Falcons Host Buffalo Inside Columbus Crew Stadium on Friday

Bowling Green Falcons (7-4, 5-2 MAC)
vs. Buffalo Bulls (4-7, 3-4 MAC)
Game 12: Fri., Nov. 23 • 2 p.m.
Columbus Crew Stadium (20,145)
Columbus, Ohio
Series vs. Buffalo: BGSU Leads 6-3-0
Series Streak: BGSU - 1
Last Meeting: BGSU 42 at UB 28 (11/25/11)
Television: BCSN • Greg Franke (PxP) and Tom Cole (Analyst)
Radio: Falcon Sports Radio Network • Todd Walker (PxP) and John Gibson (Analyst)
WBGU 88.1 FM: None
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BGSU Game Notes
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Date	Opponent	Time/Result
Sept. 1	at Florida	L, 27-14
Sept. 8	IDAHO	W, 21-13
Sept. 15	at Toledo	L, 27-15
Sept. 22	at Virginia Tech	L, 37-0
Sept. 29	RHODE ISLAND	W, 48-8
Oct. 6	at Akron	W, 24-10
Oct. 13	MIAMI	W, 37-12
Oct. 20	at UMass	W, 24-0
Oct. 27	EASTERN MICHIGAN	W, 24-3
Nov. 7	at Ohio	W, 26-14
Nov. 17	KENT STATE	L, 31-24
Nov. 23	BUFFALO	2 p.m.

Falcon Quick Hits
• The Bowling Green State University football team is in the middle of its 94th season of football and has an all-time record of 504-350-51 (.588).
• Head coach Dave Clawson is in his fourth season at the helm of the football team and has an all-time record of 79-76 and is 21-27 at BGSU.
• For the fourth consecutive year the Falcons will have all three coordinators returning. Warren Ruggiero, Mike Elko and Adam Scheier will coach offense, defense and special teams.
• BGSU is coming off a 31-24 loss versus No. 25 Kent State.
• BGSU brings a 6-3-0 all-time record into Friday's contest versus Buffalo.
• Friday's game will be played inside Columbus Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio. The last time BGSU played in a non-bowl game neutral site contest was the season opener in 2006 versus Wisconsin inside Cleveland Browns Stadium.
• Anthon Samuel ranks 15th in school history with 1,814 career rushing yards.
• Chris Jones is second in BGSU history with 27.0 career sacks and currently is fourth in the nation with 11.5 sacks in 2012.
• This weekend's game will serve as the final regular season game for 14 Falcons. Austin Collier, Scott Hodges, Cory Johnson, Chris Jones, Mark Mays, Tim Moore, Matt Oczypok, John Pettigrew, Chip Robinson, Jordon Roussos, Stephen Stein, Bart Tanski, Dominique Wharton and Dwayne Woods will all be playing in their final regular season game.
• The Falcons will have six captains in 2012: Dominic Flewellyn (OL), Ronnie Goble (DE), Chris Jones (DT), Matt Schilz (QB), Paul Swan (LB) and Bart Tanski (WR).

Scouting the Offense
Quarterback Matt Schilz will be making his 34th start of his career this weekend versus Buffalo. Schilz, a junior, threw for over 3,000 yards last season and 28 touchdowns, all career-bests, and has thrown for 7,445 yards and 49 touchdowns in his career. He leads an offense that ranks ninth in the MAC in scoring (23.4) and 11th in total offense (379.7).

For most of the year the wide receivers have been pretty balanced, but last weekend, Chris Gallon had a game for the ages, posting career-bests in receptions (10), yards (213) and touchdowns (2). Gallon leads the team with 42 grabs, followed closely by Shaun Joplin (36), Ryan Burbrink (33) and Alex Bayer (32).

At running back the Falcons will depend on Anthon Samuel. Samuel, the reigning MAC Freshman of the Year, has already surpassed 1,800 yards in his career and has 10 100-yard games in his first 19 contests. On the year Samuel has 970 yards on the ground, while averaging 5.5 yards per carry and 10 touchdowns.

Scouting the Defense
The Falcons return 10 starters from the 2011 team and are led by senior defensive tackle Chris Jones. Jones has 36 tackles, 17.0 tackles for loss and 11.5 sacks on the year. Jones is currently fourth in the country in sacks and 11th in tackles for loss.

As a team, the Falcons rank 10th in the nation in total defense (298.1) and ninth in scoring (16.5), which are both first in the MAC. The Falcons also lead the conference in rush defense (124.6) and passing defense (173.5).

Scouting the Special Teams
Brian Schmiedebusch, a 2011 first-team all-conference punter a year ago, will once again handle all punting duties. The junior is averaging 42.4 yards per punt this season and has a 43.8 yard per punt career average.

Overall BGSU is just 7-of-14 on field goals and 30-of-32 on extra points.

Kent State Recap
The Falcons had a six game win streak snapped, falling 31-24 to No. 25 Kent State last Saturday.

BGSU trailed 10-0 early, but scored the next 17 points to take a one touchdown lead, but KSU's Dri Archer had a pair of 70-yard touchdown runs, helping the Flashes to the win.

