#76 Bowling Green

Bowling Green, OH

Doyt L. Perry Stadium

August 28, 2025

Bowling Green 26 - Lafayette 7 (ESPN Recap)

Kicked off the stadium tour in 2025 with a MAC campus during warm weather. I did have one friend text and say that he wanted to join for this game since Bowling Green was “about 1 hour from me.” And that “if you’re driving, maybe wanna hang out in Nashville on way to Mississippi.” After a quick explanation to him that Bowling Green State Univ is not in Bowling Green, Kentucky, but rather Bowling Green, Ohio,

he bowed out with a “didn’t know that.”

Solo trip to rural Ohio. Flew into CLE for the first time in my life on a United points flight and drove west 2 hours to get to BGSU for the Thursday night game (passing Amherst, OH on the way). Bowling Green felt like a prettier and more sports-crazed UMass.

The tailgating was minimal with only a few school-sponsored zones around the stadium. One spot handed me a free cherry popsicle which was a nice pregame snack. They gave every student a cheap orange #27 “George” BGSU jersey to commemorate Eddie George’s first game as a head coach at the school. Eddie still looks like he could give us 215 YDS and 2 TD if he threw pads on today. Looks incredible for a 51-year old.

It being the home and season opener with a new coach and perfect 70 degree weather led to a large turnout for the Falcon contingent. Lafayette, from FCS (and Pennsylvania not Louisiana Lafayette), did not travel well and had at most, 100 parents and siblings/uncles that made the trip. I bought a random ticket for $19 on SeatGeek and sat wherever I wanted to with no pressure.

As I was leaving the stadium, I picked up a physical ticket from the ground of the bleachers with the plan to sell it on eBay to an Eddie George superfan for the price I paid to attend. At worst, it would go unsold and be funny blog content. It sold in under 6 hours...which is my favorite part of this post. I guess I under-priced it!

One weird stat from this game is that BGSU housed the opening Kickoff for a touchdown for the second straight season-opening kickoff. I did not love that as my big bet on the game was U51.5 (closed 52.5).

4:17 into Q1 with the score still 7-0 from the KO Ret, we were forced to take a 30 minute “lightening within 10 miles” delay and vacate the metal bleachers. Approx 60% of fans decided this was worth doing (which included myself and 100% of the Lafayette moms and dads).

During the lightning delay there was no rain or visible/audible lightning, so I walked around the perimeter of the stadium a few times and made friends with Scott and his wife who lived nearby in OH. He was so nice and loved chatting the blog and mission. I also made friends with these three school employees and have no clue why they were dressed like this.

Urban Meyer was in the house being commemorated for his recent induction into the CFB HoF, as his first HC gig was at BGSU. I was able to take a couple photos of him without anyone sitting on his lap.

BGSU may have had the best ever timeout games for the fans in attendance. “Do you want a toy or a pie in the face?" was my favorite.

Followed by “can you throw a ball from the last row of the student section to your friend standing on the field and have him catch it within three tries?”

Followed by a competition of three people competing in a race on quality and speed to try and each fold a fitted king size sheet by themselves. Followed by a price-is-right competition for a Kroger item. Hit after hit…it was awesome.

The game became an under’s wet dream as Eddie likes to run the rock and neither team had a competent quarterback. 17-0 at the half with 214 total yards between the two teams (100 passing) and BGSU running the ball 31 times…. I was blown away with how far Drew Pyne has fallen that he now sucks for BGSU after starting his career getting burn at Notre Dame. The game finished 26-7, for a total of 26 points scored not on the opening kickoff. Zero turnovers and 71 rushing plays between the two teams melted clock. The game ended in 3 hours and 40 mins even with the 30 minute delay, so it moved along like an Army game.

BGSU kicker bombed a 56 yard FG in Q3 which was surprising.

There was a pirate’s ship on the field during halftime that I also cannot explain.

Lucky enough to grab breakfast with Andrew Olson in Cleveland on Friday morning, see the Cavs practice facilities, and then head out on two Delta points flights to get to Gulfport MS for Saturday’s big clash between Miss St and Southern Miss in Hattiesburg.