Morning Wrap: Bowling Green Wins Bowl Game on 78 Yard TD Pass

((ht: espn.com))

And we are off and running with College Bowl season.

Five bowl games were played on Saturday, the best most likely being in the newest game the Camellia Bowl where Bowling Green squared off with South Alabama.

The game was uneventful for the most part. Until the end of the game.

The Jaguars scored with just 1:20 left in the game to take their first lead 28-27. After kicking off to Bowling Green, it took just one play for that to change.

Falcons QB James Knapke hit WR Roger Lewis in stride near the sideline and Lewis was off to the races, 78 yards later, he scored giving Bowling Green the 34-27 win.

Knapke, the games MVP was 25-39 with 368 yards passing and 2 TD's. Lewis caught 4 of those passes for 137 yards and both of the touchdowns.

The win ended Bowling Green's season at 8-6, South Alabama finished 6-7.

Highlights from ESPN.com:

Morning Wrap: N.Illinois Wins MAC Football Title Again

Three times in four years would qualify many college football teams as a possible dynasty.

Even in the Mid-American Conference.

The MAC has a dynasty in the making as the Northern Illinois Huskies won their third conference title in the past four years, routing Bowling Green 51-17 Friday night.

The Huskies were led by QB Drew Hare who threw for 218 yards and 2 TD's and ran for another as Northern Illinois rolled up 334 yards running the ball.

The win moves them to 11-2 on the season and while they won't be crashing the College Football playoff, it gets them back to a bowl game. Bowling Green drops to 7-6 on the season.

Your highlights from ESPN.com:

BUZZER BEATER: Bowling Green's Richaun Holmes Crazy Lay Up At The Buzzer

The video quality is very poor because it's from a fan's camera phone but Bowling Green's Richaun Holmes takes the inbounds pass from Spencer Parker and puts up a wild contested lay up at the buzzer and wins it for the Falcons 64-63 over Detroit.





Holmes' buzzer beater capped off a brilliant performance with 26 points and 18 rebounds.

Here's a cleaner look under the basket.

Cue The Clown Music: Western Michigan And Bowling Green With A Football Follies Moment

Sing along with me: Hot Potato Hot Potato.....


Western Michigan's Zach Terrell pass is complete to Taylor Moton, an offensive lineman who loses it, Then it's volleyballed by both teams before Western Michigan's Daniel Braveman secures it to the six yard line.

MAC-tion at it's best.

OSG CFB: Can We Put The MAC In The "Power 5" Now...???

((HT: Falcons Athletics their own selves))

Bowling Green had not hosted a Big 10/12 squad since 2008, and after today, it might be a long while before it happens ever again.

The Falcons beat a 10/12 team for the first time at home in their win over Indiana, 45-42.

QB James Knapke went 46-for-73 on the day and the Falcons had another 40 plays besides those involving their QB.
The two teams combined for 1,153 yards of net offense- 742 yards of that was passing yards.
Bowling Green only punted once...

Here's the highlights from BGSU's point-of-view


For the record, Bowling Green will continue their walk through the Big 10/12 Legends Division (or is it the Leaders Division???) with their trip to Madison to play Wisconsin next weekend.

Here's head coach Dino Babers discussing his walk through the power conference not called the MAC

Remember The Name Brandon Doughty

((HT: WBKO-TV))

All he did last night for Western Kentucky was break records all night long in their game against Bowling Green...

Doughty threw for a school-record 569 yards and six TD's as the Hilltoppers beat Bowling Green State 59-31 in the head coaching debuts of Jeff Brohm and Dino Babers.

Brohm's Hilltoppers had a school-record 702 total yards against the defending MAC champions.

Here's the wrap on all the records...

MAC 0-2 Yesterday With Northern Illinois And Bowling Green

((HT: ESPN))

Both games went to the end, but in the end, both MAC squads were season-ending losers yesterday in Detroit and San Diego...

Let's start with the back and forth game in Detroit where FOSG Niki Noto was patrolling the sidelines...

