Bowling Green State University Athletics
Eddie George Monday Press Conference Transcript (Buffalo)
Eddie George Press Conference
Oct. 27, 2025
Bowling Green, Ohio
Question: What’s the outlook on injuries and the quarterback room?
Coach George: In the quarterback room, yeah, we’re banged up there. Drew was still questionable going into this week. Lucian, same thing with his knee. It’s a day-to-day situation. Baron could be a little bit sensitive. I think it's going to be a long-term situation for him. So, we’re down to our fourth string quarterback, he’s healthy as of right now. He’ll probably get the lion’s share of the reps this week.
Burns. Same thing. Haven't heard anything back yet from MRI. Might hear something today. Cam Pettaway, same thing. We’re going to find out more in our injury report today and see who we can suit up for Saturday.
Question: What’s the outlook on injuries and the quarterback room?
What are the fixes for not allowing explosive plays on defense?
Coach George: Not allowing them. It’s poor eyes, being out leveraged, just giving them a short field. It came down to about eight plays that turned the tide of the game. Giving them a short field on the shanked punt, gave up an explosive in the passing game, running back coming out of the backfield, got one over KP and went down a little too far. You can almost live with those.
The other one was the crack-replace to our sideline, the back got out. The same play Central Michigan ran against us as well. He got out clean. Our corner has to make that play, and we have to make teams drive.
The thing we couldn’t let that team do was get quick scores. We have to make them earn it, and we didn’t do that. Again, we have to be disciplined in terms of our eyes. We can’t get complacent in those situations, and we have to finish these types of ball games.
It’s the details. We look at the film, offensively, if we get another first down or we score, we probably wouldn’t be having that conversation. We’re still learning as a team, we’re growing through these growing pains. I said, ‘hey, we’re right where we need to be in terms of what we need to conquer, and that’s to finish game. To focus for the full four quarters, and don’t get down or depressed. Look at the box score, we still gave ourselves the chance to win a ball game.
We held the ball for almost forty minutes. Rushed it 50 times for 207 yards with a third string quarterback. Played well defensively for the most part. In terms of efficient yards, we held them pretty well. It was just those three or four plays that got out on us and scored. Gotta tip the hat to that unit, learn from it, and go.
Question: What’s the outlook on injuries and the quarterback room?
What do you do to get back to creating turnovers defensively?
Coach George: Gotta keep emphasizing it. That’s all you can do. Our team is mindful of being aggressive and trying to get the ball out, and that’s how we create our momentum. As long as we’re not turning it over, we can live with those types of things. We did a decent job of that. I think we had two fumbles that were recovered by our own guys, but that’s two too many.
We have to keep emphasizing getting the ball out, ripping the ball, punching the ball, making their ball carries conscious of our tacklers. When we’re coming, we’re coming after the ball too. It makes you run not as aggressive, so we have to continue to do it.
Question: What’s the outlook on injuries and the quarterback room?
Do you script the opening drive, what’s the challenge of going off-script?
Coach George: We script the opening drive. I think almost every team does script their first nine or fifteen, however many they decide to. Something we’ve learned is that if something is relatively successful, it’s okay to go back to that. It doesn’t have to be on-script, it’s a guideline or a blueprint, it’s not a linear process. You have to look at the game too. Sometimes you can look at the play sheet too long and miss the flow of the game.
I think we’ve done a good job of seeing how they adjust to certain formations we present to them and what their answers are for that. It could set a few things up. We’re very constant of that, we do it every week.
Question: What’s the outlook on injuries and the quarterback room?
What are the challenges with playing Buffalo this week?
Coach George: Buffalo is a very solid unit. Battle-tested, won a lot of ball games. Very good defensive front. One of the best backers in the conference. Very efficient offense. Their quarterback is a really good passer, a dual-threat guy. Again, it’s playing ball in the MAC. Any given Saturday you can win a game or lose a game. It comes down to who’s going to make the plays and giving yourself a chance to win in the fourth quarter.
This team is well-coached and has some playmakers we need to be mindful of.
Question: What’s the outlook on injuries and the quarterback room?
Did you have a 4th string quarterback selected before the season? Did you have any idea you’d be facing anything like this?
Coach George: No, I mean, you don’t know. This is football, this is part of the deal here. Injuries are going to happen; you’re going to have casualties in war. You would like not to be in this situation. You’d like to have maybe one guy go down at that to prepare for that. We might be going to an emergency plan where I might have to suit up as quarterback.
But seriously, you don’t think about those things, but we have a plan in place for that.
Question: What’s the outlook on injuries and the quarterback room?
Is the playbook limited coming into this week due to the quarterback situation?
Coach George: I think you can see, in the last month, what that does to us. We have to do what’s best for the guy under center and tailor it to his strengths. Whether it’s Lucian, whether it’s Baron or whoever is back there at this point in time, we got to find out what they do well and really build around that.
You’re hoping that, at some point, maybe Drew can go this week, and we can still do some things we were capable of when he was in there. It forces you to simplify and sometimes that’s not a bad thing.
We have to just take it the way it comes and figure out what our players do well, or whatever quarterback is in there, and keep them out of situations that could possibly hurt the team or where he’s uncomfortable.
This is a big pressure team in certain situations, and we have to manage it by staying ahead of the chains. Our run game is very important, we need to get positive yards on first and second downs, whether it’s something on the perimeter, or a screen, whatever that is. We got to get positive yards on first and second down to keep whoever’s back there upright.
Question: What’s the outlook on injuries and the quarterback room?
Thoughts on Austyn Dendy’s performance against Kent State?
Coach George: I thought he played great. Austyn’s been coming along all preseason, a little raw coming into this year. Brian White and Josh Crawford, our running backs coach, has done a phenomenal job getting him ready not just physically but mentally. Understanding protections, understanding the blocking scheme, how it’s being blocked play-to-play, what to look for. The details and nuances of eyes and feet, your stance and your approach, he’s been working really hard at that.
That’s just a testament in what we believe in as far as nine units strong and making sure every kid is coached that way no matter where they are on the depth chart, because you never know when you’re going to need them.
Austyn’s definitely come along. He’s a bigger body. I saw some things in him that could really add value to our run game. His presence, he ran behind his pads with power and he’s going to get more and more opportunities.
How important is it to be back home this weekend?
Coach George: It’ll be great to be back at home, get some more fans behind you with that energy. We need all the help we can get right now. The fan support. The positivity. it’ll be good to be in the comforting confines of our home, a place that we’re familiar with and that has some fans in the stands that can cheer us for the victory.