Bowling Green's Scot Loeffler is On3 Group of Five national head coach of the week

Each week during the season, On3 selects a national Group of Five head coach of the week.

Our choice for Week 5: Bowling Green’s Scot Loeffler.

Loeffler led the Falcons to the program’s first-ever win over an ACC program, a 38-27 upset of Georgia Tech.

After falling behind 14-0 thanks to two early Yellow Jackets touchdowns, Bowling Green responded with 38 unanswered points and led by 24 through the latter part of the third quarter and by 18 for most of the fourth quarter.

The Falcons, who were 1-3, were a 22 1/2-point underdog.

“I’m really proud of this team,” Loeffler said after the game. “I’ve said it a thousand times, we’re a team that can go out and do what we did last week (a 38-7 loss to Ohio) and we’re a team that can go beat a Power Five team. I said it to them in (the locker room), we’ve been here before. We went and beat Minnesota and then the next week came out and completely laid an egg. Our challenge now is to see if we can put it back-to-back. That’s hard to do right now. … 

“Your mind has to be right, your heart has to be right and you have to be a selfless team guy to get things done. That’s who we have to be. We’re never going to out-talent anyone, but we’re going to be a team that has enough talent. We have to play team football and we played team football today.”

Bowling Green, which is in its fifth season under Loeffler, finished 6-7 last season, including 5-3 in MAC play. It was the Falcons’ most wins since 2015.

Honorable mentions

Troy’s Jon Sumrall: Sumrall guided Troy to a 28-7 road win over previously 4-0 Georgia State.

James Madison’s Curt Cignetti: For the second straight year, Cignetti has JMU off to a 5-0 start. The latest win was a 31-23 victory over South Alabama, which won 10 games last year and beat Oklahoma State two weeks ago.

Memphis’ Ryan Silverfield: Behind Silverfield, Memphis overcame an early 17-point deficit to beat Boise State, 35-32. The Tigers are off to a 4-1 start.