Dino Babers is a big-time movie buff.
And the new Bowling Green State University football coach might just test the movie knowledge of his team
next season.
During his two years at Eastern Illinois, Babers would select three movies for the team to watch on the
long bus trips to away games. Two of the movies would be old-time films from the era in which Babers
grew up, and the third would be a more modern film.
When the team arrived at its destination, Babers would quiz the players on how the movies were relevant
to the upcoming game.
It usually worked, but one major flop was the comedy ‘Airplane.’
The team was too young to understand why it was funny that Barbara Billingsley, who played June Cleaver
on Leave it to Beaver a comedy which aired from 1957-1963, would be able to talk ‘jive.’
So ‘Airplane’ is off the list, but Babers is probably going through his film library getting ready for
BG’s 2014 road trips that might be taken by bus.
Meanwhile, Babers is confident the Falcons will pick up on the fast-paced offense he plans to use.
‘‘In spring practice, the young people learn the plays,’’ Babers said. ‘‘They will have to train all
summer, take classes and be here all summer, then they’ll get into two-a-days (in August) and they’ll do
it again.
‘‘They’ll know the plays by the time the games start and all that kind of stuff,’’ he continued. ‘‘But it
won’t be the way I want it.’’
Babers said the offense should be where he wants it midway through the 2015 season, not this upcoming
season.
‘‘You guys will be all excited and giddy, and I’ll be sitting here — like I can’t wait until next year
and get this thing right,’’ he said. ‘‘It takes about a year for them to really digest it.
‘‘Once you have gone a year and a half with it in the program, then it doesn’t matter if you are changing
parts, because everybody knows what you want,’’ Babers continued. ‘‘Once you get that year and a half in
and everyone knows exactly what you want, and they have been trained, everything is tied into it.
‘‘You train them differently. I don’t want to give away my other secrets, it’s a total body thing for
them to do what they are doing. They get a year and a half of training and the mental toughness and all
that kind of stuff, that’s when there is an edge about them.’’
Babers views a football game differently, relating it to the movie ‘The Matrix.’
‘‘I don’t look at a football game and see action. I look at a game and I see positive and negative
performances on individual plays, based normally off of mistakes, not physical assertiveness,’’ Babers
said. ‘‘You guys are just going to see the colors, you are not going to see the lines in the Matrix.’’

Defensively, Babers hopes to blend what has been done at Bowling Green in the past, with what was used at
his other coaching stops, including the last two years at Eastern Illinois.
‘‘It doesn’t mean we are going to do it the old BGSU way, and it doesn’t mean we’re going to do it the
old place I came from way,’’ Babers said. ‘‘There are obviously some things that were good here, and
there were obviously some things we did good at the other place. What we want to do is mesh it together,
and come out with a composite that is stronger than both of the other ways.’’
Babers hopes to have that blend not only on defense, but on offense, special teams, and then as a
football team.
‘‘(If we can) not worry about who gets the credit, and take our egos and fold them up and stick them in
our back pockets and sit on it, and just try to win football games, I think that’s the thing that will
scare everybody else the most,’’ Babers said.
‘‘If you’re on the outside of BGSU, everybody is hoping that we can’t work together. Everybody is hoping
we can’t put this offense with this defense. Everybody is hoping that there is conflict and turmoil and
chaos and selfishness. Those are the things that we have to make sure we don’t have.’’