For many Falcons, road game is a new experience

TROY, Ala. - The first game of the 2010 Bowling Green State University football season was full of firsts.

Probably the biggest first was the number of new players who were making their first road trip at the college level.

Of the 60 players who boarded the busses and eventually flew on the Falcons' charter to Montgomery, Ala., 21 were making their first road trip with the BG football team.

That means 35 percent of the players on the field for BG had never traveled during their college football careers.

Of course, part of the reason for that is the large number of players in the program with only limited college experience.

Of the 85 scholarship players in BG's program, 44 are either true or redshirt freshmen. When you consider that five of the sophomores on the rosters played as true freshman, that means 49 scholarship players - or 57.6 percent of the roster - is in just its second season with the program.

The hot weather around Northwest Ohio this week certainly helped the Falcons yesterday.

The game time temperature was 84 degrees - which was downright comfortable when you consider that the mid-afternoon temperature was in the mid-90s.

The warm weather allowed the Falcons to use a no-huddle offense early in the game, limiting Troy's ability to substitute without having problems with cramping or other dehydration issues.

Larry Blakeney is in his 20th season as the head coach of the Troy Trojans.

Only two coaches in the FBS level have spent more consecutive years at the same school, and maybe you've heard of them: Joe Paterno at Penn State (45th season) and Frank Beamer of Virginia Tech (30th season).

Chris Ault has coached Nevada for 26 seasons, but it has been split in three different tenures.

The Falcons broke out their new road uniforms, which vary slightly from last year's uniform.

The most notable changes are on the uniform top, where the two-tone shoulder stripe - one orange stripe, one brown - have been removed. On the pants, the side stripe has changed from a straight stripe to a more curved stripe.

Oh, and one other change: the names have been removed from the back of the uniform.

Troy senior lineman Troy Clark was a pre-season All-Sun Belt Conference pick and started his 32nd game for the Trojans yesterday.

But Clark did make a change for the contest against the Falcons, switching his uniform number from 58 to 54. Clark made the change to honor Cody Dean, a high school teammate who died in an accident in May.

It obviously was the first game of the season, because the two teams combined for three penalties on the first three plays from scrimmage.