Bowling Green Hosts Ohio for Homecoming on Saturday Afternoon

Falcons Open 72nd Season of MAC Play On Saturday
• Bowling Green State University hosts the Ohio Bobcats on Saturday for Homecoming.
• It is the 101st Homecoming game at Bowling Green State University.
• Bowling Green is 5-7 in MAC openers dating back to 2011. All five of those wins came on the road, including last season at Akron.
• Saturday's game is the fifth time Bowling Green has opened league play at home since 2015.
• The game will kick at 3:30 p.m. and be broadcast live on ESPN+.
• In addition to Homecoming, Saturday is Extra Yard for Teachers where we will honor our educators.
• The band's halftime show will include pyrotechnics and cannons.

Bowling Green vs. Ohio
• BGSU leads the all-time series with the Bobcats, 41-31-2, however, OU has won six of the last seven meetings and nine of the last 14 contests.
• Since 2000, Bowling Green is 9-1 against OU when the Falcons hold the Bobcats below 300 yards of total offense.
• Since 2000, Bowling Green is 6-5 against OU when the Falcons accumulate 400+ yards of total offense.
• Since 2000, Bowling Green is 7-0 against OU when the Falcons win the turnover battle. They are 0-8 when they don't. And are 1-2 when the turnovers are the same.

Five Top Storylines
• Saturday is the earliest meeting between the Falcons and the Bobcats since Sept. 6, 1986 when BGSU opened the season with a win (21-6) over Ohio at Doyt Perry Stadium.
• CB Jalen Huskey is No. 8 in the nation with two interceptions. His two interceptions both came in the end zone against Eastern Illinois and at No. 2 Michigan on back-to-back Saturdays.
• The Bowling Green defense is No. 7 in the nation in third down defense. The Falcons have limited their opponents to a 25.9 percent success rate. Last time out No. 2 Michigan converted once on third down.
• Bowling Green forced potential Michigan Heisman hopeful J.J. McCarthy into a career-high three interceptons last time out. It was McCarthy's first three interceptons of the season. Last season McCarthy didn't reach three interceptions on the year until game No. 13.
• The Bowling Green defense held No. 2 Michigan to 312 yards of total offense, which is the lowest output by the Wolverines since managing 275 against Rutgers on Sept. 25, 2021.

Last Meeting at Doyt Perry Stadium
• On "Black Friday" in 2021 the Bobcats came to Doyt Perry Stadium on a blustery day.
• BGSU finished the season with a 21-10 victory over Ohio after limiting to 223 yards of total offense.
• The last time Kurtis Rourke faced BGSU the defense held him to 12-of-24 passing for 103 yards and three interceptions. He led Ohio with 75 rushing yards. If you took away BG's two sacks of him, he gained 90 yards.
• BGSU's Nate Needham, who earned first-team FWAA All-America honors, booted four field goals to help pace the BGSU victory. Needham, was 4-of-5 with his only miss on the season courtesy of the high winds of NW Ohio.
• WR Austin Osborne scored BG's only touchdown with 4:48 left in the second quarter to tie the game at 10-10 going into the intermission.
• Needham's three field goals in the second half and a safety forced by the BGSU defense proved to be the difference as Ohio failed to score after halftime.

