Monday, November 28, 2011

Ex-BG coach Meyer named Ohio State coach

After a year off from coaching for health and family reasons, one of college football's most polarizing coaches is back on the gridiron.

Urban Meyer, who was the head coach at BG in 2001 and 2002, has been named the new head coach at Ohio State, the school announced. Meyer was officially introduced as the school's new coach in a press conference Monday evening.

Meyer used his two seasons at BG to springboard one of the most successful coaching careers of the last decade. He went 17-6 in two seasons at the helm of the Falcons, including a 51-28 win over Missouri in a 9-3 2002 season, and helped lead the Falcons into a brief period of Mid-American Conference dominance in the early 2000s.

As was the case at each of his two succeeding stops, Meyer's BG teams were known for having explosive offenses. In his second and final season at BG in 2002, the Falcons averaged 40.8 points per game, and averaged 448.9 yards per game.

His spread offense system helped turn Josh Harris into one of the the best dual-threat quarterbacks in the nation. During the 2002 season, Harris ran for 734 yards and 20 touchdowns, while throwing for 2,425 yards and 19 touchdowns.

After BG, he spent two seasons as head coach at Utah, where he led the Utes to a BCS bowl bid in 2004, the first time that a team from a non-automatic qualifying conference made a BCS bowl game. In that game, Utah defeated Pitt.

Following the 2004 season, he left Utah to coach at the University of Florida, where he had one of the most successful six-year runs in recent college football memory.

Over those six season, he went 65-15 and won two national titles, one in 2006 and the other in 2008.

However, health is a major concern for Meyer. He initially resigned as head coach at Florida on December 26, 2009, due to health concerns. However, he announced a day later that he would only be taking a leave of absence, and did not miss coach a game for the Gators.

On December 8, 2010, following a 7-5 regular season, Meyer once again announced his resignation, citing health and family reasons.

Meyer, who spent the 2011 season as an ESPN analyst, has a 104-23 career coaching record, including a 7-1 mark in bowl games. He was the sixth-fastest coach in NCAA history to reach 100 career wins.

His contract at OSU — seven years, $40 million — is worth $26 million more, over the same amount of years, that his first contract with Florida was.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Falcons defeat Austin Peay 82-72

A'uston Calhoun dropped 19 points and BG shot 62 percent on three-pointers as the Falcons toppled Austin Peay, 82-72, Monday night at the Stroh Center.

The game was a part of the first day of the three-day Progressive College Basketball Experience Classic that the Falcons are hosting. Detroit and George Washington, the other two teams playing in the Classic, faced off before BG and Austin Peay, with George Washington winning, 86-73.

Calhoun added seven rebounds, while Dee Brown scored 17 points for the Falcons, who shot 46.4 percent from the floor.

Head coach Louis Orr opened up his bench, after rolling with a primarily seven-man rotation the first two games of the season. Torian Oglesby played extended minutes for the first time this season, and he responded by dropping eight points on four-of-five shooting, with six rebounds — five of them offensive.

Anthony Henderson and James Erger played for the first time this season, albiet minimally. Erger had a rebound in six minutes off the bench, while Henderson played seven minutes, but he dropped both three-point shots he attempted.

Jordon Crawford had a strong game dishing the ball, handing out seven of BG's 15 assists, while also adding seven points.

Craig Sealey, one of BG's breakout players to start the season, was in foul trobule much of the night, and as a result, did not make much of an impact. He had two rebounds, but made only one-of-four shots and played only nine minutes for the Falcons.

Austin Peay had four players score in double figures, led by a double-double from Will Triggs, who had 10 points and 10 rebounds. Jerome Clyburn led the Governors with 17 points.

BG continues the Progressive CBE classic Tuesday night with a game against Detroit at 7:30 p.m. The Falcons finish the tournament Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. with a game against George Washington.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

BG hockey vs. Miami Live Chat 11-19-11

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Falcons fall to No. 16 Purdue, 54-53

Despite a valiant effort, the BG women's basketball team dropped a tightly contested contest to No. 16 Purdue Thursday night.

Jill Stein's jump shot with 4:14 to go gave the Falcons a lead they held until the final minute of play, when Brittany Rayburn hit a layup with 51 second left to put Purdue ahead. After a pair of Chrissy Steffen free throws put the Falcons ahead again, Courtney Moses hit a layup with 13.5 seconds remaining to put Purdue ahead for good.

Danielle Havel attempted a three-point shot with second remaining, but the shot was just off the mark and the rebound was swatted out to mid-court.

Alexis Rogers paced the Falcons with 10 points and eight rebounds in the loss, while Steffen added nine points, two assists and two steals, playing in all 40 minutes.

The Falcons went with a three guard system for much of the game, running out a starting lineup of Rogers and Havel at forward and Steffen, Jillian Halfhill and Jessica Slagle at guard.

The Falcons will be back in action Sunday at 12 p.m. as they take on Evansville at the Stroh Center.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

BG football vs. Ohio live chat

Kickoff time for Buffalo announced

The athletic department has announced that the start time for the football team's Nov. 25 season finale at Buffalo will be 12 p.m.

The game takes place next Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. This will mark the first time since 2008 that the Falcons played their final regular season game on the road.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Wojtala, Tonyan named BGSU Athletes of the Week

BG sophomore hockey player Came Wojtala, and volleyball player Danielle Tonyan, have been named the Papa Johns BGSU Athletes of the week for their efforts last week.

Wojtala, who leads BG with 13 points this season, had a goal and three assists this past weekend as the Falcons swept Canisius by scores of 4-1 and 3-1.

Tonyan had 36 kills and hit .293 in two games last week, losses to Miami and Northern Illinois. Tonyan leads the Falcons with 407 kills this season.