Bowling Green HC Scot Loeffler joins TA Live ahead of trip to Kyle Field

Before leading his Bowling Green Falcons into Kyle Field on Saturday night, head coach Scot Loeffler joined TexAgs Live on Friday to provide some insight into his 2024 team, his program and his path to coaching at Bowling Green State University.

Key notes from Scot Loeffler interview

• We were a total rebuild five years ago. Brick by brick, we laid the foundation. During those years of going from a really horrific program to a team that can compete, we’ve always found ways to get up for these big games. If you go back to Minnesota, we were 33-point underdogs and found a way to win there. I think against Georgia Tech, we were 25-point underdogs and beat them by 10 points. Last year, in the Michigan game, we went with a walk-on quarterback into the third quarter and really should’ve been up two scores at halftime. We dropped a touchdown pass and missed another that was wide-open. Our kids love to play in these environments. All my life, I got to coach at places like Texas A&M, and I love the environment. I think our kids love it. What a great opportunity to be part of such a great tradition at A&M.
   
• Six years ago, we were a complete rebuild, and we were able to keep 30 seniors. You’re going to see a couple of guys, actually about 10, that could have left for a lot of money, but they decided to stay. That’s why we have a chance to be competitive in all of these games. We’ve got really, really good players. We’ll be able to compete with the upper echelon of our conference, but the whole key was recruiting talented guys that were two- or three-star guys and developed them. I would love to go back to the old days when a place like A&M would get to keep a guy for five years and watch him develop. It’s going to be really interesting to see the formula and how people can sustain programs in this chaotic world. It’s really going to be interesting to see the next five years and how this thing plays out.
   
• The entire time we were here, we were trying to rebuild the offensive line and the defensive front. We did the defensive front first, and that’s why we’ve had good defenses these couple of years at our level. Obviously, we’re nowhere near the level of A&M.
   
• I turned on the film and saw these 330-pound unbelievable D-linemen, and I think the offensive line and been developed extremely well. That’s what we’re trying to do. It started by rebuilding the fronts. We’ve got a really good offensive and defensive line for our level. The difference is that A&M’s defensive and offensive fronts can sustain an SEC schedule week in and week out. When we play the Penn States, Michigans or Texas A&Ms, it generally has a huge effect on the next week. If you go back and look at the Michigan game, we played them really well but lost by 20 or 30 points, but it also affected the next week. We didn’t play very well because we had a ton of bumps and bruises.
   
• I have a ton of respect for what’s going on at A&M’s program right now because the foundation at any good place is built around really good offensive and defensive fronts. You guys have got that right now. I’ve coached in that league for three or four years, and I understand what it’s supposed to look like. Defensively, upfront, it’s exactly what it’s supposed to look like. The offensive line at A&M is excellent. If you get a couple of skill guys, watch out. You’ll be in the top 10 before you can even blink, in my opinion. I just have a ton of respect for what’s going on down there. I love teams and coaches that build from the front out. That’s what Mike Elko is doing right now.
   
• Elko and I have been against each other three different times. When I was at Boston College, he was at Notre Dame and Wake Forest. The one year I was at Temple, we crossed over Bowling Green when he was here, and I actually called the worst game I’ve ever called against Elko when he was at Bowling Green. Looking back at my career, it was the worst game I’ve ever called. We had some battles when he was at Notre Dame. I have a ton of respect for him and love what he does. He’s a real guy. He’s a tough guy. He’s a guy who cares about his players. There is no BS with him. I have a ton of respect for him. A&M is going to be in a really good spot over the next couple of years, no question.
   
• If we had Cashius Howell in our league with the defensive guys we have, I’d be jumping up and down. I loved recruiting Howell. He comes from a great family. His father was a hockey player at Miami of Ohio, so he has MAC roots. We recruited him out of Kansas City, and he’s a first-class kid. He speaks great. He’s super smart. He’s going to do well in the classroom. He’s a hellacious pass rusher. In my opinion, he needs to put on some weight to hold up against the runs on first and second down, but everybody was taking him to be a pass rusher. That’s what A&M has done. Any time that a guy leaves our program, I want him to leave for the right reasons. There are guys that will leave and be backups or special teams guys. I knew Howell wasn’t going to be one of those guys. Any time that a guy can leave our program to be a starter or have a huge impact and not go from 750 snaps down to 200, I think it’s a positive. I’m jacked up for Howell. I’m excited to see him, and I’m going to give him a big hug. I love that guy.
   