BGSU Caps 1959 Championship at Ohio
• In 1959 Bowling Green traveled to Athens and beat the Bobcats 13-9 in front of 12,000 fans at what is now named Peden Stadium. It capped a perfect 9-0 season for BGSU. It was BGSU's first and only perfect season.
• The win also clinched the MAC title for the Falcons and later the small college National Championship.
• Jerry Colaner brought Ohio's crowd to its feet when he intercepted a pass in the fourth quarter and scampered 30 yards for the deciding touchdown. This was the only intercepted pass of the game for Bowling Green, and it was probably the biggest one of the season.
• Bob Colburn completed just three of nine passes, enough to break Bill Lyons' career record at the time of 108. One of Colburn's completions was a big one as it accounted for Bowling Green's first touchdown.
• Bowling Green broke the then-MAC scoring record with a total of 208 points for the season. Ohio held the record with 201 set in 1953.
• Bowling Green had chances to score in the first half on two Ohio fumbles deep in the Ohio territory but was unable to do so.
• After connecting on a field goal, Ohio took advantage of a Bowling Green fumble just minutes later to score a touchdown and go out in front 9-0. John Dickinson swept right for the score but was stopped short when he attempted the two extra points.
• Chuck Ramsey attempted a 29-yard field goal into the wind, but it fell short in the closing minutes of the first half.
• The Bobcats threatened several times in the fourth quarter, but fumbles proved to be costly to them.
• The game ended with the Falcons making a last drive to the Ohio one-yard line.

Home Dry Spell for the Falcons
• After Saturday, Bowling Green will not play in the cozy confines of Doyt Perry Stadium until Oct. 21 when Akron comes to town. That is Week No. 8 of the college football season.
• BGSU is the only school in the nation that has just two home games through the first seven weeks of the college football season.
• Once the Falcons play on Oct. 21, only BGSU, Fresno State, Nevada, South Carolina, UTSA and Virginia will have played just three home games through Oct. 21. Nevada, South Carolina and UTSA will play home game No. 3 on Oct. 14. Virginia on Oct. 7 and Fresno State plays home game No. 3 on Sept. 30.

Highlights from the Michigan Game
• BGSU forced four turnovers, which is the most given up by Michigan since the 2019 Wisconsin game.
• BGSU's sack in the second quarter of J.J. McCarthy was the first yielded by the Wolverines this season.
• BGSU forced McCarthy into a career-high three interceptions.
• BGSU held Michigan to 312 yards of total offense, its lowest of the season and lowest since the Wolverines gained 275 against Rutgers in 2021.
• Attendance was 109,955, which is the second-most fans to see a BGSU football game behind only Bowling Green's 2000 trip to Ann Arbor.
• CB Jalen Huskey notched his second interception in as many weeks in the first quarter. It was the second-straight week the sophomore intercepted a ball in the end zone. It was the second interception of Huskey's career.
• CB Jordan Oladokun notched his first career interception in the second quarter. He returned it 29 yards.
• OLB Avi McGary recorded his first career interception in the third quarter.
• PK Alan Anaya connected on a career-long 42-yard field goal in the second quarter to make it a 7-6 game.

Rushing Game Improvement in 2023
• The Bowling Green rushing attack has taken a big step forward two games into 2023. Bowling Green is tied for No. 27 in the nation with 19 rushes of 10+ yards, which is 36 percent of its 2022 output of 53.
• Bowling Green already has three rushing touchdowns by running backs which is one more than all last season. BGSU only had eight rushing touchdowns in 2022 with two by quarterbacks and four by tight end Harold Fannin Jr.
• With 486 rushing yards through three games, BGSU is already 37.3 percent to its 2022 total of 1,304 rushing yards.
• The return of RB Terion Stewart has bolstered the rushing game. Stewart sat out 2022 to focus on mental health and academics. He currently is No. 1 in the BGSU record book for career yards per carry at 6.6.
• The Falcons averaged 6.2 yards per rush in the season opener at Liberty on 191 rushing yards. Both numbers are the best for the BGSU ground game since the 2021 season when the Falcons played at Buffalo. In that game the Falcons rushed for 221 yards on 8.19 yards per carry.

Sipp Jr. is Filling up the Middle on Defense
• ILB Joseph Sipp Jr. is averaging 8.0 tackles per game.
• Sipp had a career-high 12 tackles in the season opener at Liberty. It is the second year in a row he led the team in tackles in the season opener. Sipp had 10 stops at UCLA to open 2022 when he became the only freshman in the nation to notch 10+ stops in a collegiate debut last year.

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Alan Anaya

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