Football Closes Recruiting Strong

Holy Falcon Saturday...I have to be more careful not to fall behind on these verbals, because Eddie and the team are landing commits like crazy.  Recruiting at BG is a real test of scouting, and time will tell our ability to identify and develop talent and character.  Much credit to @thetalontribune for his dogged work keeping track of not only commits but also offers and OVs. 

Let's look at the players.

Theo Andall, OG

The first guy to note is Theo Andall.  He is going to be immediately eligible (as in for '26) and is from London, England. He's 6'3" and 290 pounds and came to football through the NFL Academy.  He is credited on line for a "meteoric" rise last season. 

FWIW, we had offers to a couple of other foreign players as well.

Gunnar Gillentine, P

I'm calling it now, the most accurately named recruit we have ever had.  He is either the #1 or #2 punter in the country.  He's from Petal, MS.  He committed to Mississippi State at one point, but then de-committed.

You don't always get as much data on punters, certainly from games.  There is some info from Kohl's, the kicking school.

With an impressive performance at the 2026 Kohl's National Underclassman Challenge, Gunnar Gillentine continues to be one of the top punters in the country for the 2027 class. He won the punt competition day 2 and scored 114.12 points in the overall combined punt charts. He is technically sound and has excellent quickness with his operation. Gillentine punted at Kohl’s National Scholarship Camp in July of 2025. He scored 112.92 points in punting over three sessions. He also won the punt competition held at the end of camp in front of 1,000 people. He is one of the best punters we have seen in the last five years! Gillentine had a dominant performance at the 2025 Texas Spring Showcase. His hand to toes were in the 1.2-1.3 second range. He is compact with his steps and creates excellent consistency with his contact. He moves well in the roll-out portion of punting and scored 18 points. His overall score for punts at camp was 117.96 points. He loves to punt and is Power 4 punter right now. 

Ben Hale, OT

Ben Hale committed last week.  He's an OT from Nashville, weighing in at 6'5" and 300 pounds. He had D1 offers from UB, Middle TN, Army, Air Force, Troy, Georgia State, Arkansas State, Navy and UNLV...and 9 FBS offers. His school won a state-title. 

Tyler Carpenter. LB

6'2" and 212 pounds, he's a flip after decommitting from Ohio.  He also had offers from Toledo and Kent. He's from Trotwood-Madison, and 

Christian Mollino, CB

is another highly-recruited player.  One of three players who have committed from Sumner HS in Riverview, FL, he had P4 offers from Pittsburgh, Louisville, and USF and G6 offers from Army, UB, FIU, FAU, Georgia Southern, along with 4 FCS offers.

Terrell Karim, Jr., ATH

Coming from Akron East, Karim had only one offer--from KSU.  He's 6'3", 195 lbs and played WR, TE, DE and LB.  He was all-Ohio HM, and has 31 catches for 503 on one side of the ball and 42 tackles and 10 sacks on the other.

Dai'saun Blanchard, EDGE

He's from Westinghouse HS in Pittsburgh, and lists himself as a top pass rusher in WPIAL.  He also had offers from Akron, Ohio,Youngstown State, Monmouth, Richmond, UIW,   He's fast, offering a 4.4/40 and had 19 sacks in his junior season, but 38 TFLs.  He was first-team all-city.

Ace Luther, TE

He's from Palmetto, FL, 6'4" and 215 pounds. Also highly recruited, with offers from Memphis, Sac State, EMU, Kent, Toledo and six FCS schools.  He has a strong, muscular frame and there is a lot of talk online bout his contested catch ability.

Knud Davis, DL  

From Longwood, FL, He's 6'3" and 260 lbs. He had offers from Marshall, Coastal Carolina, FAU, Georgia Southern, UMass, Liberty, and 4 non-FBS programs.

Jace Boyd, EDGE

He is a 6'4", 240-pound EDGE from Alcoa, TN.   BG was his only FBS offer, along with 2 FCS offers.  He is listed as a rising star in his part of Tennessee.

Wesley Summersett, LB/S

He's from South Adams HS, in Bane IN.  He's 6'2" and 200.  He played TE/WR and defense in his junior year, but apparently BG projects him to be a defender. Offensively last fall Summersett tallied 80 receptions for 1,562 yards and 16 touchdowns. Defensively, Summersett had 65 tackles as a junior with 1 pick six and 3 forced fumbles. He had offers from the real Miami, Colgate and Dartmouth.

Jean Pierre Furtado, DL

Quite possibly the top recruit of the class right now.  He's 6'2" and 290 and rated a 3-star on 247 with one more year in HS. He's from Lake Minneola, FL. He had offers from Duke, Iowa State, Louisville, Ole Miss, Wake Forest, WVU, UB, Charlotte, EMU, FAU, Georgia Southern, Liberty, MT State, UConn, UMass and 2 FCS schools.

