Bowling Green coach Eddie George
met with the media following his team's 56-7 loss to Nebraska on Saturday evening. George is in his second season at BGSU (4-10) and his sixth season overall (28-32) as a college coach after leading Tennessee State from 2021 to 2024. With the victory, Nebraska improved to 2-0 on the season for the third straight year. The victory is Nebraska’s 10th straight win in regular-season non-conference play dating back to the 2023 season.Nebraska had 546 yards of total offense, including 264 rushing yards and 282 passing yards. The Huskers topped 200 yards in both rushing and passing for the second straight week. The last time the offense had consecutive 200 rushing yards and 200 passing yards was back in 2021 against
Fordham and Buffalo.
The Huskers defeated the Falcons in front of an NCAA-record 412th consecutive sellout. George talked about playing in an atmosphere like Memorial Stadium.
“The atmosphere was electric. Sellout crowd, this fanbase and this institution is known for having an incredible environment. Great experience, but for us it was coming in, it was a work day to get better. To try to find a way to win and be competitive, and unfortunately it just didn’t work out in our favor”
Nebraska had another dominant performance on the ground. The Huskers ran the ball 34 times for 264 yards and 2 touchdowns with an average of 7.8 yards per carry. Freshman Jamal Rule led the team with 8 carries for 88 yards and one touchdown.
As a team, Nebraska ranks No. 14 in the nation with an average of 256 rushing yards per game. The Huskers' three running backs, Jamal Rule, Isaiah Mozee, and Mekhi Nelson, have let the way through the first two games, and George believes that each back has a distinctly different style of running, which caused problems for the Falcons' defense.
“Three-headed monster. They were tough. I saw it on film last week. Certainly last year. (Mekhi) Nelson, he’s an explosive back. Saw it last week when he took a simple checkdown route, split four guys and scored a touchdown against Ohio. Each one of them has a different type of style. One’s more downhill, not going to make you miss, but run right through you. More of a power back. Nelson is certainly that kid that you get him space, he’s lethal. This unit can get better throughout the course of the year behind that offensive line, certainly with that quarterback. In this league, if you’ve got a great run game, a strong offensive line, an opportunistic defense, and a quarterback that can manage it and get it done to make plays, you've got something. So I’m curious to see how many wins this team is going to get because Nebraska is going to be a tough get, a tough out. I would not count this team out from making some noise this year.”
George also praised quarterback Anthony Colandrea, who finished the night 20 of 24 for 222 yards, 4 touchdowns and one interception. Colandrea also ran 4 times for 33 yards. The Falcons' head coach believes the combination of the running game and the efficiency of the passing game creates a lethal offense.
“Just from the pocket, the passing game. You saw how precise he was. On the day, 222 yards, 20-24. Very efficient. Knew where to go with the football. Had answers for everything. Got outside the pocket. He’s played a lot of football. Going back to Virginia and UNLV where he was Mountain West Player of the Year. We knew it was going to be a challenge for us to contain him, and just his ability to operate the offense. When you marry that with a powerful running game, it’s lethal. It’s a lethal offense. They put up 49 points last week against Ohio. They really exploded in the fourth quarter, and it seems like it continued today. So kudos to them.”
Nebraska returns to action next Saturday, hosting North Dakota at Memorial Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 6:15 p.m. CT and will air on the Big Ten Network. Bowling Green remains on the road and will take on Iowa State in Ames next Saturday at 11 p.m. CT.
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This article originally appeared on Cornhuskers Wire: What Bowling Green coach Eddie George said after loss to Nebraska
