Falcons face trap game at UMass (10-16-12)

The trap has been set by a quirk of scheduling.
The question is: Will Bowling Green fall into it?
The Falcons, 4-3 overall and 2-1 in the Mid-American Conference, are playing the
University of Massachusetts Saturday in Foxboro’s Gillette Stadium with kickoff
at noon. BG has won three straight games.
UMass is 0-6 overall and 0-3 in its first season as a football affiliate member of
the MAC. The Minutemen are coming off a bye week which gives them extra time to
get ready for the Falcons.
"Anytime you have a bye week you are able to get guys healthy; you get them
fresh. And you get two weeks to prepare for an opponent and even break them down
in greater depth," BG head coach Dave Clawson said. "It’s a huge
advantage going into a game, having two weeks to prepare.”
Clawson added that having an off week in the middle of the season is ”almost the
perfect time to have a bye week … It gives you a chance to evaluate what you
are doing well and maybe expand on those things and then maybe eliminate the
things that you aren’t doing well.
”It creates a little bit of a guessing game.”
In non-conference games, UMass has played on the road at Connecticut and Michigan and
at home with Indiana. In MAC play, the Minutemen gave Ohio, ranked No. 25 in the
Associated Press poll, everything it wanted in a 37-34 home loss on Sept. 29.

"We really went back to fundamentals; we worked on the basics of football. We
really took it as an extended summer camp or spring ball," UMass head coach
Charley Molnar said about the bye week. ”It was just a great chance for us to
go back and repeat some of the things that they (the team) needed to do
better.”
Molnar also said the Minutemen lightened up on the hitting and running last week and
that the coaching staff hit the recruiting trail.
This season, UMass football is making the transition from the Football Championship
Subdivision to the Football Bowl Subdivision and the MAC. The Minutemen will be
eligible for the MAC championship and will be bowl-eligible in 2013.
"They have jumped up from FCS to FBS, but they have players who can definitely
play at this level,” Clawson said. "They have a very experienced, very
veteran coaching staff – guys who have coached at the highest level of college
football.”
PAGEL: Kellen Pagel was at BG in 2009 and 2010, playing in one game at quarterback.
He transferred to UMass for the 2011 season.
He played in eight games last season and was 153-of-267 passing for 1,725 yard with
nine touchdowns and nine interceptions.
However, Pagel was diagnosed with post-concussion symptoms when preseason camp
started this past August, and is not playing this fall.
”I wasn’t here last year so I can’t tell you how he was. I can only tell you what I
saw. I saw 15 spring practices and one summer camp practice. That was it,"
Molnar said about Pagel. "I know he was the starter coming into summer
camp, and he earned that based on spring practice. After that I can’t measure
the loss to our football program.”
Pagel is the son of Mike Pagel, who was a quarterback for 12 years in the National
Football League.
JONES: BG’s Chris Jones has been named the MAC East defensive player of the week for
the third time this season.
A senior tackle, Jones had five tackles, 31‚Ñ2 tackles for loss and 21‚Ñ2 sacks in
the Falcons’ 37-12 win over Miami.
He currently leads the country with nine sacks and is second in the nation with
131‚Ñ2 tackles for loss.
TANSKI: Fifth-year senior Bart Tanski, who is one of the Falcons’ captains, was the
holder for place-kicks after Alex Bayer had to leave the Miami game in the first
half.
Tanski had been sidelined for the first half of the season with a broken collarbone.

INJURIES: It was reported Monday by the BG Athletics Communications Department that
running back Jamel Martin is out for the UMass game with an unspecified injury.

Linebacker Dwayne Woods and tight end Bayer are both expected to practice this week
and are probable for Saturday. Woods missed the Miami game after making 30
straight starts for the Falcons.