National media is saying that when Bowling Green State University football visits No. 2 Michigan Saturday at Michigan Stadium, the “Wolverines will be heavily favored.”

So, what else is new? Mid-major NCAA Division I schools from the Mid-American Conference are almost always underdogs to the Big Ten. BGSU coaches say this is no different.

Still, Bowling Green is 9-20 all-time against current members of the Big Ten Conference, which includes games against Indiana (1-1), Maryland (1-1), Michigan (0-2), Michigan State (0-3), Minnesota (2-2), Northwestern (2-1), Ohio State (0-5), Penn State (0-2), Purdue (3-0) and Wisconsin (0-3).

BGSU’s most recent game against a Big Ten Conference foe was in 2021 at Minnesota. The Falcons’ 14-10 victory over the Golden Gophers was one of the biggest upsets of the season.

This time it is a little different — in part because of Michigan’s No. 2 ranking, and also because BGSU coach Scot Loeffler played quarterback at Michigan.

Loeffler admits his emotions are running high for Saturday’s game, which begins at 7:30 p.m. and will be televised live on the Big Ten Network.

“I think it’s (emotions) right now more than anything, and I think that’s the way our staff feels,” Loeffler said.

“There are a lot of guys on our staff that had the opportunity to go to Michigan and the way that we look at it is we’re super grateful for giving us an opportunity to earn a degree.

“Super grateful to get to play a game that we love. Tremendously grateful for all the relationships that we have from that place.”

Loeffler is a 1998 graduate of Michigan. He played quarterback from 1993-96 and from 1997-99 and 2002-07 he was part of Lloyd Carr’s UM coaching staff in various roles, including quarterbacks coach.

Loeffler says he’s trying to bring to BGSU the lessons he learned while in Ann Arbor.

“I say this all the time, I learned this from Gary Moeller the first week I was in in camp, he said, ‘You’ll never be able to repay Michigan back from what Michigan’s going to do for you.’

“And that’s the message that we try to teach our players here. I mean, our players are never going to be able to repay back to Bowling Green for what Bowling Green’s going to do for them so that with all the transfer portal with all the NIL at the end of the day.

“The things that are important in college football still are education, playing as a team, playing a game that we love and the relationships that we build and then obviously winning championships.”

Major challenges Saturday

Loeffler says the 1-1 Falcons have major hurdles to overcome if they want to pull off a win against the 2-0 Wolverines.

“Yeah, they’re good,” said Loeffler. “There’s not a position on the field that you see that has weakness. I think they’re way better than they were last year.

“I think they’re physical. I think they run to the ball really well. They’re violent, super athletic. I think (quarterback) J.J. (McCarthy) is outstanding. The offensive line reminds me of the of the five that we had in 1999. That all went in the first round.

“They were a very good football team and very well coached and the thing that’s most impressive is how they play. They play hard and we’ve got to go in there and play our best football, we’ve got to be creative.

“There’s some mismatch problems that we’re going to have, and we’ve got to be able to adapt and adjust to all their strengths and do what we do well, try to eliminate a couple things that they do excellent and go gives ourselves a chance to go compete.”

One of the challenges will be stopping McCarthy, who was Michigan’s Offensive Player of the Year last year and a second team All-Big Ten selection (media). He has completed 290-of-436 passes (66.5%) for 3,513 yards and 32 touchdowns during his career.

“He’s really good. Yeah, he’s really come a long way, too,” Loeffler said. “I think the quarterback coach and obviously (Michigan) coach (Jim) Harbaugh being a quarterback guy has done an excellent job with him.

“He’s got a lot of weapons around him, and the running game is ridiculous. The offensive line is their strength, without a doubt, and J.J. can sit back there and whenever you watch them, it’s like a skelly.

“I mean literally they protect really well. The receivers do a great job of creating separation. They find holes in the zones. They create separation in man coverage and he’s accurate and athletic and he can make plays with his feet.

“He’s one of those special ones at that position. There’s no question about that. He’ll fall into those great quarterbacks that walk through those doors.”

‘Big House’ without Harbaugh

Loeffler’s says this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play at the “Big House” in Ann Arbor but it is still about taking care of business.

“It’s a special week and all that, but at the end of the day it’s football game,” Loeffler said. “You got to go in you got to prepare like heck and you know this challenge that we’re going to have is that I want to have the best (practices) we’ve had and these last two weeks we have not put those back to back.

“We played well this previous weekend (38-15 win over Eastern Illinois), but we were the better opponent.

“And when you’re playing the teams that we’re about ready to walk into, you’re walking into next week, OU (Ohio), you’re walking into Georgia Tech, you’re walking to Miami, Buffalo.

“You got to be on point. So, I really think this week of practice is going to be important for the rest of our season. Not only just Michigan.”

Missing from Michigan’s sidelines will be Harbaugh. Michigan offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore will be acting head coach against BGSU due to UM’s self-imposed suspension of Harbaugh for violating NCAA rules.

But, like Loeffler, Harbaugh has ties to Bowling Green, including being born at the former Mercy Hospital in downtown Toledo and living in BG as a child.

Michigan assistant head coach Jack Harbaugh, who is Jim Harbaugh’s father, is a Bowling Green State University graduate (1961, 1963) and was a member of BGSU’s 1959 National Championship squad.