Falcons staying in routine for Kent showdown (11-13-12)

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The Mid-American Conference championship football game is not until Nov. 30 in Detroit.
Until then, Saturday’s Kent State at Bowling Green MAC East battle will fit in quite nicely.
Kent State is 9-1 overall and 6-0 in the MAC East while Bowling Green is 7-3, 5-1. The Golden Flashes are
ranked No. 25 in the latest Associated Press poll.
Kickoff is at noon in Perry Stadium.
"It’s a fine line. You want the guys excited, but there is also a routine you have. There’s also a
way we go about preparing; it’s worked for us," BG head coach Dave Clawson said. "I think
what’s at stake in the game will take care of itself.
"We just have to focus on preparing for a very good Kent football team,” he continued. "It’s
not a week that you do things differently in terms of a routine or anything like that.”
The BG game will be Kent State’s seventh on the road this season, and KSU head coach Darrell Hazell said
the dimensions of the field are the same and the things that happen outside the lines don’t matter.
Kent State is 5-1 on the road with a loss at Kentucky to open the season. The Golden Flashes pulled a
road upset at Rutgers last month.
"I told our guys last week that anytime you play in a championship game, which virtually this is,
you don’t do anything different. You just continue your same preparation; you don’t feel like you have
to do anything extraordinary," Hazell said. "You just have to go about your business as usual
and be a little more focused.
"This is a very mature football team,” he added. "They have stayed hungry throughout the whole
process. We have talked about some of the things that have been said outside of our locker room and how
it cannot effect us in how we prepare.”
The Falcons are 4-0 in Perry Stadium this season.
"We would always prefer to play at home," Clawson said. "There is definitely an advantage
of playing the game on the same field that you conduct every spring practice, every fall game, every
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday practice.”
SAMUEL: BG’s Anthon Samuel is the MAC East offensive player of the week. Samuel ran for a career-high 181
yards with two touchdowns in the Falcons’ 26-14 win at Ohio. Samuel added a career-high 29 carries and
finished the game with a 6.2 yards per carry average.
On the year, Samuel has rushed the ball 157 times for 906 yards, scoring 10 touchdowns in just nine
games. He has gained 100 yards in 10 of 18 career games.
SCHMIEDEBUSCH: BG’s Brian Schmiedebusch was named the national punter of the week by the College Football
Performance Award.
In the Falcons’ 26-14 win over Ohio, Schmiedebusch punted six times, with five punts going 50 yards or
more. For the game, he averaged 50.5 yards per punt and had four of his six punts downed inside the
opponent’s 20-yard line.
Schmiedebusch is averaging 42.7 yards per punt this season and has a career average of 44.1 yards per
punt.
SENIORS: Saturday’s contest is the final home game for BG’s senior class.
The 14 seniors are: defensive back Austin Collier; offensive lineman Scott Hodges; long snapper Cory
Johnson; defensive tackle Chris Jones; defensive back Mark Mays; rover Tim Moore; place-kicker/punter
Matt Oczypok; running back John Pettigrew; offensive lineman Chip Robinson; offensive tackle Jordon
Roussos; place-kicker Stephen Stein; wide receiver Bart Tanski; offensive lineman Dominique Wharton; and
linebacker Dwayne Woods.
ROCK: Brian Rock, a graduate of Bowling Green High School and Bowling Green State University, is in his
second year as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for Kent State.
Rock was a graduate assistant and part-time coach at BGSU from 1985-87. As an undergraduate he coached at
BGHS.
He also has previously coached at Purdue. Western Michigan, and St. Joseph’s (Ind.) College.
TV: The game is scheduled to be televised on ESPN Regional and will be shown on WTVG, Channel 13 with
Michael Reghi (play-by-play) and Doug Graber (analyst) calling the action.

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