James Conner rushed for 229 yards and even played some rush defensive line in the final series as Pitt finishes 7-6 after a 30-27 win over Bowling Green at Ford Field. Conner broke the record of Tony Dorsett for yards in a bowl game as head coach Paul Chryst played 60 minutes of smash-mouth against the Falcons.

"After the last game, Coach told me they wanted to unleash me on both sides of the ball, so I've been getting a lot of reps both ways," Conner said postgame. "I was pretty tired by the end, but I wasn't going to tap out. They kept giving me the ball, so I just kept running."

Here's your highlights...


The nightcap was in San Diego- and, for the record, the flower is pronounced "point-set-uh..." everyone...

Not "poin-set-e-uh..."

And Jordan Lynch was put up against a top-10 NCAA defense in Utah State that had to rely on its defense with the injury to talented QB Chuckie Keaton. The Aggies held the Huskies to 99 yards rushing and won 21-14 over the 23rd ranked team in the country.

Aggies running back Joey DeMartino had 23 carries for 143 yards and a TD. Safety Brian Suite intercepted a pass and recovered a Jordan Lynch fumble. Lynch finished 80 yards short of 2,000 yards on the year. He could have become the first QB in NCAA D1 history to pass and run for 2,000 each in a season.

Here's your mainly defensive highlights...

Wake Hires Bowling Green's Clawson

Dave Clawson will be introduced as the 32nd head football coach in Wake Forest history this afternoon...

He was the head coach at Bowling Green for the past five seasons, leading them to the 2013 Mid-American Conference championship after their 47-27 win over Northern Illinois.

Evidence below...
((HT: MAC Digital Network/ESPN))


“We are very pleased to have Dave Clawson leading our football program,” said Wake's Director of Athletics Ron Wellman in a press release. “Dave is a proven winner and leader and has had great success at every institution he has coached.”

Clawson takes over for Jim Grobe, who resigned after 13 seasons as head coach...

He takes over a very difficult situation where the head coach has to balance the throes of academics and wanting to have a competitive athletic team in the field at the same time...in the ACC...

It will be interesting to see if Clawson wins the press conference in Winston-Salem...

Northern Illinois' BCS Berth Busted By Bowling Green, Falcons Win MAC Championship Game

So much for the MAC Championship Game as a coronation for Northern Illinois' second straight BCS bowl berth.

Bowling Green shocked NIU 47-27 Friday night in Detroit.

(Thanks MAC Digital Network)

Husky quarterback Jordan Lynch played like a mere mortal against Bowling Green completing 21 of 40 passes for 219 yards, one touchdown and 2 interceptions.  Lynch only rushed for 126 yards too.

Lynch was outplayed by Bowling Green quarterback Matt Johnson who was completed 21 of 27 passes for 393 yards and five touchdowns.

"There was a lot of talk about Jordan Lynch being up for the Heisman," Johnson said. "It's well-deserved, but I did take it a little personal."

Secretly Johnson was saying "Take that Jordan Lynch."

If anything this loss in the MAC Championship game and his average performance against Bowling Green may have cost Lynch an invite to the Downtown Athletic Club next weekend as a semi-finalist for the Heisman Trophy.

“It’s tough. You know, we don’t like to lose, and like I said all the credit goes to them.” Lynch said.

"It feels great because we were the team that Northern Illinois was playing, and that 
they were going to go and bust the BCS and that motivated us all week and we brought it out onto the field.” Johnson said.

As far as Bowling Green head coach Dave Clawson is concerned, don't call this an upset.

"You guys are all shocked."  Clawson said.  "We thought we were going to win. We really did. We would have been absolutely crushed if we didn’t win this game. We came into this game truly believing that we were the better team and that we were going to win.”

Here's the Bowling Green locker room celebration.

(Thanks MAC Digital Network)

ICYMI: Bowling Green SID is Sacked to Start 2013 Season (Video)

((ht: cbssports.com))

No really, Bowling Green SID Dave Meyer gave new meaning to the term "Taking One for the Team".

In a promotional video for the schools upcoming season, Meyer allowed himself (in full pads), to be sacked by defensive tackle Ted Oullet.

Props to Meyer for coming up with a way to get viral video like attention, we just hope it was worth it, because the shot looks kinda painful.