Bowling Green Falcons 2026 Season Preview

Year Two for George

Eddie George's debut season closed at 4-8, 2-6 in the MAC, and the power rating (No. 123) reflects just how far off the pace Bowling Green played all year. There's no long track record to lean on yet, just one rough freshman-coaching campaign in the books, so 2026 is really the first real test of whether his program is trending anywhere. A step forward in conference play would matter more than any single number on this card, given how thin the sample size still is.

Ground and Grind, Again

Bowling Green's defense was legitimately disruptive last year, ranking 12th nationally in havoc rate and 8th in run-stuff rate, but a passing attack stuck at 126th nationally sank the whole operation to 4-8. Eddie George hands the keys to Jay Kastantin, a clean-slate starter with no prior stat line, which means this offense is being built from scratch rather than repaired. If Kastantin can push the ball downfield even modestly, that defensive front, already stout against the run at 54th, gives Bowling Green a real path to more one-possession games it actually wins in year two.

Bowling Green is turning the page entirely at quarterback, and that alone says plenty about how bad 2025 was through the air: Drew Pyne, Baron May and Lucian Anderson III combined to throw for three touchdowns against eight interceptions in a passing attack that ranked 126th in the country. The answer is Jay Kastantin, who arrives with no college stats but is the established starter, taking over an offense that finished 128th in success rate and 118th in points per scoring opportunity a year ago. With Hunter Najm, Caleb Moyer and a trio of incoming freshmen behind him, Kastantin does not have to beat out a proven veteran, he just has to be more efficient than a room that threw more picks than touchdowns last season.

Austyn Dendy's 493 yards and 5 scores were the rare bright spot in an offense that ranked 125th nationally in total yardage, and he returns as the clear lead back. But Bowling Green didn't just add depth, it added a starter capable of outproducing him: Ke'Marion Baldwin arrives from Charleston Southern off a 778-yard, 6-touchdown season and figures to push Dendy for the early-down job immediately. With Chris McMillian (342 yards) and Kaderris Roberts (215 yards) both gone, the room's total carries turn over almost entirely to Dendy and Baldwin, and how that split shakes out will shape whether Eddie George's ground game can lift an attack that finished 71st in rushing yards per game into something more consistent.

Bowling Green's leading returning receiver caught four passes last year, which tells the real story of a passing game that ranked 126th in the country. Eddie George went to the portal to fix that, landing Isaiah Dawson from Richmond, who put up 42 catches for 575 yards and 4 touchdowns, instantly the most proven target on the roster. RJ Garcia II and his 27 grabs are gone, so Dawson is not competing for targets so much as inheriting them outright, with Brennan Ridley's 110 yards on just four catches offering a big-play complement if he can turn that efficiency into volume.

Jyrin Johnson's 37 catches and Jacob Harris's 5 touchdowns walk out the door, leaving Blane Cleaver, whose entire 2025 line reads 3 catches for 11 yards, as the most productive returning tight end on the roster. That production gap lands on an offense that already ranked 126th in passing yards per game, so Eddie George is banking on a wave of unproven pieces, Ocean Brabbs, Reece Little, Carsen Melvin and four incoming three-star freshmen led by Kentrell White and Maddox Hunstad, to give the passing game a target it lost. Nobody in that group has caught a college pass, which points to a tight end room that leans on the run game and grows into its role rather than replacing Johnson's numbers outright in 2026.

Bowling Green allowed 29 sacks and managed just 4.86 yards per play last season, numbers that trace straight back to a line in flux, and Eddie George is betting volume solves it. Twelve linemen return, led in experience by senior Alexis Sanchez and juniors Brody Bolyn and James Thomas Jr., while three-star tackles Travis Robertson, Pete Pendergest and Maddux Murphy arrive to push for spots up front. The bulk of the room is intact, but replacing departed tackles Tunde Fatukasi and Nate Pabst up front will decide whether that 156 rushing yards per game mark climbs or the same low-efficiency offense (128th in success rate) repeats itself.

