Since new Bowling Green State University football coach Dino Babers arrived on campus, the mantra has
been Falcon Fast.
From the football field to commercials, the new slogan has engulfed the student body, let alone the BGSU
community.
Almost six months since the hiring, haven’t we heard enough Falcon Fast talk?
Not according to Babers.
"The goal of the season is Falcon Fast. It’s part of our culture, it’s what we try to do,"
Babers said in a telephone interview from Ford Field at the Mid-American Conference’s football media day
Wednesday. "It’s the way we train. It’s the way we lift. It’s the way we operate. It’s the way we
carry ourselves. We still understand that it’s the little things that make the difference, and we’re
going to pay attention to detail and cross Ts and dot Is. We can do all that with the Falcon Fast
philosophy."
Falcon Fast isn’t just speed and an up-tempo pace on the football field. It’s a lifestyle, and Babers
wants to continue to instill that lifestyle in order to deliver the Falcons another MAC championship.

BG, which was voted by the media to win this year’s title, is coming off its first MAC championship since
it won back-to-back titles in 1991 and 1992.
The Falcons were picked to win the East division with 144 total points followed by Akron with 114 points.
BG had 18 first-place votes while the Zips had three. Toledo (114 points) was picked to win the West
division over Northern Illinois (110 points).
"It’s one thing to win a MAC championship. It’s another thing to repeat," Babers said.
"When you repeat, you really do get the respect of not only the people on your football team and in
your community, but you get the respect of coaches and the football players in the rest of the MAC along
with the communities in the MAC."
"Being picked first in the East is huge for us," said BG quarterback Matt Johnson. "We
haven’t had that in a while. It feels good to be the ones to finally have the ‘X’ on our backs. For a
long time we’ve been hunting everybody else. We feel like we earned it and we’ve worked hard enough that
we deserve to be in the top spot with an ‘X’ on our back."
Johnson, who is this season’s projected starter heading into fall camp, passed for 3,467 yards and 25
touchdowns last year as a sophomore.
Babers’ offense, coupled with the skill position players the Falcons have in their repertoire, could
provide for some eye-popping numbers this season.
Junior running back Travis Greene returns after rushing for 1,594 yards a year ago, while speedy wide
receiver Ronnie Moore, Ryan Burbrink and Gehrig Dieter all have the potential to provide offensive
fireworks.
But the season’s success won’t depend on the skill positions, according to Babers.
"This team will be as good as its offensive line and defensive line," he said. "This is
not basketball. We have some fantastic skill at BG, but the bottom line is the game is won with the guys
up front. … If we get our O-line and D-line to be the most physical O-line and D-line on the football
field, and with the kind of skills guys we have, we could have something kind of special."
A defense that returns its leading tackler in DJ Lynch will be ready for the challenge of being on the
field more frequently with the no-huddle offense of the Falcons. But BG loses its biggest threat on the
defensive line, Ted Ouellet, who led the team with 6.5 sacks last season.
"We just want to keep doing the same things we’ve been doing the past few years. It’s been working …
so why fix it?" Lynch said.
"I don’t think it’ll change anything because of the fact that we practice against it all the
time," Lynch said of being on the field more as a defense. "That’s going to have us ready. …
We know that we’re going to be in those situations, but our bodies are ready. We’re in the best shape
that we’ve ever been in practicing against the up-tempo all the time. It’s going to slow the game down
for us."