• Connor Bazelak is one of the few guys that was broken, to be honest with you. He went to Missouri and had a great first year. He got hurt and lost his job. He went to Indiana and got put in a situation where he didn’t have a lot of help around him. He didn’t have much protection and had no run game. He developed some poor habits. Most of the time, when a guy gets the hell beat out of him at that position, it’s really difficult to bring him back to being productive. In the first half of last season, he had some of those demons, but we were able to break those habits and really get him fundamentally sound. He believes in this system. He’s a great quarterback, and he’s a guy that I believe will have a chance to play at the next level. He’s playing really good football right now, and if he has a great season, he’ll find his way into a camp. Someone will keep him.
   
• Harold Fannin Jr. was a linebacker in high school and a wide receiver. He comes from a great program, Camp McKinley, in northeast Ohio. We were able to get him. He was a late qualifier and really developed here. We put him at every single position. He’s really football intelligent and great in the classroom. He can play anywhere that I’ve coached. All of the pro scouts ask me, “Could he play at Michigan? Or Florida? Or Auburn?” Yes, he could. Absolutely. When you watched him vs. Penn State, their safety is a first-round draft pick. He’s a no-brainer. Fannin did really well against him, and we all know that he’s a draft pick. In my opinion, he’ll play for a long time. He has all of the intangibles. He’s smart and loves ball. He’s the perfect hybrid, and you’ll see him everywhere on Saturday. You’ll see him in the backfield, at tight end, at X, at Z, and we’ve also put him at quarterback before. He’s a really, really good player.
   
• In 1993, I was the backup quarterback at Michigan as a true freshman. I had beat some older guys out. Right before the Ohio State game, I tore my rotator cuff and never played again. Brian Griese was a walk-on quarterback behind me, and they put him on scholarship after I got hurt. To keep my scholarship, I had to be involved in the football program in some way, and when I went down the medical route, Lloyd Carr asked me if I was considering coaching. I told him I was planning on going to law school and was either going to be in the FBI or become a Navy SEAL. I was a big, athletic guy. I ended up falling in love with coaching, and Carr hired me right out of college. I got handed a Maserati at 23- or 24-years-old. I got to coach one of the best runs of NFL quarterbacks ever. I got lucky. I worked really hard, but to be hired at that age to coach quarterbacks at Michigan is quite a feat. I’m very grateful for that opportunity.
   
• I will never forget: Griese and I, it was our junior year. I had just had my second surgery and had a sling on. Griese was done for the day, and they put Tom Brady in with the second-string. My freshman year, they made me “live” to find out if I could really do it. They made Brady “live” that day against the first-team defense. I swear, this dude got the living heck beat out of him and got up and made play after play. You could watch the ball with the second-string move up the field against the first team, and we were thinking, “There is something about this dude.” I remember the day before Easter, and Griese and I looked at each other and went, “This guy is going to be a dude.” He worked his tail off. He is the CEO of any top-five company in the world. He works like a savage. He loves ball. He is so methodical and maniacal about his technique and how he approaches and how he studies. I know I learned a lot from him.
   
• Tim Tebow might have been the greatest quarterback to play college football, and that is a lot being said when you have the Peyton Mannings of the world coming out of the same conference. Look at what Tebow did. How many guys can essentially play tailback, fullback and quarterback? The amount of carries he had in a game... He was running QB power, but he wasn’t handing it off. To sit in that pocket and take the beating that he did with the ability to make the plays that he did in the run he had at Florida, it’s hard to argue that he wasn’t one of the greatest to play the game. You can take the great things he did on the field, and none of the off-the-field stuff was ever fake. He’s as pure and as awesome of a human being off the field as he was on it. The things he thought about and the selflessness and ability to be gracious with every person he touched... He’s the best. He’s going to be in the good Heaven for a long time whenever he leaves this earth.
   
• I haven’t watched the “Swamp Kings” documentary. Our running backs coach, Brian White, was the tight end coach at Florida, so we were both down there. A&M had Steve Addazio last year, and he was the offensive line coach at Florida. We had D.J. Durkin down there. It was a really good staff, and we had terrific players. Urban Meyer was a terrific coach. I learned so much from him. You never know how much is fabricated in those documentaries. I never watched it. I lived it.
   
• The thing that I love about Bowling Green is I have 30 seniors. Because of the COVID-19 years, I’ve gotten to spend five or six years with this group of guys, and I’m really grateful to come to work and be happy and be around a bunch of accountable, really good dudes who love to play and love their teammates. It’s going to be really interesting to see if this ever happens again. If you leave a place like Bowling Green for a place like A&M, does it become a two-year relationship? One-year relationship? Where is this thing going? I’ve gotten to be at all the big places, but right now, at this point in my life, I’m so thankful to be around guys that I developed and guys that our staff developed. I haven’t had much turnover with our staff. It’s kind of old school. I’ve got two months of this left and nine more shots guaranteed, so I’m going to enjoy every single second. To be able to play a team like A&M is going to be awesome.