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.

Falcon MBB Adds a Guard

BG MBB has added a new guard for the team next year.  His name is Jayden Johnson, a 6'1" G orignally from Brooklyn.  He played at the Cushing Academy in Boston.  He did not appear to be heavily recruited.  However, he did end up at South Carolina State, a D1 HBCU.  He was all-rookie MEAC for his first year and then came back as the pre-season player of the year, ending up second-team all-MEAC.  In his sophomore year, he scored 13.4 PPG, shooting 46% and 37% from the field and 3.5 APG.  Interestingly, his coach told him to leave and get paid,  something I think a lot of coaches end up doing today.  That puts us at 15 with Dedivanaj.  Without him, we can add one more.

So here is what we have right now:

Confirmed back (5)

• Leach, G
• Shackelford, G
• Karel, F
• Goins, F
• Squire, F (Thanks to the commenter)

Incoming (9)

• Torbert, G
• Howell, G
• Simmons, G
• Cranbrook, G
• Beckford, F
• Johnson, G
• Ateny, C
• Essandako, C
• Staley, G

No News (1)

• Dedivanaj, G

Two More MBB Players Onboard

 BG MBB has two more player additions for this year.

It was clear, they needed a big man...and they got one.  A very big man.

NEWS: 2026 - 6’10 PF/C Leek Ateny of Danville Christian Academy (KY) has committed to Bowling Green.

Ateny is one of the top forward prospects in KY. Big addition for the Falcons. pic.twitter.com/soBKT9iGDU

— NextUpRecruits (@NextUpRecruits) May 13, 2026

Leek played at Danville Christian in KY.   He was third-team All-State.  He was a regional player of the year. Ateny was ranked as the eleventh best player and the number one center in the state of Kentucky according to Next Up Recruits.  

He averaged 18.5 PPG, 10 RPG and 5.5 BPG.  In HS, at that size, guys are going to score.  But the blocks you don't always see.  And everyone is talking rim protection now...look at his length.  He also made 41% from 3FG.  

There appears to be huge upside here.  

The other player is Talan Staley, a 6'3" G from Blythewood, SC.  His HS team won state three years in a row. He was named Region 5 5A All-Region, SBCA Top 5 Senior and a North Carolina-South Carolina Carolina Classic All Star. This came following a season where he averaged 14.1 points, 61 assists, 3.4 rebounds and 2.1 steals per game. On top of the averages, Staley shot 52-percent from the field and 39-percent from behind the arc. 

At 6'3", he has size for the position, something our coach's like.  He was not highly recruited, but this is sometimes where you find the gritty guys who can still contribute.  

Talan,  Leek....welcome to the Falcons.

Happy Mother's Day to the Falcon Nation

 

Giveth Again

So we have been noting the lack of big men on the MBB roster, and today there was an announcement about a truly BIG man coming to BG.  A giant man.  His name is Christ Essandoko, and he is 7'0" and 280 pounds. He is an interesting young man.

He is French... played a couple of years of HS there, then came to a school in the US.  He was a 3-star recruit with offers from St. Joe out of HS, along with Maryland, Providence, Illinois, NC State, Nebraska, Pitt, Rutgers, South Carolina, A&M, Wake Forest, South Florida, SEMO, NM, San Diego State, Wisconsin, DePaul, Seton Hall.

He announced he was going to Providence, but he ended up at St. Joseph's.  He had to redshirt due to being ineligible, and then played a year at St. Joe's.  Then he went back to Providence, where really big things were expected and did not happen.  He took responsibility for that and then went to South Carolina, where the results were even worse.

Everywhere he has gone, there has been praise for him before the season started.

Here is the coach at St. Joe's...

“He’s highly intellectual. He’s got great instincts. His feel for team basketball is outstanding, and that’s really the European way. He has an insatiable competitiveness. It’s off the charts...Then you throw on top of that a great personality, a connective personality, an amazing teammate, and the upside of him is really high.”

Here is what they said at Providence...

“Christ is seven foot, 280 — he’s an absolute load. He just moves people naturally with his girth and his strength, but he’s also our kind of player because he’s very skilled. He has a great feel for the game, he’s a great passer. We run our offense through our bigs a lot. They are almost like point guards to a degree. Josh was perfect for that, Christ is too, he’s just bigger, and he’s also a three-point shooter.”

And yet...

He had a good year at St. Joe's.  After a two-year layoff, he scored 8.5 per game and added 5.7 RPG and a block a game in 21 minutes.

At Providence, he played 12 minutes a game, 4.3 PPG and 3.9 RPG and about .75 blocks per game.

At South Carolina...for a bad team, he averaged 7.4 minutes a game, 2 PPG and 1.6 RPG. He was DNP for 10 of the last 20 games.  

He shot 29% from 2FG for SC last year. He made 65% for St. Joe's.  He can shoot 3's...34% for his career, 38% in two of his three years.  He's a 59% career FT shooter, but considerably lower than that the last two years.

He was called for 5.4 fouls per 40 last season. He was #11 in block% his first year at St. Joe, and nothing particularly special after that.

I don't mean to be negative.  These are just facts.  Here's another one...obviously, there's something there. The NFL draft is coming...he's all upside.  If he gets out of his head and puts it together, we have a guy who's dominating in this conference.  We have player-friendly coaches...why not now?

Also, for a little rabbit hole on your Monday night, click here and read about a man from the same town.