BG Adds '18 Kicker

Future Falcon.. 🔶🦅🏈 pic.twitter.com/lqdWZMmysO

— Niall Sweeney (@niallsweeney215) May 20, 2018

So here's an additional player for this Fall who comes from a position of extreme need--placekicker.  Just for context, BG expected to be set at kicker with Jake Suder, who was an All-MAC player last year, but there was a mix-up in calculating his eligibility and he will not return to BGSU.

Nate Needham was the only kicker BG had on the roster, and he was a transfer and doesn't have much of a track record.  You could definitely see BG being afraid to kick FGs and leading the nation in 4th down conversion attempts, which no one wants.

The young man is Niall Sweeney, from Mercyhurst Prep, which is in Erie, PA.  He played soccer too.  There isn't a ton of info out there about him and you typically worry when a player is nearing his HS graduation and hasn't landed with a college program.  His kicking school had nice things to say about him.  As far as I can see, he only kicked XPs in his senior year.  He did make them all.

Welcome to the Falcons, Niall.

Cam Jefferies to Graduate Transfer

Excited to announce I am officially opening my recruitment as a Graduate Transfer. Thank you to everyone at BGSU for supporting me the past 2 years. 🎓 pic.twitter.com/DgEYLFu7Pj

— Cam Jefferies (@Cjefferies18) May 18, 2018

The hill just gets taller for the BG Falcon football program, in particular, the defense.  As noted pretty much anywhere you look, BG had one of the nation's worst defenses last year.  One of the advantages was that there weren't a lot of seniors out there, so we were told that as the younger players matured they would turn into better players because of the playing time they received as FR when they were not ready.

We were open to that message because that's how it worked with Clawson.  Further, I think everyone was satisfied with the number of transfers at the end of the season, which was not too high.

So, the spring has been a little less welcome.  Jamari Rouse and Tyree Jackson have left from the D-line--an already stretched position--and now Cam Jefferies is leaving from the CB position....also an "area of need."  Returning CBs are just really thin.

For those keeping score, he committed in the summer of 2015 while Babers was still at BG.

Jefferies played a ton of snaps over his two years with BG and is exactly one of those guys we were hoping to see mature into a player.  (BG also lost 2 WRs in the Spring).

This one is pretty disappointing.  One note is that you will get some transfers when you completely replace the defensive coaching staff, which is why "firing everyone" is not as clear-cut a decision as it sometimes appears.

Beyond that, this is just one of the things that makes the hill more difficult climb.  Positive momentum is hard to stop and so is negative momentum.  More to come on expectations for the year, but I would advise Falcon fans to have nuanced expectations for this 2-10 team.

Best of luck to Cam.  Hope all goes well.

Happy Mother's Day to the Falcon Nation

Happy Mother's Day to the Falcon Nation.  Be nice to your Mom today.

BG Baseball Player Switches to Football

Just got word that Evan Brown got his release from the BGSU Baseball team & will be moving over to play for the BGSU Football team.

Brown is an Anthony Wayne Grad & it’s expected that he will play defensively for the Falcons at a hybrid LB/S position.

— Jordan Strack (@JordanStrack) May 11, 2018

So Jordan Strack with this news.  It is interesting.  Brown was part of that Anthony Wayne team that made the run into the state semi-finals in 2016.  He was a RB on that team--really productive.  Here's a story where he had 283 rushing yards in the regional final.  He was first-team DII All-State and NLL Player of the Year.

He was also highly-decorated on the baseball field and signed at BG to play baseball.  He had only 14 ABs for the Falcon baseballers this year and had 1 hit.  He is not currently on the roster for the baseball team.

His uncle, Darren Anderson, played for the Atlanta Falcons. 

He did play both ways in HS (CB), based on his HUDL page, which listed him at 5'11" and 193 at the time.

Earlier this week, BG picked up a transfer from Urbana (Roman Sneed), also a defensive player.

BG has been looking for players on defense pretty much everywhere.  Jonah Harper, who transferred from Notre Dame College, is on the two-deep, as an example.  I guess I see both of these in that vein.

Falcon MBB Gets Additional '18 Verbal

BG Basketball continues to work to re-stock the shelves, here landing Tayler Mattos, a 6'10" player from New Hampshire who will be eligible to play in the Fall.

From the entire WrightWay Skills family, we want to give a big congratulations to Tayler Mattos and his family on signing with Bowling Green State University. We are proud of you! #HardWork #Family pic.twitter.com/4RzUKQsuwq

— WrightWay Skills (@WrightWaySkills) May 8, 2018

Mattos is young....he won't be 18 until August.  From looking at things online, the expectation was that he was going to go to prep school for a year.  With that in mind, it wouldn't surprise me to see BG redshirt him this year, but that's strictly speculation.

He's not small.  He's listed up to 245 some places online.

He scored 22 PPG in his senior HS season.  He was the leading scorer in the state across all divisions in NH and was the POY in Division II.

According to verbal commits, he had offers from NH, BU, Bryant, Albany, Rider, Canisius, Hartford and Kennesaw State.

Welcome to the Falcons, Tayler.

Wiggins Returns for Senior Season

BREAKING: #BGSU men's hoops senior-to-be Demajeo Wiggins just told me he is returning to #Falcons for his senior year.

— John Wagner (@jwagnerblade) May 2, 2018

So,  the news, not surprising, is that Demajeo Wiggins will withdraw from the NBA draft and will return to BG for his final season.  The Blade talked to him and you can see what he had to say about it.

Even so, it is welcome news even in an off-season when BG hasn't had a lot of positive news.

Wiggins has been a great story for BG.  He was a late recruit to Huger when Coach got here late following the Jans departure and Wiggins didn't have a lot of recruiting interest.  He has developed into a very good player.  From the BGSU release:

One of just two players in the Mid-American Conference to average a double-double, the Toledo native averaged 13.7 points and a team-high 10.1 rebounds in 2017-18. By averaging 10.1 rebounds, he became the first Falcon since Cornelius Cash in 1974-75 to finish a season averaging double-digit rebounds.

He was second-team All-MAC as well.

So, welcome back, Demajeo.  Looking forward to even bigger things in your senior year.

Falcon MBB Verbal: JUCO Transfer

Men’s Basketball Signs Marlon Sierra To NLI

📰 https://t.co/8LLdIFlJPO pic.twitter.com/JTa7twfQZK

— BGSU Basketball 🏀 (@BGSUMHoops) May 1, 2018

The Falcons have a new incoming player from Western Nebraska Community College.  His name is Marlon Sierra and though he went to JUCO he went to HS in Miami where I suspect there was a connection with Coach Huger.

Anyway, he's a 6'6" F.  He scored about 12 PPG for WNCC but was efficient, shooting 53% and 47% and 6.8 RPG.  He tried just a couple 3FGs per game, so it isn't like he was a high-volume outside shooter, but we'll take it. Anyway, he'll have two years to play and can help BG at 4.