Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Falcon Football Roster Out: Taborn no longer with eam

So, the football roster is out...I took a quick comparison of the Spring roster and the current roster and there was only one significant change that I saw...Lorenzo Taborn is no longer with the program.  He was set to be a senior on this year's team, and played in 26 games over the course of his three years at BG.  He played LT mostly.  He was set to be one of 3 seniors on the BG offensive line this year, and you'd think that he was somebody who could have contributed.

NickP reviewed the incoming class, and noted that only Dawan Martin, a 3-star DL from Youngstown was not listed on the roster with everyone else in school.

Thursday, July 25, 2019

It's....a QB

Well, with six days left until the start of Fall camp, BG has found what would appear to be its starting QB.  Just under the wire.

Today had some action.  First, about midway through the day we heard that Bryce Veasley (one of BG's 2 scholarship QBs on the roster) had entered the transfer portal and then later we heard that BG had landed what they needed, an immediately eligible grad transfer QB named Darius Wade.  Now, if I had to guess, I would guess that they happened in the opposite order...that news about Wade hit the locker room and Veasley entered the portal.  Anyway...

You might be asking about Veasley.  He was a 3-star recruit under Jinks.  I think the fact that he has been in the program for two years and wasn't in line to play even with the emergency situation at QB speaks for itself.

Still no news on Matt McDonald.  But, clearly, no one was sure that he was going to be eligible and the NCAA seems to be ratcheting back on the approvals.  His eligibility would still matter, by the way.  Right now, BG has only Wade and Loy and QBs do get injured.  (Remember the end of Jinks' first year?  Kent started Nate Holley at QB and Akron started Tra'Von Chapman, neither a QB).

So, I doubt if any athlete coming to BG will have received a warmer welcome than one Darius Wade.

What do we know about him?

He was a prep all-star in Delaware in HS.  He was Addazio's first QB recruit to BC.  He played 22 games at BC in an up-and-down career.  There's a story out there about him continually making comebacks.  He was very seriously injured in a game against Florida State and seemed to continually yo-yo with Anthony Brown for the starting job.  He grad transferred to Delaware before last season, but did not play due to injuries.  He was able (I am gathering) to use that year as his redshirt because the year of his FSU injury had been a medical redshirt.

He came to BC as a dual-threat QB, but ran only 55 times in those 22 games and that includes sacks.  He completed 55% of his passes, which isn't great.  He had 11.4 yards per completion, which is decent.  He had 5 TDs over 5 INT.

Yeah.  So, some injury history and a decent if not world-beating QB.  Even with that, a huge sigh of relief from the Falcon Nation.  Welcome to the Falcons, Darius.

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

MAC Media Day

MAC Media day...no particular surprise.  BG is picked to finish last in the MAC East by a large margin.

Look, on paper, based on what people have seen, we're not in good shape for this season.  We were in bad enough shape before losing Doege and Junior.  You can look at a depth chart and see how thin we are.  And there's uncertainty at QB...bad enough if MacDonald gets the waiver but even worse if he doesn't. 

Yes, there are new coaches and a new attitude and all that.  I know some fans are getting the Urban Meyer vibe again.  BG could exceed expectations...there's virtually no chance of finishing below them.

That's OK, though.  We dug ourselves a deep hole and I think it's unreasonable to think that it's going to fix itself in one year or even two.  If it does, that's great.  But if we're 1-6 or something, I don't want to hear about how we need a new coach.  The last guy took over a championship team, this guy is taking over a program that was driven into the ditch. 

I mean no disrespect to the guys we do have.  I appreciate them and the effort and for being a part of re-building this program.  There's just not a critical mass of players.

There are other turnaround models than the Urban model.  For example, in his first year at WMU, PJ Fleck was 1-11.  Dave Clawson was 2-10 at BG (2nd season).

So, ok, we are picked last.  We are on a real rebuild.  We have coaches that I believe to date have shown they know what is ahead of them.  But 2019 might be a tough year and on paper that's 100% what you would expect.

Saturday, July 20, 2019

So, where were we? Football and Men's Basketball

After a little break, there's a little news to catch up, mostly from football.

First, a quick nugget from men's basketball.  Dylan Swingle is a transfer from Duquesne who is a big man and has big potential.  The assumption has been that he would have to sit out this year, per normal procedure.  In fact, BG's press release announcing him said as much.  However, in a Blade story Coach Huger said that there is still a possibility of a waiver for this year. 

Speaking of waivers, there's been no public news on the Matt McDonald waiver.  He had hired the same guy who repped Shea Patterson and Justin Fields...but then that guy a) quit the business and b) took a job with the NCAA.

In general, I don't think anyone knows what is going on with the waivers.  Honestly, I understood for guys who had a sick mom back home, but if you're going to provide waivers in some of these cases, you might as well not have the year-in-residency rule, because all it yields this way is just another chance for the NCAA to apply arbitrary standards to people's lives.