Eriq George is the one proven disruptor up front, coming off 4 sacks and 4.5 TFL, but Bowling Green loses Dierre Kelly's 25 tackles and 3.5 TFL plus Collins Acheampong's production off the edge, leaving a line that finished 89th in sacks needing new juice. That juice arrives via transfer John Baker IV, who joins from crosstown rival Toledo, alongside Kade Kostus from Central Michigan, while three-star edges Elijah Durham-Smith, Trent Merrell and Samuel Dossous stock the room for depth rather than instant impact. The bet here is that scheme carries this group again, since Bowling Green ranked 12th in havoc rate and 8th in run-stuff rate a year ago without much star power, meaning the new faces just need to keep that disruption machine humming rather than reinvent it.

Gideon Lampron's 119 tackles and 17.5 TFL walk out the door, and nobody left on this roster comes close to replicating that kind of disruption. Dorian Pringle (27 tackles, 6 TFL) and Andrew Hines III (22 tackles, 3.5 TFL) are the only proven pieces stepping into bigger roles, while Purdue transfer Sanders Ellis arrives with modest production (7 tackles) to round out the room alongside three-star freshmen Kingston Seals and Caden Carter. Bowling Green's havoc rate and run-stuff numbers ranked among the nation's best last season largely because of the group that's now gone, so Eddie George's defense is betting Pringle and Hines can hold the line while unproven bodies fill in behind them.

Kal-El Pascal (80 tackles, 3.5 TFL) and Armhan Hale (44 tackles, 3.5 TFL) anchor a back end that produced real disruption last year, ranking 12th nationally in havoc rate even while the pass defense sat 40th in yards allowed per game. The corner room takes a hit with MJ Cannon (57 tackles, 2 sacks, 6 TFL) and Keyon Washington (37 tackles, 2 TFL) both gone, leaving JoJo Johnson and Josira Andrews to carry more of that coverage load. Bowling Green didn't hit the transfer portal hard here, instead restocking with high school signees Chris Newell Jr., Julian Holt and Cedarius Christian plus Florida Atlantic transfer Mike Wright III and North Carolina Central transfer Drey Braxton, a mix that leans on development over instant fixes for a defense that still needs to shore up its 89th-ranked sack total up front.

The bigger swing here is at kicker, not punter. Jackson Kleather, who hit 19 of 22 field goals with an 83-point season, is gone, and the returning options - Carlos Guerra, Treyton McKee and Travis Kenner (0 of 0 FG, 1 point) - have combined for essentially nothing on the ledger. At punter, Bowling Green upgrades on paper by bringing in Ryan Kingston from Southeast Missouri State, whose 72 punts at a 41-yard average edge out departed John Henderson's 40.5 mark, and Alex Jenkins returns as a fallback option. Eddie George's second year rides on someone unproven turning into a reliable placekicker, because the punting figures to hold steady while the field-goal job is a total question mark.

Kastantin Takes Over an Emptied Roster

Bowling Green sent 27 players out the portal door, including the entire backfield of Cameron Pettaway, Kaderris Roberts and Chris McMillian, plus leading tackler Gideon Lampron and quarterback Drew Pyne, who threw for 882 yards but also five interceptions. Jay Kastantin steps in as the settled starting quarterback with no prior statistics to lean on, throwing to transfer Isaiah Dawson, who caught 42 balls for 575 yards at Richmond, and handing off to Ke'Marion Baldwin, who ran for 778 yards at Charleston Southern. With a class ranked 75th nationally and Eddie George in year two, this is less a retool than a full transplant, and how fast Kastantin and Baldwin sync up will decide whether Bowling Green's offense looks anything like a MAC contender.

Ke'Marion Baldwin

Jay Kastantin taking over at quarterback with zero prior stats is reason enough to lean on the ground game, and that puts the season on Ke'Marion Baldwin, who arrives from Charleston Southern off a 778-yard, 6-touchdown year. Pairing him with returning back Austyn Dendy gives Eddie George a run game that can mask an unproven passing attack, but if Baldwin does not produce like he did at Charleston Southern, Kastantin gets forced into carrying an offense with no track record behind him.

George's Home Favorite Problem

Bowling Green under Eddie George is a live dog and a dead chalk team, going 2-2 as road underdogs but an 0-4 wipeout any time books make the Falcons favored at home. That split says more about how sportsbooks are pricing George's second season than the 4-8 record does, since the market keeps overrating this group at home and undervaluing it on the road. Until that 0-4 mark as home favorites changes, backing Bowling Green as anything but a road underdog is betting against the actual evidence.