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Bowling Green's Babers has the 'stuff' for success -- and it's coveted
Dino Babers read an article online the other day. He didn't recall who published the piece at first, but a lot of people in the football world were talking about it, so he read.
"At first, it bugged me," Babers said, regarding a Wall Street Journal story titled, "Why the NFL has a Quarterback Crisis." The subhead: "Coaches see more QB prospects entering the league without the skill sets to excel; Will the classic NFL passer go extinct?"
The Journal story quoted a few NFL coaches and GMs and detailed how NFL teams were wary of former Baylor star QB Bryce Petty: "Because Baylor played a 'spread' offense that forced defenses to fan out across the field, making them unable to disguise anything, many scouts worried he would struggle to master the NFL game."
The 54-year-old Babers, a former Baylor assistant, is a protege of Bears head man Art Briles. Babers took the Baylor system to Eastern Illinois, where as EIU's head coach, he won 19 games in two seasons and then got the Bowling Green job. And he's making waves there, too. Last Saturday, Babers' Falcons blasted Big Ten foe Maryland 48-27 after losing a 59-30 shootout at Tennessee, where they rolled up 557 yards. After two weeks, BGSU is fourth in the nation in yards per game (625 ypg) and is the only team ranked in the Top 25 of total offense that has faced two Power 5 teams.
But back to that article.
"My first thought was, 'They [the NFL] don't understand,'" Babers said. "They get paid millions and millions of dollars and can't teach these kids that stuff? They want us to teach to 'em? Let me take my stuff up there."
It was also the same stuff that helped enable EIU QB Jimmy Garoppolo to win the 2013 Walter Payton Award as the nation's top FCS player and throw for more than 5,000 yards and 53 TDs. Garoppolo was drafted by New England in the second round of the 2014 draft and is seen as the team's QB of the future.
Babers' "stuff" is much of the same stuff Petty was taught. However, the coach adds that while he will always claim Baylor as his base and his "heritage," coaching in the Midwest with its weather issues requires Bowling Green to go under center a lot more, and they were probably under center around 25 percent of the time in their last game.
For now, though, his stuff is looking like it's going to be a very hot commodity this winter. The Illinois head coaching job is already open and there could be as many as four if not five coaching vacancies in the Big Ten alone in 2015. Babers, with his prolific offense, figures to be among the candidates looked at.
Saturday's win over Maryland was Babers' second victory over a Big Ten program since coming to Bowling Green. (BG beat Indiana, 45-42 in 2014.) "This was a win over a Big Ten team that just went to a bowl game last year," Babers said. "This is big."
Babers' QB, Matt Johnson, leads the nation in passing, throwing for 458 yards per game to go with an 8-1 TD-INT ratio. He returned from suffering a season-ending hip injury in the 2014 opener last year, and he torched the Vols' secondary for 424 yards.
"Everyone was saying how great he was. I thought he was rusty," Babers conceded late Saturday night, a notion he shared with his QB leading up to the Maryland game.
With the Falcons up 21 points at Maryland and a little less than five minutes remaining in the game, Johnson turned to his head coach: "Well, did I knock the rust off?"
"You knocked some rust off," Babers replied.
"He left too much meat on the bone," Babers later explained to FOX Sports, adding that some of that also has to do with the QB playing with some receivers in their first game in the offense.
The 6-foot, 219-pound Johnson, a fifth-year senior, is primed for a huge season for the Falcons.
"He is a great leader," Babers said. "He gets kids from all different backgrounds to give it to him. He has that 'It' thing. He's not the tallest kid in the world, not the most glamorously shaped kid in the world. He just finds a way to get it done, and he can really throw the ball. There's no doubt in my mind that he has a future (playing pro football). It might be north of us (in the CFL). But he can play."
Babers compares Johnson to Boston College great Doug Flutie. "He throws from numerous release points, and he finds a way to adjust in the land of giants. He's almost like a second baseman. He makes it difficult for defenses and safeties to see where he's going with the ball."
On Saturday, Babers' team gets another big test when 2-0 Memphis visits. The Tigers have outscored their opponents 118-30 thus far and are seventh in the nation in fewest yards per play allowed (3.48). A week later, BG gets a chance to take down another Big Ten team when the Falcons visit Purdue. Don't be surprised if Babers makes it three wins over Big Ten teams in a little more than one year.
Bruce Feldman is a senior college football reporter and columnist for FOXSports.com and FOX Sports 1. He is also a New York Times Bestselling author. His new book, The QB: The Making of Modern Quarterbacks, came out in October, 2014. Follow him on Twitter @BruceFeldmanCFB and Facebook.
