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Scot Loeffler on Michigan: ‘Arguably the best defense I’ve seen’

Chris Balasby:Chris Balas•09/17/23•

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Michigan defensive tackle Kris Jenkins made one of the plays of the game against Bowling Green with an interception. (Photo by Nic Antaya/Getty Images)

Michigan struggled against a mediocre Bowling Green team before pulling away in the second half. The Wolverines’ J.J. McCarthy played his worst game in a Michigan uniform in a 31-6 victory — Falcons head coach Scot Loeffler said some of it had to do with his team emulating U-M’s defense and playing well up front. 

“They are arguably the best defense that I’ve seen, and the offense reminds me of the 1999 offense (under Tom Brady),” Loeffler said. “They’re excellent. They can run the ball and pass. But I’m super, super, super proud of our guys coming in here and battling and not laying down. We’d have loved to do some things better, but we were put into some really, really tough circumstances, and I’m proud of some of those guys that went in there and never even took a practice rep this week in practice and battled their tails off. 

“We run the same defenses they run, and I think our scheme is good. But we’ve got good players. They put pressure on the passer and made him move around. We knew he was dangerous. He’s a great player. Not a good player; a great player. I’m really proud of our kids, how they handled him. J.J. is an All-Big Ten type of dude.”

But his team had no shot to win at Michigan, especially after backup quarterback Camden Orth went down. Bowling Green lost starter Connor Bazelak Thursday, but Orth played well in the early going. The third stringer, Hayden Timosciek, was the scout team quarterback all week, and they barely even tried to throw with him. They weren’t going to come back with him under center. 

Still, they battled against what Loeffler called one of the best fronts in football. 

“I was happy with our offensive front. There are two interior guys they have that are first round draft picks, and they played their tails off,” Loeffler said. 

His own defense rose up to hold the Michigan offense in check.

“We gave them a lot of looks just like they do, [Michigan D.C.] Coach [Jesse]Minter does,” he said. “My goodness gracious. We’ve copycatted it. Their scheme is awesome. They’ve got good players; we’ve got good players. Scheme’s cool, don’t get me wrong … I love it. But it’s all about the players.”

Michigan just had more, but Bowling Green arguably had more to be proud of Saturday night than the Wolverines. They just didn’t have enough firepower. 

NOTES

Michigan debuted a new light show at night, maize and blue flashing lights during which the “normal” lights were turned off during timeouts.

“They probably scheduled us for the night game to test the lights, I would assume,” Loeffler, former Michigan player and coach, said with a laugh. “But it was pretty cool. It’s a great environment. It’s a great place. I think it’s one of those special places to play a game.

“It hit me on Thursday, and then Thursday all the emotions and all the great people I’ve seen around … seeing them today was really special. Those guys mean the world to me, just like my players mean the world to me.”

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