odieu hiliare

One more non-conference game to go! Bowling Green comes to town this weekend for a homecoming with Carr-era coaches and assistants of yore, starting with head-man Scot Loeffler and continuing down to the likes of Erik Campbell and Steve Morrison. The BGSU Falcons are 1-1 on the season and coming off a 6-7 campaign where they qualified for a bowl for the first time in the Loeffler era but were defeated by New Mexico State in Detroit in the Quick Lane Bowl.  

The Film: Bowling Green has played two games so far this season, Liberty and Eastern Illinois. One of those teams is an FBS squad and one of them is an FCS squad. Not much choice on which game to go with this week. Better than last week, where there was no choice altogether and we got locked into a meaningless game with a low-level FCS team, but there is still a large gap in quality of opponent between Liberty and Michigan. Oh well. 

Personnel: Click for big. 

The Bowling Green Falcons are led by Connor Bazelak at QB, the same QB from Indiana (and previously Missouri). My preseason hopes that Bazelak could find a home with Scot Loeffler and return to his higher quality of play from his SEC days has so far not come to fruition. His performance in this game against Liberty was ghastly (albeit, with shoddy pressure as a factor). Bazelak was much better against EIU but hard to know how much of that was strength of competition related. Loeffler took Bazelak off the field after three interceptions against Liberty and gave Camden Orth a shot, but they are not a 1:1 substitution; Orth is a more mobile QB so if he comes on the field, it's probably a tip to the D. 

At RB, the Falcons have been dividing carries heavily in the first two games, with Terion Stewart, Jaison Patterson, PaSean Wimberly, and Ta'ron Keith all with between 17 and 7 carries this season. In the game I watched, I was not able to distinguish between these players in any major way. They all seemed competent. PFF really likes Keith, but we're going off of just seven carries for him. Not enough of a sample size to speak confidently about. 

The WR core is where we find the Dangerman, Odieu Hiliare, a second team All-MAC receiver last season who caught 58 balls for 747 yards and 6 TDs in 2022. He's not a big dude at 6'0", but you can line him up inside or outside and he probably represents the best receiver Michigan has faced this non-conference. Abdul-Fatai Ibrahim, a transfer from Alabama A&M (where he played with Hiliare, who transferred from there the prior season), has caught six balls so far this season but didn't catch my eye in this game. BGSU plays in 12 a lot thanks to an affinity for TEs, but when they're in 11 the third receiver is normally Austin Osborne. Farther down the depth chart is Finn Hogan and Jaylen Tillman, but neither have a catch this season in their ~25 snaps each over two games. 

Like I mentioned, Loeffler does like his TEs, Harold Fannin Jr. being the main catchy TE. I wasn't terribly impressed with Fannin as a blocker, but he is a decent pass-catcher and the Bowling Green offense loves to get him the football. Fannin leads the team with nine catches and 138 receiving yards through two games. Andrew Bench is the larger, #2 TE on the depth chart who was perhaps marginally better as a blocker, but neither impressed me in that regard. Levi Gazarek is the clear #3 with no obvious #4 behind him, but in terms of usage, it's the Fannin show and then everyone else at this position. 

The offensive line put up a solid showing on the ground against Liberty, part of the team's overall excellent rushing day, but was dreadful in pass protection. LT Kamren Stewart played only part of the game before exiting for presumably performance-related reasons (read: he was godawful). LG Tunde Fatukasi, brother of one-time Rutgers standout ILB Olakunle Fatukasi, has been rotating in and out of the lineup because he is also quite bad. Cedric Dunbar II is the rotational replacement for Fatukasi and didn't seem much better to me. The remainder of the IOL consists of C Alex Padgett and RG Nate Pabst, the latter of whom slid out to LT to spell Stewart against Liberty for part of the contest. Both guys were pretty up and down. Reserve G Bronson Warner is another player who can jump into the mix but I don't have many thoughts on him. RT Alex Wollschlaeger had just enough moments on the ground in run blocking to keep him above cyan status, but was also quite worrying in pass pro. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: some clips]