Despite a change in coaches, the Bowling Green football Falcons are moving forward to get
ready for the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl on Dec. 26.Dave Clawson, BG’s head coach for the last five years,
has been named the head coach at Wake Forest.Adam Scheier, the Falcons’ special teams coordinator and tight
ends coach, will coach the team on an interim basis.Getting ready for Pittsburgh will be business as usual
for the Falcons.‘‘This doesn’t change a thing; the program has been built,’’ BG fifth-year senior Ronnie
Goble said. ‘‘Our AD (Chris Kingston) was great, saying no man is indispensable. This is about Bowling Green
football, not just coach Clawson. He was the leader, but the culture is here and the leaders are still
here.’’Scheier said a plan for practices for the bowl game has already been laid out, and he doesn’t expect
any changes.‘‘This is not a time they need drastic change,’’ Scheier said about the team. ‘‘There’s a
routine that we have established, and there is a culture here. I think it’s best to keep these guys on their
routine, and that means a preparation that has been successful for 13 weeks. We’re not going to deviate from
that plan much.‘‘We have got tremendous, tremendous leadership that have been in this program for four and
five years, and it is my job to keep this thing together, to be the leader, so to speak,’’ Scheier said. ‘‘I
am certainly optimistic with that leadership in place there is no reason we should skip a beat going into
that bowl game.’’Clawson met with the players and the coaching staff on Tuesday morning before flying to
Wake Forest for his introductory press conference later in the day.‘‘He was crying, and he was upset. He
told us how hard of a decision that it was,’’ Goble said about Clawson during the team meeting. ‘‘He told us
some personal things about how good a move it will be for his family, moving closer to home, and it was a
professional move for him … He just kind of gave us some next steps to keep this ship going.‘‘I think
we’ve all known for a few years how good of a coach he was, and the program that he was building, and kind
of the trajectory that this thing had,’’ Goble added. ‘‘I don’t think it comes as a surprise to anybody. I
think we’re all sad because we loved him, and thought he was a great coach.’’It was tough for redshirt
junior Gabe Martin to see Clawson leave.‘‘He’s a great guy, and a great coach. He’s done so much for this
program over the past five years; he’s completely changed the culture here,’’ Martin said. ‘‘I couldn’t be
happier for him.‘‘A lot of the guys were hurt, but at the end of the day, you can’t help but understand the
things that he was going through,’’ Martin continued. ‘‘It was a tough decision for him. But it was a good
move for him professionally, and for his family; you really can’t knock him for that.’’Kingston said there
is no timetable for hiring a new coach.‘‘I’ve been through this before, and it’s process in which no two are
alike,’’ Kingston said. ‘‘My job is not very difficult in terms of finding people that want to be here; I’m
sure of that.‘‘I’m very confident in my abilities and the staff, with this program’s reputation to find the
right man to lead the program,’’ Kingston added.Kingston will meet with human resources to get the process
started, adding he always has a short list of possible coaches in his pocket.‘‘When you are hiring somebody,
specially a head coach, the best predictor of future success is past success,’’ Kingston said. ‘‘What I look
for is someone who is already doing what you want to do. I want a winner. I want someone who has proven
themselves. I want someone who can interact with the university, the community, and has the emotional
intelligence to reach these players to get the best potential that you can out of them.‘‘Being a head coach,
you either are or you aren’t, and so there is something to be said for that. Is that the end all and be all?
No, but it’s a powerful characteristic if it’s someone who is leading the organization the right way,’’
Kingston continued. ‘‘We’re going to track a lot of qualified individuals, and I’m excited about
that.’’Scheier said he would like to have a conversation with Kingston about becoming the next head
coach.Bowling Green will receive a $200,000 buyout from Clawson, Kingston said.