Football Verbal and Basketball Roster News

 First news is a football verbal.  His name is John Johnson, and he comes from Archbishop Hoban in Akron. He's the 2nd Hoban player to commit to BG in the first four.  Sometimes that happens....this would be a great program to develop a pipeline with.  Their coach, Tim Tyrell, has won 5 state titles and has a 141-25 record.  He also won 3 national championships at Youngstown State, playing for...Jim Tressel.  So that could be a connection.

Johnson is a good one.  Too early for him to be rated, but he plays both ways and is listed as a WR. He had offers from Kentucky, James Madison, Kent, Liberty, Miami, Toledo and WMU....so three of the usual MAC powers, a P4, and two top-level G5.

He was second-team all-state for their basketball team that reached the state semifinals, and he had some big games along the way.

BG's four verbals to date are a QB and three playmakers.  I think anyone would agree that we have been short of playmakers for a long time...we've had one or two...but UT (for example) brings them in waves.

Welcome John.

Next is some basketball news.  Kimbrough, Goins, Karel, and Leach have all announced that they are returning to the team.  This is not nothing.  We have had players like Karel, who maybe didn't play much, blow the coup after one year.  Getting guys back really matters.....a full off-season of weight training....

We have 10 guys.  As I understand it, the scholarship limit has been replaced with a roster limit of 15. No suprise we are guard heavy, but we have spaces for front court guys.

Confirmed back (4)

• Leach, G
• Shackelford, G
• Karel, F
• Goins, F

Incoming (3)

• Torbert, G
• Howell, G
• Simmons, G

No News (3)

• Dedivanaj, G
• Squire, F
• Adem, G

Taketh....and Leaveth

 A couple more events from the portal...

First, outgoing.  Jason Kimbrough entered.  He came to BG with a pretty decorated JUCO career, but never got traction, playing only 46 minutes against D1 competition.  Given BG's stronger guard roster, I assume he saw the writing on the wall.

Next, staying.  Josiah Shackleford, who was 3rd on the team, scoring 11.3 PPG. He's one of those guys...shot 45% from 3FG the year before BG and 35% at BG.  Nonetheless, he is welcome back and should improve in his second D1 year. 

Here is where things stand now..that's 10 guys, which means as many as 5 can be added.  Need front court help, for sure.

Leach, G

Shackelford, G

Dedivanaj, G

Squire, F

Karel, F

Adem, G

Goins, F

Torbert, G

Howell, G

Simmons, G

Happy Easter From the Falcon Nation

 

It is the season of new beginnings.

Giveth....

The portal has given...Zach Howell, a 6'5" G from Drury University, a DII school in Springfield, MO.  He played HS ball in Springfield and was highly effective, leaving as the all-time leading scorer and an all-state player.

He went to Milwaukee, where he played two years.  His FR year, he played 29 games and averaged 2.7 PPG. In his second year, he was making 44% from 3FG until he was injured in the 10th game of the season.

He returned to Springfield to play for Drury where he was very productive.  You'll be most interested in his second year, where he scored 17 PPG and made 44% of his 3FG.

That's right.  That was number 8 in DII.

By the way, he wasn't a highly selective shooter.  He took 225 attempts. 

Clearly, this is interesting.  We have brought in other guys who had big percentages, and they have generally failed to reproduce those numbers at the Stroh Center.  No player with representative attempts has shot 40% from 3FG in the Simon era.

So, as of today, here is the roster.  The portal isn't open yet, but 30 players from the MAC have already entered.  BG has only 2...Pardon and Wol...and we expect Campbell.  We shall see.   I'd think we would need to invest something in a big man to help out the rotation down low.

• Kimbrough, G
• Leach, G
• Shackelford, G
• Dedivanaj, G
• Squire, F
• Karel, F
• Adem, G
• Goins, F
• Torbert, G
• Howell, G
• Simmons, G

Welcome to the Falcons, Zach.

Taketh and Giveth, March 29

Taketh:

Jaxon Pardon has entered portal.  It's a sad day for Falcon fans, who hoped to see the second generation of the Pardon family lead the Falcons.  This one did not work out.  He played 24 minutes and scored 5 points.  He was injured for all of the 25-26 season.  The Pardon family is in the Falcon family forever, so we wish Jaxon only the best moving forward.

We are at a point of uncertainty here.  John Groce is leaving the MAC for College of Charleston (allegedly), and there is talk that a number of coaches are considering lateral moves out of the MAC.  So who knows.  We can see where it stands now.

Players for next year:

Kimbrough

Leach

Shackelford

Dedivanaj

Squire

Karel

Adem

Goins

Torbert

Giveth:

Actually, not a portal move, but a HS player for 27. His name is Colin Boff, a QB from Harvest Prep in Columbus.  He's unrated, but there's clearly something there...he has offers from UC, Syracuse, KSU, Miami, and UT. 

