Stewart's injury 'not anything like last year'

Terion Stewart made the trip to Penn State last Saturday, but the physical running back sat out Bowling Green's narrow loss with an ankle injury. BGSU head coach Scot Loeffler, in his postgame media session, sounded like Stewart would be back soon. "He did his ankle in the Fordham game. He'll be back," Loeffler said. "It's not anything like last year; he just wasn't 100 percent. He was more toward 50 percent. "When you're playing teams like that and you're 50 percent... we all know Terion's a good player. Terion's a good player at 50 percent. But when you're not healthy and not playing fast you're gonna get hurt." Stewart, a 2019 Sandusky High School graduate, was on several preseason awards watch lists this summer. He opened the season with 161 rushing yards and three touchdowns in a 41-17 win against Fordham on August 29. Stewart, who was hobbled by a bad ankle his senior year in high school, missed the last four games last season with a foot injury. The 5-foot-9, 220-pound junior ran for 762 yards and eight touchdowns last season, averaging 6.1 yards per carry. The Falcons led Penn State 24-20 at halftime before falling 34-27. BGSU scored on the game's first drive, marking the first time the Nittany Lions allowed an opening touchdown in 28 games. Loeffler said that his team returned to Ohio relatively healthy. "Knock on wood, I think we came out of this healthy," he said. "That was the biggest disappointment last year when we got the hell beat out of us at Ann Arbor (31-6 loss to Michigan)." BGSU has an early-season bye week this week before traveling to SEC member Texas A&M on September 21. "We're in a bye here. We really gotta move the needle of our program this next week," Loeffler said. "We need to make sure we're improving. we just gotta keep the mindset of improvement." The Falcons close out the preseason portion of their schedule September 28 at home against Old Dominion before traveling to Akron on October 5 for their Mid-American Conference opener.