Tiger's Lair Primer - Bowling Green Week

Rock M Nation is an official sponsor of Tiger's Lair, the official Mizzou football student section, which was in fact originally conceived and created by our own The Beef. Each week, we hope to provide a basic primer for Tiger's Lair members and all other Mizzou fans, as well as invite everyone to come join us in discussion and peruse some of our more in-depth links.

This week, we look at the Bowling Green Falcons.

Mizzou football fans that consider themselves BCS conference snobs might look at Bowling Green and see a cupcake and/or a free win. They needn't look far to see why this is a dangerous assumption.

Bowling Green is actually 3-1 all-time against the Tigers, including two wins over Missouri earlier in the decade. In both games, the Tigers were bested by a young whippersnapper head coach by the name of Urban Meyer, last seen leading the University of Florida to two championships in three years.

What do you need to know about Bowling Green? Let's break it down to basics:

What have they done? Bowling Green opened the season at home last week against the Troy Trojans (yet another non-BCS team with a win over Missouri this decade). Troy was the preseason favorite to win the Sun Belt Conference, while Bowling Green was picked fifth in the MAC East. The game (much like Mizzou/Illinois) was proof of why prognostications don't mean much.Bowling Green used a 17-0 fourth quarter to beat Troy, 31-14, and improve to 1-0.

Who should I watch? It's a little bit of a copout answer, but it all starts with the man behind center. Quarterback Tyler Sheehan (No. 13) was fantastic in the season opener, completing 32 of 44 passes for 339 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. A significant number of his passing yards were accounted for by senior receiver Freddie Barnes (No. 7), who finished the game with 157 receiving yards and two TDs on 15 receptions. Defensively, senior cornerback Roger Williams (No. 31) came up huge for the Falcons last week, leading the team in tackles (10) and coming up with an interception. Adrien Spencer (No. 21) had a 64-yard interception return for touchdown with 2:14 remaining that sealed the win over Troy.

What else should I know? Bowling Green is in its first year of a new coaching regime. Dave Clawson brought his offense, frequently called "The Clawfense," to Bowling Green from the University of Tennessee. Fun fact? Clawson's offense in 2008 resulted in the worst offensive output for Tennesee in 30 years and resulted in the dismissal of head coach Philip Fulmer, whose national championship in 1998 wasn't even enough to overcome the poor 2008 season. That certainly has no bearing on Bowling Green's 2009 season, but that doesn't mean Clawson's role at Tennessee in 2008 isn't fair game for jeers.

What other fun facts can I learn about Bowling Green? All you could ever want and more is right here. Become acquainted with Jeopardy Fatality Jesus.

Yeah, I get all this basic stuff. Hit me with more. Consider it done. See the links below that were part of Rock M Nation's "Bowling Green Week" during the offseason.

• Team Links
• Beyond the Box Score - Offense
• Beyond the Box Score - Defense
• Community Projections

Make sure to stick around Rock M Nation this week for more analysis and banter as it relates to Mizzou football, the Big 12, the national landscape, and probably a lot of other topics such as bacon and America. And if you feel like diving in and becoming a part of our community, you can sign up for a free account in no more than two minutes. This login serves as your gateway to the entire SB Nation network.