David Briggs: Hold up, could it be game on for UT-BG and OSU-UM rivalries?

Sep. 26—Is it just me, or are the two games that highlight the college football calendar in northwest Ohio suddenly gaining a little more juice?

OK, maybe it is just me, and maybe it's still way too early to cast our gaze to November.

But what the hey? Let's look ahead. We deserve it, if only because this early sense of possibility is so bewitchingly unexpected.

Before the season, Toledo-Bowling Green and Ohio State-Michigan — the best rivalry in the Mid-American Conference and the sport, respectively — figured to feature all the suspense of a Hallmark movie, with Toledo and Ohio State pouring it on thicker than gravy.

Now, it appears the real gravy to this season could be the cranked-up anticipation of our favorite games.

So, could BG give the Rockets a real run? How about Michigan against Ohio State?

We'll see, but with the Falcons fresh off the early stunner of the college season, the Wolverines off to their first 4-0 start in four years, and the Buckeyes busy putting out fires — is it bad that a player quit the team during their 58-7 win over Akron on Saturday? — never say never.

For now, let's take stock of where everyone stands with our first batch of midterm grades:

Toledo (2-2): Exhibit 1,085 of why college football is a funny game.

In the past three weeks, Toledo went from outplaying the No. 8 team in the country in a 32-29 loss at Notre Dame to losing 22-6 as a two-touchdown home favorite against Colorado State to answering with a double-digit win at preseason league favorite Ball State.

Sometimes, you just have to remember we're talking about 18 to 22-year-old athletes — not droids — and that, yes, the other teams have good players and coaches, too.

In any case, major props to the Rockets for their answer in Muncie.

Toledo has its share of questions — including a mostly good one to have at quarterback — but I'm beginning to wonder if it will matter given the continued muscle-flexing rise of its defense.

UT led the league in total D during the abridged MAC schedule last year and a unit that returns all 11 starters has been even more disruptive this season. The most impressive stats: 32 tackles for a loss and now eight quarters (and counting) without allowing a touchdown. Grade: B+.

Bowling Green (2-2): For the 15th straight season, a MAC team beat a Big Ten team on Saturday.

And no victory was more stunning than the Falcons' 14-10 win at Minnesota.

Who saw it coming?

Certainly not the oddsmakers who installed Bowling Green as a 30.5-point underdog. Or the know-it-alls — myself included — who wondered before the season if BG would be the worst team in the nation. Or even the most orange-blooded faithful who hadn't seen the Falcons beat an FBS opponent since 2019.

Yet all that only made this monster of a program-building win all the sweeter.

Huge credit to third-year coach Scot Loeffler and a young Falcons team he clearly has believing. And extra credit to the defense, led by first-year coordinator Eric Lewis. Similar to Toledo, the Falcons have turned a major weakness into its strength. Remarkably, after ranking 117th nationally in total D last year (475.8 yards), Bowling Green has held its past three opponents to an average of 271 yards per game.

Count us curious to see where BG goes from here, including Nov. 10 against Toledo at the Doyt, where I don't need to remind that the Falcons stunned their rivals the last time they played. Grade: B+.

Ohio State (3-1): Is trouble brewing in paradise?

Four days after senior linebacker and St. John's Jesuit grad Dallas Gant entered the transfer portal, a second Buckeyes linebacker invited coach Ryan Day to kick him off the team — which Day did on Sunday — this time in very public and spectacular fashion.

After K'Vaughan Pope reportedly got waved off the field upon trying to enter the game in the second quarter Saturday, the senior reserve threw a tantrum and was escorted off the sideline. Pope then wrote, "[Expletive] Ohio State," in a since-deleted tweet.

No one had ever seen anything like it, and it begs the question: Is this one disgruntled player melting down in the heat of the moment? Or is something with the Buckeyes ... off?

No idea, and maybe (probably) Ohio State is so talented that it will be just fine. Reminder: In the last four classes, the Buckeyes have signed more top-100 recruits (37) and five-star prospects (15) than the rest of the Big Ten has combined, per 247Sports.

But given their home loss to Oregon, a defense that remains on summer break (89th nationally), a still-not-completely-settled quarterback position, and these sudden bubbles of discontent, their air of invincibility is no more. Ryan Day will face his greatest test yet as he tries to keep the Buckeyes on a championship track. Grade: B-.

Michigan (4-0): Is it time to tap the brakes on the Wolverines after they hung on for a 20-13 win over Rutgers?

Maybe.

Michigan showed why it might want to introduce the forward pass to its sledgehammer of an offense — which ranks fifth nationally in rushing offense — opening the second half with four straight drives without a first down. (Quarterback Cade McNamara had one completion after halftime.)

But, considering where the program was a year ago, no one's complaining too loudly. Winning tough and ugly is still winning, and, if Michigan continues to gain confidence, well, who's to say what will happen Nov. 27 in Ann Arbor? (OK, I say Ohio State will probably still beat Michigan for the ninth straight time, but the bigger point remains: Give it up for Jim Harbaugh and his remade staff for getting this thing back on the rails.) Grade: A-.

First Published September 26, 2021, 4:45pm