 Coaches can usually tell if their players are ready to play from a physical standpoint. Mentally, that’s another story.After dropping a tough 28-27 decision to Wyoming last Saturday, getting his young team mentally ready to go for this Saturday’s game at Miami is the conundrum for Bowling Green head coach Dave Clawson. Kickoff is at 1 p.m.
“That’s the challenge of coaching in this conference,” Clawson said Monday morning. “If you look at the MAC (Mid-American Conference) East, six of the seven teams lost this past week. Four of them lost on the last play of the game or the last two minutes of the game.
“Last week was disappointing, but in terms of what our goals are, this is a far more important football game,” Clawson added. “These guys are resilient. I have no doubt they will bounce back and we’ll have a great week of practice and they’ll be ready to head down to Oxford.”
It’s the MAC opener for both teams. BG is 2-1 overall and Miami is 0-2, with losses to Missouri and Minnesota.
“They’ve had two games stepping up a level against schools from automatic BCS conferences,” Clawson said about the RedHawks. “They have been very competitive in both of those games. They’ve gone to the fourth quarter against Missouri with a chance to win and they went down to the last play of the game against Minnesota.”
BG has lost four of its last five meetings with Miami, posting a 35-14 win in 2009, which was Clawson’s first season as BG’s head coach.
Clawson said the Falcons were quiet in the locker room after the loss to Wyoming and also during the meetings on Monday.
“I liked that it was quiet. There wasn’t any giggling or laughing. There was none of this — ‘Hey it’s no big deal,”’ Clawson said. “They know the importance of this game (against Miami).”
Clawson added that when the team got on the practice field Monday, it “was focused and bouncing around good.”
TOP PUNTER: BG’s Brian Schmiedebusch has been named the national punter of the week by the College Football Performance Award, an online college football website.
Schmiedebusch, a transfer from the University of Findlay, averaged 58.7 yards per punt, including efforts of 61 and 60 yards effort against Wyoming. The redshirt sophomore had just three punts on the day, but two landed inside the opponent’s 20-yard line, including a 55-yard punt that was downed at the Cowboys’ 2-yard line.
Schmiedebusch is averaging 52.5 yards per punt in 2011, which is tops in the country.
In 12 punts this season, eight have gone over 50 yards, while six have landed inside the 20-yard line.
“With the exception of the one punt against Morgan (State), he has been lights out,” Clawson said. “He’s changing field position for us. He’s putting the punts where we want them. He’s not even kicking returnable punts.
“If he keeps playing at that level, he’s going to help us a lot.”
MAC HONORS: BG’s Dwayne Woods Jr. has been named the MAC East Defensive Player of the Week for his efforts against Wyoming. The junior linebacker had a game-high 12 tackles and two tackles for loss. Woods leads the Falcons with 22 tackles and five tackles for loss.
KICKING: The Falcons, with Kyle Burkhardt handling the kicking, had both a field goal and an extra-point blocked against Wyoming. The PAT block came with 2.1 seconds remaining in the game after the Falcons had pulled to within 28-27.
“The extra-point was a combination of a lot of inside penetration, a slow operation, and another low kick,” Clawson said. “That one wasn’t totally on him. We gave up way too much (penetration) on that one.” Clawson said he expected Burkhardt, a sophomore who made the team as a walk-on last season, to be the place-kicker again this week.
“He’s the best kicker we have right now,” Clawson said. ”We would make a change if another guy was kicking better in practice.
“There’s no thought of making a change this week,” Clawson added. “Like every player in our program and every position, it’s competitive. He needs to perform better.”
The field goal, which was blocked by Wyoming, was a low kick, Clawson said.
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