Trim The Deficit
That 10-0 hole BGSU opened the game with versus the Golden Flashes was the first time the Falcons had trailed by more than one score since the Falcons went into halftime versus Akron, trailing 10-0 on Oct. 6.

The Buffalo Series
This will be the 10th meeting between the two schools from the Mid-American Conference, with BGSU holding a 6-3-0 all-time advantage. Friday's game will be labeled as a home game for the Falcons. BGSU is 2-2 all-time at home versus the Bulls.

Last season BGSU went to Buffalo and won 42-28 with the help of four straight touchdowns in the span of 15 minutes. BGSU trailed 20-14, but got a touchdown from Eugene Cooper to close out the second quarter and got three more third quarter scores to take a commanding 42-20 lead.

Party on the Pitch
Friday's match-up between the two schools will be played inside Columbus Crew Stadium (MLS), the first-ever Division I football game played at this venue.

The last time BGSU played a “home” game outside of Doyt Perry Stadium was Sept. 2, 2006 when they hosted Wisconsin inside Cleveland Browns Stadium, a game the Badgers would win 35-14.

Home Sweet Home
While the game is two hours away from Doyt Perry Stadium, for seven BGSU players, the game will be a homecoming. Jude Adjei-Barimah (Northland), Alex Bayer (Pickerington North), Jairus Campbell (Pickerington North), Alex Huettel (Pickerington North), DeVon McKoy (Eastwood), Tyler Tate (Bloom-Carroll) and Ryland Ward (Brookhaven) are all from the Columbus area.

Just Win Baby
The Falcons had their six game win streak snapped last week versus Kent State, BGSU's longest win streak since the 2004 team posted seven straight wins.

Senior Leaders
This weekend's game will serve as the final regular season contest for 14 Falcons. Austin Collier, Scott Hodges, Cory Johnson, Chris Jones, Mark Mays, Tim Moore, Matt Oczypok, John Pettigrew, Chip Robinson, Jordon Roussos, Stephen Stein, Bart Tanski, Dominique Wharton and Dwayne Woods will all be playing in their final regular season game.

Youth Still Served
Even with 20 starters returning, the Falcons still have the 10th youngest team in the country according to PhilSteele.com. According to that website the Falcons have 66.7 percent of its roster as underclassmen. The entire roster breakdown is below.
Seniors                10 (9.5%)
Juniors                 25 (23.8%)
Sophomores        26 (24.8%)
Freshmen            44 (41.9%)

Under Center
Quarterback Matt Schilz will be making his 34th start of his career for the Orange and Brown. While still a junior, Schilz is nearing in on several BGSU school records.
• Is third is passing yards (7,445)
• Is third in passing attempts (1,137)
• Is third in passing completions (668)
• Is fifth in passing touchdowns (49)

Passing Explosion
The Falcons managed to throw for just 410 yards combined in the three previous games prior to Kent State, but Matt Schilz came up big versus the Flashes, throwing for a season-best 355 yards and three touchdowns.

While he did throw three interceptions in the loss, one hit off a wide receiver's hands, another was tipped at the line of scrimmage and the third was the final play of the game.

Fun With Numbers
The 355 yards passing for Schilz was his first 300-yard passing game of his career ... sort of. The junior quarterback threw for 437 yards versus Wyoming and 400 yards versus Kent State, both in 2011, but had never finished a game with a passing mark in the 300's until this past week.

Star Is Born?
Chris Gallon was having a solid freshman campaign entering the Kent State contest with 32 receptions for 369 yards and four touchdowns ... then the KSU game happened. Gallon recorded career-bests in catches (10), yards (213) and touchdowns (2), adding the two longest catches of his career (72 and 81), both resulting in touchdowns.

Gallon's 213 receiving yards are the most ever by a Falcon inside Doyt Perry Stadium and are the fourth-most in school history, trailing only Freddie Barnes (278, 219) and Robert Redd (215).

Samuel.1000
Anthon Samuel, who has only played in 19 career games (missed three games in 2011 one in 2012 due to injury) has already surpassed the 1,000 yard career rushing mark, becoming just the 35th Falcon in school history to do so. Samuel currently ranks 15th in school history with 1,814 rushing yards.

Up Next For Samuel
10. Zeb Jackson (90-93)            2,044
11. Courtney Davis (93-96)        2,011
12. Bernard White (84-85)         1,985
13. Dan Saleet (74-77)              1,965
14. Keylan Cates (94-96)           1,827
15. Anthon Samuel (2011-PR)   1,814

In Reach
Sophomore Anthon Samuel is also nearing in on 1,000 yards this season, something that has only been done 10 times in BGSU history and been accomplished by just seven different running backs.
Fred Durig, 1951            1,444
Dave Preston, 1974         1,414
Paul Miles, 1971              1,185
Dan Saleet, 1975             1,114
P.J. Pope, 2004                1,098
Bryant Jones, 1981          1,051
Bernard White, 1984        1,036
Paul Miles, 1973              1,030
Paul Miles, 1972               1,024
P.J. Pope, 2003                1,005
Anthon Samuel, 2012         970

Sticking Together
The Falcon offensive line has started the same unit in all 11 games this season. Despite an offensive line that features three first-year starters (Fahn Cooper, Chief Kekuewa and Alex Huettel), the Falcons have held up well up front.

