BG football -- Update on Sept. 3

Here are a few notes from the BG football team, including a look at the new two-deep entering Saturday's home opener against Idaho, and more ...

• The Falcons two-deep does not look much different than it did entering the Florida game. There were a few interesting changes -- and several interesting non-changes, for that matter.

First, to answer the question on everyone's mind: The place-kicking situation remains an "OR" between senior Stephen Stein and freshman Tyler Tate. More on that below.

At running back, junior Jordan Hopgood -- who was suspended for the Florida game -- is listed as fifth at that position behind sophomore Anthon Samuel, senior John Pettigrew, sophomore Jamel Martin and freshman Andre Givens. The first three backs on this list played at Florida, while Givens did not.

At nose tackle it remains an "OR" situation between Jairus Campbell and Ted Ouellet, both juniors. Both played extensively at Florida and both will continue to play as long as they are healthy. Not sure how significant this is in that regard.

One place where the "OR" was removed was at center, while junior David "Chief" Kekuewa is listed as the starter and senior Chip Robinson is the back-up. Robinson may not start, but he will play and remains a top back-up at a number of positions.

Also, the cornerback spots each had an "OR" removed. The starter opposite junior Cameron Truss is listed as Darrell Hunter, with DeVon McKoy as the back-up. Both are sophomores. The back-up to Truss at the other corner is true freshman Will Watson ahead of sophomore Johnny Joseph.

• Two players who did not see action at Florida because of injury were wide receiver Heath Jackson and defensive end Ronnie Goble. Both are listed as back-up at their respective positions and are expected to play against Idaho.

• BG coach Dave Clawson was asked about the kicking position, and he said there will be an "open competition" between Stein and Tate for the job. "Part of the competition was to see how they kicked in games," Clawson said. "This week we're going to try to create more game-like situations." Stein made two extra-points but missed a pair of short field goals at Florida. Tate was warming up in the second half, and Clawson said after the game Tate would have attempted any field goals the Falcons would have tried in the second half.

• I asked Clawson about the penalty Anthon Samuel drew for the "gator chomp" after his touchdown. I asked specifically if he liked the spunk it showed or if he disliked it.

Clawson made it clear he was unhappy with Samuel's decision. "I thought it was a selfish penalty, and I wasn't happy with it at all," Clawson said. "I know he was excited to play in his home state, and he made a big play, but you can't put yourself ahead of the team like that. Eventually that penalty led to Florida's go-ahead field goal. I thought it was uncharacteristic of Anthon. I thought he got caught up in the moment, and it hurt us."

• I'm not sure I had a few of these statistics anywhere, so I wanted to post them to help evaluate how the Falcons played in Florida Saturday.

The Bowling Green offense ran 79 plays and had nine that covered 10 yards or more (11.4 percent). None of those players covered more than 22 yards. Three of the 10-yard plays were rushes, and six were passes. On the negative side, the Falcons had 13 plays (not including incompletions) that gained two yards or less (16.5 percent), including seven that went for zero or negative yardage (8.9 percent).

The Florida offense ran 63 plays and had 11 that coveraged 10 yards or more (17.5 percent). Four of those plays went for 26 yards or more. Of those 11 plays, seven were rushes and four were passes. It's worth noting that five of those 11 plays came in the second quarter.

On the negative side, the Gators ran 21 plays (not including incompletions) that gained two yards or less (33.3 percent). Florida had nine plays that went for zero or negative yardage (14.3 percent). That means 1-in-3 Florida plays gained two yards or less (again, not including incompletions) and 1-in-7 plays gained zero or negative yards.

In short, kudos to the BG defense.

• Clawson said he was pleased by the performance of the offensive line, which included a pair of redshirt freshmen starters (Alex Huettel and Fahn Cooper) along with senior Jordon Roussos and juniors David Flewellyn and David Kekuewa with senior Chip Robinson also seeing extensive action.

"I thought we got a solid performance from the offensive line, especially when you consider we had a pair of redshirt freshmen starting," Clawson said. "But they didn't back down. We weren't perfect in completing our assignments, but I liked our competitiveness and our physicality."

If you missed any of the analysis of the Florida loss, here is your chance to catch up. Click here to read the game story from Sunday's Blade, and click here to read the notebook from Sunday's paper. Click here to read the BiG Look at Saturday's contest, click here to read the Sunday' Morning QB look at the game, and click here to read the in-game chat from Saturday.

Comments

[John Smith]

One thing that is clear about Clawson is that every comment he makes is self-serving. He makes several comments in this article alone that simply do not add up.

[John_Wagner]

For example?

[Fred Smith]

There are more Clawson haters out there than you would think