ANN ARBOR, Mich. — There’s a lot of corollaries between Michigan football and its next opponent, Bowling Green. Jim Harbaugh’s dad, Jack Harbaugh, played and coached there, the Falcons’ current head coach is former Michigan quarterback and coach Scot Loeffler, and Erik ‘Soup’ Campbell, another former Wolverines player and coach, is on staff at BGSU, as well.
But there are some different connections for this Michigan football team and the Falcons.
A transfer who’s on his third school, Connor Bazelak was teammates last year with AJ Barner, as both departed Indiana following the 2022 season. Barner is excited to see his former quarterback, noting a time when they had a football connection in a game a year ago.
“Connor’s a good dude, a good player also, and I’m excited to go up against him and it’ll be good to see him again. And I wish him the best of luck,” Barner said. “He threw me a touchdown against Idaho, which was cool. But yeah, he’s a really good player, and I can’t wait to see him this weekend. And I’m excited for it.”
But there’s also the fact that the Wolverines saw Bazelak on the other side of the ball. Against Michigan in Week 6 in 2022, Bazelak went 25-for-49 for 203 yards with a touchdown and one interception.
While it’s unclear at the moment whether or not the full complement of the secondary will finally take the field for the first time this season, nickel back Mike Sainristil will be out there. And he recalls having played against Bazelak, the once-Hoosiers and Missouri Tigers QB. Though his stat line isn’t exactly something to write home about, he has good skill and ability, and there are things that Sainristil will be on the lookout for come Saturday.
“I feel like the biggest thing for us is that just knowing that when he’s under pressure situations — last year, we got a ton of pressure on him and he did a great job of just dumping the ball out of bounds,” Sainristil said. “We’ve just got to make sure we keep the main thing the main thing, make sure that our coverage is tight. Help the D-line get a good rush. In the back end, back seven help to D-line get a good rush. The line’s gonna go out there and do what it is that they do. That’s what they’re known for. So I’m excited to go out there and play on Saturday.”
Michigan hosts Bowling Green on Saturday night with a 7:30 p.m. EDT kickoff under the lights. The game will be nationally broadcast on Big Ten network.