Bowling Green muddled through a 4-8 season in 2016, but even that team didn't start 0-2 with a loss to a Football Championship Subdivision opponent.
For the first time since arriving, Falcons second-year coach Mike Jinks took some heat on Monday, just two days after a soul-crushing 35-27 loss to South Dakota in Doyt Perry Stadium.
Jinks handled it well, addressed Bowling Green's inefficiencies and set the record straight about where his team is as a program.
Although the Falcons on paper still have a chance to reach its goal of getting back to the Mid-American Conference championship, it seems they just aren't there as a program.