Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Brief Brandon Comments

Gregg Brandon Press Conference Highlights

Feb. 7, 2007

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Bowling Green State University head football coach Gregg Brandon sat down with the media today (Feb. 7) to discuss the newest recruiting class to join the Falcon program. Attached are highlighted quotes from the press conference.

What do you like about this class overall?
Athleticism. I think in these last three classes we have really improved the speed. It showed up last year, not in the win loss area, but the youth is what got us last year - not the speed. We put faster guys on the football field than we ever have. To me it is an athletic, speed-oriented class and we filled some position needs that we needed to fill.

Four guys are already enrolled, how big is that?
We have a JC punter and kicker along with Eric Ransom, who is a very exciting back that we felt, needed to bolster our offense. He was a very dynamic player in junior college and he was also very heavily recruited out of high school in Waco, Texas before he hurt his knee. Jerrson Davis, a linebacker, is a kid out of Coffeyville in Kansas via South Carolina. He is an explosive player who can run really well. All four of those guys have already shown up in our winter program as guys that are going to impact and help us right away.

How early of an impact do you expect this class to have?
Who is going to play out of this class as freshmen? I don't know. I said the same thing last year and we had 27 freshmen with 13 true freshmen play for us last season. It was the third most in the country. In this class, kickers Sinisa Vrvilo and Nick Iovinelli are going to have to step in right away to do the job. Who is going to play right now? I don't know. Come back and ask me that in August after we get through camp.



Is it a fun day when the letters go out?
Oh yes! It is exciting. This is like game day to me, and I have always said that. I know national signing is a formality but there are some eleventh hour shenanigans that always go on. I just think it is a neat day. If I am an 18-year-old kid and I am sitting there signing my national letter, I think that is a pretty good deal.

What is the geographic make-up of your class?
We signed four kids out of southern Michigan. We recruit the state of Ohio heavily but the fact that there are three players may be that is was a down year for us in the state, but it certainly was not from a lack of effort on our part. We scour Ohio because it is our home state and we treat southern Michigan with the same respect.

We are doing a good job recruiting the Florida area. It is a great football state, as everybody knows. I think with the success this program has had down there with the Omar's and the Chuck's - kids that have set records here - it continues to make sense to recruit that state.

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