Bowling Green has employed 15 coaches since Warren Steller took the job way back in 1924, and 12 of those 15 have left the school with a winning record. That list includes Hall of Famers like Doyt Perry (77-11-5 from 1955-64), Don Nehlen (53-35-4 from 1968-76) and Urban Meyer (17-6 from 2001-02). It does not include Scot Loeffler, who went 27-48 but nonetheless left the program better than he found it in 2019.
Loeffler is now the Philadelphia Eagles quarterbacks coach, and the search for his replacement continues apace.
FootballScoop previously reported on the candidacy of Mercer head coach Mike Jacobs, a Northwest Ohio native and the son of a prominent Ohio coaching family. Now, new names have emerged in a search managed by Glenn Sugiyama and Dan Guerrero of DHR International.
Sources told FootballScoop on Wednesday that Kentucky associate head coach Vince Marrow and Minnesota co-defensive coordinator Nick Monroe are also among the candidates for the position and have interviewed.
A Youngstown native, Marrow is well-known in Ohio, having served as Toledo's tight ends coach in 2008 and as the head coach of Holland High School in Springfield, Ohio, before taking his current role at Kentucky in 2013. There, he's risen to become one of the highest-paid position coaches in college football; Marrow made $1.3 million in 2024, more than double what Bowling Green paid Loeffler.
Sources expect Bowling Green to pay more than the $582,000 Loeffler made in 2024, but it remains to be seen if the two sides can settle on a number that makes sense if Marrow becomes the choice.
Monroe was Bowling Green's defensive backs coach from 2010-15, working under Dave Clawson and Dino Babers. The Falcons went 36-17 with two MAC championships from 2012-15, a period that earned Clawson the Wake Forest job and took Babers to Syracuse. Monroe joined Babers in Upstate New York, where he remained until joining Minnesota's staff as co-defensive coordinator and cornerbacks coach in 2023. He made $417,000 in 2024, according to the USA Today coaching salary database.
DHR and Bowling Green representatives have spoken with a number of other candidates as well.
Sources close to the search anticipate Bowling Green will make a hire by the end of this week or the beginning of next, and other candidates could emerge throughout the process.
A search during March presents a unique set of real-world challenges. No matter the hire, the new Falcon likely is choosing a different assistant pool in March than he would've if the job opened in December. Bowling Green has to consider a candidate's fitness with the position with his ability to fill out a staff on extremely late notice, and reconcile the possibility that the best candidate in a vacuum might not be the best candidate to fill out a staff in March.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.