdowns. His 22 receptions were one shy of the NCAA record. Barnes is the BGSU and MAC record holder for catches in a season, and he still has at least three games to play.

Defensively the Falcons are led by linebacker Jerett Sanderson, who is tied for the team lead in tackles (59) and first in tackles for loss (6.5) and has chipped in with a sack, quarterback hurry and a forced fumble. The defense got a major boost with the return of P.J. Mahone, who after missing the last six games had a team-high 10 tackles, blocked a punt and recovered two blocked punts in the win over the Bulls.

Falcons Roar Back for 30-29 Win at Buffalo
The Bowling Green football team came back from a 13-point second half deficit to keep its postseason hopes alive with a 30-29 win over Buffalo on a game seen nationally on ESPN2. Freddie Barnes caught a touchdown pass from Tyler Sheehan with 39 seconds remaining to give the Falcons the win.

Barnes, who is a semifinalist for the Biletnikoff Award as one of the top wide receivers in the country, got his chance to shine on national television and he did not disappoint. He entered the game leading the nation in receptions and receiving yards and he finished with eight catches for 122 yards and the game-winning touchdown, which moved him into a tie for most receiving scores in the country.

Along the way, the Bowling Green special teams came up with two blocked punts that helped the Falcons' cause. The first one was recovered at the one-yard line and led to the Falcons' first score of the game, while the second one sparked Bowling Green's comeback. With Buffalo clinging to a 29-17 lead, P.J. Mahone blocked a punt early in the fourth quarter and the Orange and Brown scored 2:56 later to cut the deficit to 29-23.

Bowling Green forced a 3-and-out following that touchdown and drove inside Buffalo's five-yard line but Sheehan's fourth down pass was knocked down and the Falcons still trailed with 8:09 left.

Buffalo's next drive resulted in three first downs and the Bulls ran the clock down to under three minutes before punting away. A 15-yard kick catching interference penalty gave the Falcons the ball at their own 25 with 2:59 left.

Sheehan calmly drove BG 75 yards in the next 140 seconds, completing a pair of 3rd-and-10's, eventually driving the offense inside Buffalo's 10-yard line. A holding penalty pushed Bowling Green back to the 18, but that's when Sheehan found Barnes streaking to the back corner of the end zone for the winning score.

Comeback Kids
For the second time in four weeks the Falcons rallied back from a double-digit fourth quarter deficit to pull out a victory. This past weekend the Falcons scored 14 unanswered points in the fourth quarter for a 30-29 win at Buffalo and back on Oct. 10 the Falcons scored a pair of touchdowns in the game's final six minutes to win 36-35 at Kent State.

Nearly Had Three More
Even with two fourth quarter comebacks this season the Falcons have had the ball late in the fourth quarter down one score in four other games in 2009.
at Missouri - Down 27-20, 1:36 remaining - Drove to the BGSU- 40 before turning it over on downs.
at Marshall - Down 17-10, 2:13 remaining - Drove to the Marshall-26 before turning it over on downs.
vs. Ohio - Down 44-37, 1:40 remaining - Drove to the Ohio-14 before turning it over on downs.

Record Doesn't Tell The Entire Story
While the Falcons are just 4-5 overall and 3-2 in conference play, you can't say the Falcons are challenging their team when it comes to the schedule. Overall, the Falcons have played eight of their nine games against teams with .500 or better records, and in fact the combined winning percentage of those eight teams is not even close to .500. Boise State (9-0), Central Michigan (7-2), Troy (7-2), Marshall (5-4), Ohio (6-3) and Missouri (5-4) and Kent State (5-5) have a combined 44-20 record (.688). Add in Ball State (1-8) and the combined opponent record is still 45-28 (.616).

MAC Road Warriors
The Falcons are 11-2 since 2007 in MAC road contests. They have wins over Kent State (31-20), Eastern Michigan (39-32) and Buffalo (31-17) in 2007, wins over Akron (37-33), Ohio (28-3) and Toledo (38-10) in 2008 and are 3-0 in MAC road games in 2009, downing Kent State (36-35), Ball State (31-17) and Buffalo (30-29). The Falcons lone road MAC road loses in that time are versus Miami in 2007 (47-14) and Northern Illinois in 2008 (16-13).

