Using a term usually reserved for baseball, fourth-year Bowling Green coach Dave Clawson pulled no punches about where his program wants to be after it faces off with Idaho for the third time in four years.
“This has become a great series with them — kind of by accident with the ’09 Humanitarian Bowl and last year at their place. This one is the rubber match,” Clawson said. “The series is 1-1, and we’d certainly like to finish with the upper hand.”
The third contest is scheduled for 5 p.m. Saturday at Bowling Green, Ohio. The Falcons (0-1) are 16-point favorites against Idaho (0-1).
The Vandals won the 2009 Humanitarian (now Famous Idaho Potato) Bowl in Boise in dramatic fashion on a last-second two-point conversion.
Last year, the theme for the Falcons was revenge — and they sure got it, downing Idaho 32-15 in Moscow.
Bowling Green scored 30 consecutive points in the first half, outgained Idaho 478-230 and held the ball for more than 40 minutes.
“We got off to a good start and caught them by surprise a bit early, then that second half was a pretty back-and-forth game,” Clawson said. “I think that once that game settled in it was a little more even and equal than the final score indicated.”
Bowling Green lost its opener at Florida 27-14. The Falcons led 7-0 early and tied it at 14-14 midway through the third quarter.
Idaho (0-1) had a much uglier loss in its opener. Playing without suspended starting quarterback Dominique Blackman, the Vandals lost 20-3 at home to Eastern Washington of the Football Championship Subdivision. Blackman will make his first start Saturday.
“We don’t feel real good coming out of last week’s game,” said Idaho coach Robb Akey, who is 6-25 away from the Kibbie Dome.
The offense was particularly troubling. The Vandals had 223 yards of total offense against Eastern Washington, which gained 388 yards. Idaho converted on 2-of-15 third-down tries. Akey said the team’s performance did not match its ability in practice.
“We need to eliminate the apprehension,” Akey said. “Let’s go play the way we’re capable of playing.”