Drew Kryscynski, IOL

He's 6'4 and 285 from Marysville, MI.  His other offers were from SEMO and Army.  There are also D2 offers. He was first-team all-region and all-conference. 

And for now, that is it.  We enter a dead period now that more or less lasts until Fall camp starts.  That's 22 commits already...I'll have a little more analysis and observations soon.  In the meantime, I think we're on the right track.

Falcon Football Verbals Now up to 9

 So, another weekend of visits down, and three more commits for Bowling Green Football.  That makes 9 total...

The first, which, in truth, was a leftover I forgot to cover last week...Chancelor Adams.  He's from Brownsburg, IN, which is the hometown of Chris Jones, the former MAC Defensive Player of the Year for BG and Super Bowl Champion.

Adams plays S.  He's unranked (as most of the players are) and had offers from Toledo, Ball State, Army, WMU, Air Force, and Lindenwood.  He was all-Hoosier Conference in HS.  The team was very good--two-time state champion, and his team allowed 8 points a game on defense.

His junior stats were:

2 ints

2 Force fumbles 

48 tackles (33 solo, 5 for loss) 

6 pass breakup

Next up is David Coleman, a DB from Orlando, FL, with a 3-star rating on 247.  (247 has not ranked most players yet and usually eventually catches, though at the end of the day, it's just a data point).  Based on his numerical rating, he would be the 4th-best player we have ever signed... if and when he signs.

He has 27 D1 offers, which you can read here. 10 of them were P4 offers, and they also included Toledo and UConn (Hi Jason).  He committed to Wake Forest and then, a few days later, de-committed.

He attends The First Academy, which is a private school in Orlando.  They have had some controversy, including a long suspension for their coach.  

The third is Leo McQuillan, a TE, also from Brownsburg. He's 6'3" and 220, and an accomplished lifter.  His Twitter feed says he is moving to o-line for his senior year and describes himself as a H-back. His offers to date have been FCS and DII. 

MBB News....and two football verbals

 So, some news this summer has trickled in....

Let's start with Men's Basketball.  BG has extended the contract of Todd Simon as the head coach of the program.  His contract now runs until March 31, 2030.

I think this was the right thing to do.  I think he's done well with the conditions that are given to him.  The team has a 1,000 APR (not sure how that gets measured today), and he's a good representative of the program.  I think his experience coaching prep ball is the best way to prepare BG for today's MAC game. 

I'm not sure he's going to get us to the Dance...but I don't know if anyone can.  We know about the haves and have nots in D1 sports, but I fear we are starting to see the same thing unveil itself in the MAC.  Specifically, Miami, who won the Reese trophy for all-around performance in men's sports and the Jacoby trophy for all-around performance in women's sports.  That's a back-to-back and three in the last five.

WMU--cited by MAC ADs as the best AD job in the MAC in David Briggs ' anonymous poll, was 2nd in women's and third in men's.  BG was 10th in women's and 12th in men's....thank you UMass.

It wasn't too long ago that our women's basketball, volleyball, women's soccer, baseball and softball programs were in the top tier of the conference.  Today, they are all struggling, combined with a middling MBB program, a recovering (we hope) football program, and a men's soccer program competing in the MVC.

And, FWIW, women's basketball, volleyball, women's soccer and softball were all successful under pre-Van Der Merwe hires and are now are sporting VDM hires.

Did you see that EMU bought a women's golf team and made the national semis?

Anyway, the future is far from certain.  I've wandered away from Coach Simon, who I think is the right choice for us and has as good a chance as anyone.  He will need to Coach lightning in a bottle for one year...you don't really build a program.

Now to football.  There were official visits this weekend, and football has snagged at least two verbals.  As always, for exhaustive coverage of BG's football recruiting, head over to The Talon Tribune.

The first was Robert Garcia, who is from Riverdale, FL, and attends Sumner HS.  He's a RB/CB/ATH who seems to project as a CB.  He's 6'0" and was offered by Louisville, USF, Pitt, EMU, FIU, FAU, Liberty and 5 FCS offers.

Sumner is a back-to-back state 7A champion in Florida. Garcia had a pick-six in the title game.

The other player is Bo Scheetz.  He's a 6'6", 300lb DT/OT.  He goes to Fairless HS, which is in Navarre, OH, which is in Stark County and part of Ohio's football belt.  

He had only one offer, from Ashland.  He was Defensive Player of the Year of something, with 78 tackles, 8 tfl’s, and 2 sacks on the season.

Fairless are the Falcons.

Robert and Bo, welcome to the Falcons.