He's listed at 6'3" and 225 pounds.  Stats as reported on his twitter handle.

• Only 8 Games Played
• 2,734 Yards | 26 TD | 341 YPG | 63% 
• School record for game and season (every passing category) 
• 1st team all State, District and Conference

Despite the name, Harvest Prep is a co-ed HS.  They do play in Division V of Ohio HS football.  Notwithstanding that, they are putting players into FBS programs.

Welcome to the Falcons, Collin.

Football and MBB Transfer news

The portal giveth and the portal taketh....today it giveth and taketh....

First football, help on the d-line...Kade Kostus from CMU.  What we have here is a proven contributor in our conference.  We can use this guy.  In four-year, 28-game, 15-start career, has made 32 tackles (13 solo), 5.0 tackles for loss for 19 yards, and 2.0 sacks … Started all 12 games in 2024 at defensive end.  Then played sparingly in 2025 as he battled injuries.  He's 6'2" and 260 pounds from Rockford, MI.  With roations, you never have enough of these guys...BG has 6 players at  E/Edge with NCAA experience.

Moving to basketball, BG has a committment from Trey Simmons of Frostburg State, which is in Frostburg, MD.  He's 6'2" and played two years there.  He was highly productive...he scored 24 PPG, on 48% and 38% shooting, which is efficient for high volume shooting. He has 3.2 assists and a 1.7 A/T ratio. He was the Mountain West Player of the Year and made the all-region team.  He was the #5 scorer in D2 ball.

I think we all agree that Simon hasn't been able to really unleash the offense he wants to.  He has done well finding Gs coming up from D2 or JUCO. With Campbell leaving, right now it would be Simmons, Leach, KJ Torbert, Shackleford and Kimbrough at G.

Speaking of which, the first portal departure was announced...Mayar Wol.  He's played at a different school every year and was effective at times from BG and sometimes he took over games.  He was a decent ball-handler but was a liability on defense.

It's not official, but Coach said after the last game that Campbell had played his last game at BG, so with Wol that makes two.

Football Schedule is Out....initial thoughts

 

So there it is.  What we will be celebrating this fall, or gnashing our teeth or a combination of both, which it often turns out to be.

We are not playing it easy here.  This is a legit schedule.

For example, we open with Tarleton State, which is an FCS opponent.  The FCS opponent is supposed to be guaranteed win day...but check this out:

The Texans finished the 2025 campaign with a 12-2 record, with the 12 wins matching the most in a single season in program history. The season included an FBS win at Army, a regular season conference championship and the Texans' highest seed ever in the FCS Playoffs. Tarleton State was the first FCS team since 1993 (Troy) to make the quarterfinals in its first two seasons of playoff eligibility (8+ team format in FCS). 

All right then, sir.  We then go to Nebraska and Iowa State...P4 on the road, always tough.  Now, we might very well catch a small break in that Iowa State is big-time rebuilding after they lost significant talent to PSU with Ol' Matt Campbell.  But we will be underdogs.

Then, our G5 game is at home.  It's South Florida.  (BG is scheduled to go back in 2030 when they will have a new, USF-only stadium). Coached by OSU legend Brian Hartline, BG played them in '02 and they administered a solid beating to the Meyer-led Falcons.  They just sent Alex Golesh to Auburn along with their starting QB.  32 other players also left.  Always hard to predict what we will see.

Now to the MAC.  On the easier side of the ledger, BG has Kent, UMass, and Stupidmento State at home. We also host Ball State, who was 4-8 last year.  It is their coach's 2nd season. 

Now, for the road, BG is @UT, @MU, and @WMU.  That will be a difficult set.  We are competing with UT in the last years...we will need to continue to improve because I think everyone will see soon what an average coach Jason Candle was.

And then @UB, who smoked us pretty good at the Doyt last year.

Last year, you had to be 6-2 to make the MAC final.  Which means winning one of those three away games and all the "easy" games.  Winning titles is supposed to be hard.  Let's make it UT and let 'er rip.

Let's look for 6-6.  That's not going to be a picnic...most likely, that includes the Kent, UMass, and Sac State...either UB or Ball State, and Tarleton....or swap UB/Ball State for South Florida.

And as Bowl Games go away, 6-6 does not get you into a bowl game (I would suspect).  So, we get a true chance to see this year if we are ready to compete in year 2 of the George era.  I always want to be the optimist.  We are recruiting HS's well, but that might not be much for this year yet.  I'll say this...I think everything we are doing has to hit for it to work this year.  Little margin for error.