Rushing
2010    62.3/game*
2011    122.9/game
2012    164.3/game
*Last in the nation

Sacks Allowed
2010    2.8/game
2011    1.9/game
2012    1.2/game (13 sacks in 11 games)

Look Who's Talking
For years Bowling Green has been known as an offensive team, but don't look now, the BGSU defense is ranked first in the MAC in scoring (16.5) and total defense (298.1). They are first in rush (124.6) and pass (173.5) defense as well.

Year    Total Defense
2009    398.2
2010    432.0
2011    406.0
2012    298.1

Year    Rush Defense
2009    194.2
2010    207.8
2011    203.4
2012    124.6

Year    Scoring Defense
2009    27.5
2010    33.6
2011    28.8
2012    16.5

BGSU Tweet-fense
Below are 10 nuggets that you need to know about the BGSU defense, all under 140 characters.
• Leads the MAC in scoring defense (16.5) and is ninth nationally.
• Leads the MAC in total defense (298.1) and is ranked 10th nationally.
• Leads the MAC in rushing defense (124.6)
• Leads the MAC in pass defense (173.5)
• Fourth in the MAC with 20 turnovers forced.
• Second in the MAC with two INT returns for touchdowns
• Third in the MAC with 30 sacks
• BG defense is allowing just 15.2 first downs a game (leads MAC)
• Leads the MAC in 3rd down defense (29.9%)
• Have allowed just eight TDs in the last seven games.

Monster of the MAC
Senior defensive tackle Chris Jones has been a demolition machine in 2012. Through 11 games the senior has 36 tackles, 17.0 tackles for loss and 11.5 sacks. Jones has already been named MAC East Defensive Player of the Week three times this year and is fourth in the country in sacks and 11th in tackles for loss.

Of the 36 tackles Jones has been involved with this season, 25 have resulted in no gain or negative yardage -- and the total minus yardage on those plays is minus-104 yards. The 11 “positive” plays have gained just 31 yards.

Jones'n For Sacks
For the third straight year, Chris Jones has led the Falcons in sacks. The senior led BGSU with 6.0 sacks in 2010 and 8.5 sacks in 2011. This year his 11.5 sacks not only lead the team, they also nearly lead the nation. The defensive tackle has 27.0 sacks in his career, and is beginning to stalk Kevin O'Brien's BGSU sack record of 31.0 from 1989-92.

BGSU Career Sack Leaders
Kevin O'Brien (1989-92)   31.0
Chris Jones (2009-PR)      27.0
Diyral Briggs (2005-08)   26.0
Devon Parks (2003-06)   22.0

BGSU Single Season Sack Records
Kevin O'Brien (1992)   19.0
Chris Jones (2012)       11.5
Diyral Briggs (2008)       9.5

Among Defensive Tackles
While Chris Jones does lead the country in sacks with 11.5, his lead is marginal compared to defensive ends or rush linebackers, but when you compare what Jones is doing against other defensive tackles, he has been remarkable.

Top Defensive Tackle Sack Leaders
Chris Jones (BGSU)           11.5
Will Sutton (Arizona St.)    10.5
Leonard Williams (USC)    6.5
* No other defensive tackles are ranked in the top-50 national leaders

Under Pressure
Chris Jones leads a defense that has been getting after the quarterback this season. In fact, the Falcons are third in the MAC with 30 sacks on the year.

I Got It!
That same pressure has also started to produce turnovers. The Falcons, which rank fifth in turnover margin (+6) and fourth in turnovers forced (20) in the MAC, forced three turnovers versus Miami, four versus UMass, another three versus Eastern Michigan and three more this past week versus Kent State.

Defense ... Clap, Clap
That pressure has helped the BG defense get off the field in a hurry. Dating back to the second half with Akron, the Falcon defense has either forced a turnover or a three-and-out in 37 of 70 drives.

Bring The Wood(s)
Middle linebacker Dwayne Woods is surpassed 300 career tackles. The senior has 323 career stops, recording 24 as a freshman in 2009, 134 in 2010, 111 in 2011 and 53 this season.

All Alone
In his career BooBoo Gates now owns two kick returns for touchdowns, one punt return for a score and has two pick-6's in his career, becoming the first Falcon in school history to own touchdown returns via kick, punt and interception returns.

Very Special Teams
Since head coach Dave Clawson arrived at Bowling Green, he and assistant coach Adam Scheier, have found a way to get the most out of the BGSU special teams. In four years Scheier's special teams have:
• Three kick returns for touchdowns.
• Three punt returns for scores.
• Have blocked 13 kicks.
• Produced two All-MAC returners (BooBoo Gates and Eugene Cooper).
• Produced two All-MAC Punters (Brian Wright and Brian Schmiedebusch)
• Successfully converted on two fake punts.

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