From Heisman to FBS head coach: Eddie George ready for next big challenge at Bowling Green

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (AP) — Eddie George is a Heisman Trophy winner who rushed for over 10,000 yards in the NFL before becoming a successful businessman and actor.

His latest challenge? Seeing if he can parlay all those lessons and successes into putting Bowling Green back on the map.

George makes his Football Bowl Subdivision coaching debut Thursday night when the Falcons host Lafayette.

George, who turns 52 on Sept. 24, has been going non-stop since being named the 21st coach in program history on March 9. After four years at Tennessee State, George takes over from Scot Loeffler, who left Bowling Green in February to become the Philadelphia Eagles’ quarterbacks coach.

“This is our Christmas, right? I mean, it’s here,” George said. “We’ve invested a lot of time in getting our guys prepared on the field by putting together a great schedule and being very intentional about practice. They had to go through some adversity to find out who we are, how we want to respond, how we can coach these kids, and it’s been a wonderful process.”

George — a 2011 College Football Hall of Famer — has come back to Ohio after posting a 24-22 record at Tennessee State. He took over a program that had struggled before his arrival in 2021 and led the Tigers to their first Football Championship Subdivision playoff spot since 2013 last year with a 9-4 mark that earned him Big South-OVC Coach of the Year honors.

Even though George got a bit of a late start compared to other first-year coaches, he isn’t about to use that as an excuse if the Falcons get off to a slow start.

“Within a new situation you have to expect it’s not going to be smooth. There’s going to be hiccups. You have to embrace that,” he said. “There haven’t been any surprises. I knew what I signed up for when I took the opportunity to be the head coach here. We’re all speaking the same language and we’re all in harmony.”

Besides learning his players and getting out in the community, George has used the first couple months to establish his vision for the program, which above all focuses on preparation and mindset.

“It’s not my first rodeo. It’s just a different stage, a different place and you just have to embrace it as it comes. Again, you’ve got to keep the main thing, the main thing. That’s number one again: our preparation and how we prepare. Our mindset. How we approach the day,” he said.

George’s first Falcons’ squad features 48 newcomers, including 25 transfers from FBS or FCS programs. They had five transfers last season. The 12 assistant coaches include four holdovers from Loeffler’s staff.

One of the newcomers is quarterback Drew Pyne, who has 12 starts in previous stops at Notre Dame, Arizona State and Missouri. The offensive line features three players who started all 13 games for the Falcons last season.

“We have 48 new players, so you can’t just expect for us to go out here and throw our hat on the football field and somebody’s going to bow down and say, ‘Eddie George is their head coach.’ No, that doesn’t work that way, so they’re well aware of the challenge at hand for opening day,” George said.

Cornerback Jalen McClendon, one of five Tennessee State players who transferred to Bowling Green, said George’s biggest area of growth has come in dealing with players.

“Like really meeting with guys one on one and being what a head coach should be,” McClendon said. “Just knowing things aren’t right. He stopped practice the other day. He saw we came out low and said, ‘Hey, walk out those gates, come back in, let’s fire it up.’ Just seeing things and just being more knowledgeable, he’s doing a real good job with that.”

George joins Steve Spurrier, Pat Sullivan, John David Crow and Frank Sinkwich as Heisman winners who have gone on to coach at the FBS level. Spurrier is the most successful of the group, going 228-89-2 at Duke, Florida and South Carolina as well as winning a national title with the Gators.

There are plenty of billboards throughout northwest Ohio promoting George, including one less than a mile from BG’s arch-rival, the University of Toledo. Posters of George with the Falcons’ schedule are in restaurants, coffee shops and bars.

Bowling Green is making the most out of the opener. It will host a panel discussion on “The Significance of College Football in America” on Thursday afternoon that will feature three former Ohio State coaches — Urban Meyer, Ohio Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel and John Cooper — as well as George.

Cooper was George’s coach when he won the Heisman Trophy in 1995.

Meyer, who coached at Bowling Green in 2001 and ’02 before going to Utah, Florida and Ohio State, is being enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame in December. Meyer also reached out to George to gauge his interest about going to Bowling Green.

Bowling Green’s single-game ticket sales are already up 113% from last year and its premium seating is sold out.

“I’ve done a lot in terms of getting out in the community and getting in front of key constituents. Alumni, people that have donated in the past, that’s important,” George said. “However, I still have to get this team prepared, inside and out, and really establish the culture on a daily basis in terms of what this really is going to be about, how we’re going to accomplish what we need to accomplish on a daily basis, and not get distracted by anything else outside of that.”

___

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football