Anyway.

BG also has some new verbals in football.

We'll go through them in reverse order, for my convenience.


Kaden Moore is a G from Freedom HS in Bethlehem, PA.  He's 6'3" and 305 pounds, which is a pretty good-sized young man.  He was second-team 6A All-State in PA, which is their large-school classification.  For all that, BG was his only reported FBS offer, with others from Albany, Robert Morris and Towson.  247 doesn't have him ranked.  Having said that, if you have confidence in your evaluation skills and your coaching ability, you can make big gains with a guy like this.



Next we have Anthony Hawkins of Mansfield.  He's a DT, at 6'1" and 285 pounds with an offer from Ball State.  He had 54 tackles and 4 sacks in his junior year.  He was special mention all-state as well as first-team all-district and all-conference.


Next is Brian Kilbane.  He's from Lakewood St. Ed's, a legit state power with four state titles since 2010.  He's a C/T, but seems that there's a consensus that he would be a D1 C, and he's 6'4" and 275 pounds.  He had a veritable shload of offers, from Akron, Ball State, Buffalo, UC, Colorado State, UConn, EMU, Kent, Marshall, Ohio, UT, WMU and Youngstown State.  He's also part of the legendary wrestling program at St. Ed's.  He was second-team all-district.



Lastly, we have Adrian Wilson, a WDE from Frankfort, IL.  I assume that means the DE that rushes the passer.  Anyway, he's 6'3 and 222, from Lincoln-Way East.  He had offers from Ball State, North Dakota State, South Dakota State and Yale and is a 2-star on 247.  I don't see any season stats, but plenty of game reports show him with multiple sacks, etc.

That catches us up.  And leaves BG with 26 commits, which is 1 more than the "initial counter" limit for the class.  Coach Loeffler talked about this a while ago, and god help me, even with my high quality BG degree, I can't make heads nor tails out of it.  It is salary-cap complicated.  To the point where I don't necessarily want to be the kind of person who understands it.

SO.  A couple thoughts.  In the public, we operate only on the very surface of the recruiting process.  There are entire Russian novels taking place every day.  One of those verbals could be soft.  They could be de-committed.  We could be over-recruiting in case we lose some guys late, which does happen.  There could be grey-shirting, but you're on your own as to what that means.  Sometimes guys "commit" but as walk-ons.  Who knows?

Here is what I can assure you.  Our guys are on top of it.  This is not the previous regime.  I have been told that our recruiting room is operating at a Big-Ten level.  This program may come back and it may not, but these guys know what they are doing.

FWIW, BG is #3 in the MAC in recruiting.  One point on that.  These 2-star and 3-star things are unreliable enough.  But this number thing?  Literally cannot be ground in reality.  To prove the point, I looked at BG's top 20 "all-time" ranked recruits, from 247.  How many all-MAC players would you expect out of that 20?  Don't look ahead.  How many?

The answer, is 2, right now.  Some players are still going.  But the answer is 2.  How many players who contributed?  7.  How many literally never suited up for BG or left without making an impact?  7.

17 players--top 20 less the 3 in this year's class.

2 All-MAC players
4-starters
1-Role player
3 - Left with little impact
4 Never played
1 Injured
2 Too soon

James Morgan 1--Left to find success, starter
Nilijah Ballew 2--Role player
Fred Coppet 3---3rd team All-MAC
Kendall Montgomery 4--Starter
Joshua Croslen 5--Left school
Cameron Stage 6--Too soon
Matt Schilz 8--Starter
Deandre Fitz-Henley 10- Played 4 games, moved to TE
Armani Posey 11--Played 9 games
D.J. Lynch 12--2nd team All-MAC
Mike Rogers 13--Never played
Darrion Landry 14--Never played
Erick Hallmon 16--Never played
Dylan Farrington 17--Never played
James Sanford 18--Starter
Rico Frye 19 - Injured
Karl Brooks 20--Showing promise

Names not on that list.  Travis Greene, Matt Johnson, Ronnie Moore, Chris Jones, Ted Oulette, Scott Miller, Austin Valdez, Dominic Flewelly, Boo Boo Gates....etc.

Welcome to the Falcons, Kaden, Anthony, Brian and Adrian.





Monday, July 01, 2019

Football Verbal: Myles Williamson


BG has its newest football commit.  This young man is Myles Williamson, a CB from Westerville Central.  He's 5'10 and 171, has 2 stars from 247 and an offer from Miami.

His brother Marcus plays for OSU.  This McCallister guy has a little scouting report on his, including his tackling and a lot of his fundamental skills.  He needs to get bigger and stronger (McCallister says), which obviously he will as he matures and then gets into the BG weight program.  I saw elsewhere that he is used by his school as a shutdown corner.  He was special mention all-district last season.

Welcome to the Falcons, Myles.