Another November to Remember?
In 2007 the Falcons were 4-0 and in 2008 they were 3-1 in the month of November. After a 30-29 win versus UB on Nov. 3, the Falcons are now 8-1 since 2007 in the month of November. In 2007 the Falcons sat at just 4-4 overall before winning their final four games to advance to the GMAC Bowl. In 2008 the Falcons held a 27-7 lead in the fourth quarter over Buffalo (11/21/08) before falling in double overtime to the Bulls or they would have once again advanced to a postseason contest. The Falcons, who are 4-5 overall right now, but once again have a November to remember if they want to advance to postseason play.

Aerial Attack; Five Week Bombardment
Since the beginning of MAC play the Falcons' passing attack has been one of the nation's best. In the last five weeks Tyler Sheehan has thrown for 1,925 yards (385.0/game), the most ever by a BGSU quarterback in a five-game stretch. Overall, he has completed 157-of-251 passes (62.5 percent) and 11 touchdowns.

In the same span Freddie Barnes has 61 catches for 816 yards and eight touchdowns, while sophomore Adrian Hodges has 26 grabs for 237 yards and Chris Wright has 20 receptions for 283 yards.

Ice That Arm
Bowling Green is first in the Mid-American Conference and fourth nationally, averaging 338.2 yards per game through the air. Helping that number is the fact that the Falcons have thrown it 450 times through nine games, third-most in the country. In fact, the Orange and Brown are currently averaging 50.0 attempts and 31.4 completions which would average out to 600 attempts and 377 completions, both which would be new school records. The current record of 345 completions was set in 2003 and the 522 attempts was just set in 2007.

Last Year Versus Miami
Miami got a five-yard touchdown run from J.R. Taylor with 2:35 remaining in the contest to secure a 27-20 win for the RedHawks in Doyt Perry Stadium. Tyler Sheehan was 21-of-34 passing for 224 yards and two touchdowns, but Miami ran the ball 43 times for 218 yards and two touchdowns for the win.

Barnes Named Semifinalist for Biletnikoff Award
The Tallahassee Quarterback Club Foundation, the creator and sponsor of the Biletnikoff Award, presented annually to the nation's outstanding college football receiver, has announced its semifinalist list, with Bowling Green State University's Freddie Barnes a part of that honor.

Barnes is one of 10 semifinalists for the Biletnikoff Award. He is joined by Dezmone Briscoe (Kansas), Vincent Brown (San Diego State), Eric Decker (Minnesota), Marshwan Gilyard (Cincinnati), A.J. Green (Georgia), Jordan Shipley (Texas), Demaryius Thomas (Georgia Tech), Golden Ttate (Notre Dame), Mike Williams (Syracuse)

The next vote for the top-3 finalists will take place on Nov. 16 and close on Nov. 19.

Take Me to Your Leader
The Falcon air attack has always had its pilot in Tyler Sheehan, but there is no question who the co-pilot is in 2009. Wide receiver Freddie Barnes, who has 107 catches through nine games in 2009, currently has a stranglehold atop the nation's leaderboard in catches, and in fact it's not even close right now.

Player (School)                              Catches     Yards
1.     Freddie Barnes (BGSU)              107          1,176
2.    Jordan Shipley (Texas)                   75          1,050
3.    James Cleveland (Houston)            74             853
4.    Kerry Meier (Kansas)                      73             758
5.    Keith Smith (Purdue)                       71             863

NCAA Record Breaker?
Freddie Barnes, who is currently averaging 11.9 catches a game, is currently on pace to finish 2009 with 143 catches (in 12 games), which would break the current NCAA record, held since 1989 by Manny Hazard (Houston) with 142.

