“You’ve got one game left, and you’ve got a chance to win it and get to Detroit,” Miami coach Chuck Martin said. “What your goal is — what everybody’s goal is — certainly, what our goal is every year is to fight to get to Detroit.
“Our kids and coaches have done a great job and fought real hard. Obviously, starting off 1-4 and 0-1 in the league’s not really where you want to be, but our kids and coaches have done a great job of getting better each week and keep finding ways to win games.”
Here are five things to know about Miami’s game against Bowling Green:
1. About Bowling Green
Bowling Green has won five in a row and is 7-4 overall and 6-1 in MAC play. The Falcons are playing for a spot in the MAC title game as well.
“Obviously, Bowling Green’s a tremendous opponent,” Martin said. “Lost by 7 to Texas A&M, who’s in the college football playoff right now. Lost by 7 to Penn State, who’s really highly ranked right now. The other team, they lost to Northern (Illinois) — their quarterback got knocked out during the game. It was their only (MAC) loss.
“They’re having a tremendous year. We knew going in that they were playing really good at the end of last year. We thought they were one of the best teams in the league a year ago, and at the end, we thought they were as good as anyone. They’ve got a lot of guys back.”
Quarterback Connor Bazelak, an Alter High School grad, has thrown for 2,453 yards and 15 touchdowns this season, while tight end Harold Fannin Jr. has 92 catches for 1,295 yards and nine touchdowns.
“He’s a been a great player, and their tight end’s been a great in our league for a long time,” Martin said referring to Fannin Jr. “He’s been a huge weapon of theirs. They’ve got a couple other tight ends who are good players, too, that they use. But they use him like a wideout. They use him like a running back.
“They throw a ton of screen passes to him. They throw screen passes to their running backs, so they use their running backs in the passing game a ton, too. Then they flex him out. He’s all over the field. So, they do a great job of game planning to get him in different spots, so you don’t know where he’s at. And they get him the ball obviously a ton of different ways.”
2. The series
Miami is 47-25-5 against Bowling Green in the all-time series. The RedHawks have won four of the past five contests but dropped a 17-13 decision back in 2022 at Doyt Perry Stadium.
In three career starts against the Falcons, Miami quarterback Brett Gabbert has thrown for 622 yards and seven touchdowns. RedHawks linebacker Matt Salopek has 22 tackles and 1.0 TFL in his career against the Bowling Green.
“On the road, Week 12, against a great opponent,” Martin said, “it’s a great challenge for us and a great opportunity for us, too.”
3. Mozee on the move
Keyon Mozee is 63 yards shy of 1,000 yards rushing this season and would be just the 23rd player in program history to rush 1,000 yards in a single season.
It would also give Miami back-to-back 1,000-yard rushers for the first time since 2002 and 2003. Prior to this year, Mozee had 1,178 yards rushing in 36 career games.
“My vision, I felt like once I learned to slow everything down rather than just running around trying to be Superman, it worked out,” Mozee said.
4. On the defense
In conference games this season, Miami’s defense ranks near the top in every statistical category.
The RedHawks rank second in scoring (15.4), second in total defense (278.4), second in rush defense (98.6), fourth in pass defense (179.9), second in sacks (21) and first in interceptions (10).
“With this team, we always knew that we could be good, and it showed,” Miami defensive back Silas Walters said. “We just attacking each week, one week at a time. We knew it was a one-week playoff. We knew we still had our destiny in front of us. I think we did a great job of that mindset, and here we are six games later — won six in a row — and hopefully finish the job off this next week.”
Over the past four weeks, Miami’s defense has allowed just five touchdowns, while opponents are averaging 2.8 yards per rush — 381 yards on 138 carries. Miami has forced seven turnovers and recorded 14 sacks over the past month.
“Defensively, our guys have executed our game plans,” Martin said. ‘We’ve had really good game plans. Like we’ve talked about for many weeks, we’ve taken away, whether it’d be the run or whether it’d be a certain player or whether it’d be the slot at Eastern or the tight end at Ball State or maybe just the run game against Northern. They’ve done a good job having a plan to try and take away what the other team does best.”
5. Kicker University
For the second-straight year, Miami has a place-kicker up for the Lou Groza Award. Dom Dzioban is one of 20 semifinalists for the nation’s top kicker.
He currently has made 22 of 26 field goals this season, including a Yager Stadium record five field goals in the victory over Central Michigan.
Graham Nicholson won the Lou Groza (made 27 of 28 field goals) last season, and prior to that, Sam Sloman made 48-of-61 kicks from 2016-19. Sloman was eventually getting drafted by the Los Angeles Rams.
FRIDAY’S GAME
Miami at Bowling Green, Noon, ESPNU, 980, 1450
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