Helps When You Set A New School Record, Three Times
Obviously, when a player has 107 catches in nine games he is posting some serious numbers. Well, when it comes to Freddie Barnes, he is doing just that. After posting just 40 receptions in 2008 due to injuries, most expected Barnes to return to his 82 reception performance from 2007, but no one could have predicted this.

In 2002 Robert Redd had 14 catches versus Northern Illinois, a mark that most felt would be tough to beat (Corey Partridge matched the 14 catches in 2006 versus Toledo). To open 2009 Barnes caught a school record 15 catches in a win over Troy, a record most believed would once again be tough to beat. That record stood for two weeks before Barnes posted 17 catches at Marshall, establishing a new BGSU record. Just when you thought that was a untouchable number, Barnes had an incredible performance, hauling in 22 catches at Kent State.

Moving On Up
When marching up a record book like Freddie Barnes is doing, 107 catches for 1,176 yards in nine games will help out in a hurry. The senior, who began 2009 with 142 career receptions for 1,520 yards, has climbed from 11th all-time all the way to the top of the BGSU in the record books for catches in a season and began the year 17th in career receiving yards and has moved all the way up to third all-time.

Career Receptions List
1.    Freddie Barnes (2005-PR)      249
2.     Charles Sharon (2002-05)     232
3.     Cole Magner (2001-04)          215
4.     Robert Redd (1998-02)           211
5.     Mark Szlachcic (1989-92)       182

Career Receiving Yards
1.    Charles Sharon (2002-05)    3,450
2.    Robert Redd (1998-02)         2,726
3.    Freddie Barnes (2006-pr)     2,696
4.    Stan Hunter (1982-85)          2,679
5.    Mark Szlachcic (1989-93)    2,507

There Are Other Wide Receivers Too
While Freddie Barnes has been getting most of the attention, other Falcon pass catchers are putting up some solid numbers in 2009. Sophomore Adrian Hodges is second on the team with 44 catches, 403 yards and two touchdowns. Hodges has 26 catches the last five weeks after recording just five grabs in all of 2008. Chris Wright is third on the team with 33 grabs for 451 yards and two scores after recording just 22 grabs for 249 yards last season.

Cincinnati Kid
Tyler Sheehan, a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, could be closing in on several single season records by the end of the year. Sheehan, who has thrown for 2,990 yards on 277 of 432 passes, is currently on pace to throw for 3,984 yards on 369-of-576 passing.. The single season record for attempts and completions are held by Josh Harris, who completed 325 of 494 passes, while Omar Jacobs was the only Falcon quarterback to ever throw for 4,000 yards, finishing 2004 with 4,002 yards.

If Sheehan Was A Bowler...
Tyler Sheehan came into 2009 with just two career 300-yard games, despite throwing for over 6,000 yards his first two years as a Falcon. Through nine games this season he has seven 300-yard games, including five straight heading into the contest with Miami. Sheehan opened the year with 339 yards versus Troy. He also had over 300 yards versus Marshall (383), Ohio (390), Kent State (505), Ball State (376), Central Michigan (341) and Buffalo (313).

Very Few Are Better
Tyler Sheehan, who will be making his 35th consecutive start, has put up some huge numbers in his career, and in fact, very few quarterbacks have done it better. Below are just a few of how Sheehan ranks among active NCAA leaders.
• Ranks sixth in pass attempts (1,351)
• Fifth in completions (870)
• 10th in yards (9,056)
• 13th in passing touchdowns (59)
• 12th in completions percentage (64.4)
• 12th in touchdowns responsible for (76)
• 12th in total yards (9,350)

And Even More on Sheehan
• Is second in school history in pass attempts (1,351), completions (870) and yards (9.056)
• Has nine career 300-yard games, including the last five MAC contests
• Has been named MAC East Offensive Player of the Week seven times throughout his career.
• Has 76 career touchdowns (59 passing, 14 rushing, three receiving)
• Has completed 64.4 percent of his passes, second-best in school history
• Has thrown at least one touchdown in every game this season and has a streak of at least one touchdown in 14 straight games.

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