BG brought in 13 young men. Coach talked at his presser about how these things will roll into the future. It will be different. Before, you would bring in 25 high school kids. And Coach would prefer it to be that way again. Alas.
He said that you might expect to see 12 players added even before school starts....some high school and some transfers. And there will be another wave after Spring Ball as well, once guys don't like their depth chart location. So, this is more of a landmark than a finish line.
One other note from the presser. I know everyone is concerned about who the QB is going to be. Ask how urgent it was, he said "as urgent as urgent can be." He has Orth, Owen Bainbridge and then Lucian Anderson III, who is in this class and enrolling in January. More on him in a minute.
The key point would be that he said he was going to go get 1-2 "older Qbs." While the rebuild has made progress, we are far from out of the woods and you can't doom a team faster than with an inadequate QB.
FWIW, John Griffith from St. Frances Academy, who committed here last year and then walked on at Maryland, is back in the portal. But I'm not sure he could as "older."
So: urgent as urgent can be. Agreed.
Now to the players.
I have put a few things that stood out to me. Full information is here.
Two are legacy players. There is Jacob Harris, the son of BGSU Hall-of-Famer Josh Harris. He is from Westerville and is a WR, 2nd team all-district.
The other is LB Jabari Mitchell. His father is Kinta Mitchell, who was here from 1995-2000. Mitchell was a big star at Canton McKinley before BG. Jabari committed to Kent originally, and then the coach changed and he came to BG.
David Afogho is a LB from Boston. Offers from Buffalo, Bryant and Rhode Island.
Brody Bolyn, OL, also had offers from Navy and Illinois State. Played line both ways, one of the top in Indiana. Three-sport athlete.
Jackson Kleather is from Tipp City. All-State kicker who has the potential to solidify the position for BG. Should be used to windy weather.
Justin Lynch is a JUCO d-back from Cali.
Tracy Revels, S, is from Texas and is a UTSA de-commit. Based on 247 the highest rated player in the class.
Shawn Thigpen, WR from Springfield, OH. At 6'4" and 170, he was highly recruited, with reported offers from Indiana, Kentucky, UB, CMU, EMU, UA, Syracuse, Purdue, Toledo.
James Thomas, DL, also had a host of MAC offers along with Army and Navy.
Dayln White was all-district on the DL in Texas. Had offers from Wyoming, SMU.
Alijah Williams from Buford, GA. Projects as a big edge rusher. Also had offers from Duke, EMU, Liberty and WKU.
Lucian Anderson, QB. BG landed him late. Coach said he had committed to two other schools, only to have the coach leave. He had a lot of offers and was accepted at Harvard. He's listed as a pro-style QB, but coach says he has speed as well, which I think is the kind of QB you need in today's game. He did have an offer from Kent.
Shamoun Duncan-Niusulu is a DB from Cali. He played two years in JUCO there. They won the state title and he had 2 picks on the season.
And then....a bonus portal transfer.
Abdul Fatai-Ibrahim, a WR from Alabama A&M, where we found Odieu Hilaire. He played four years there, including 2020, which I believe leaves him one year of eligibility. He had a bonkers season in 2021, with 1,000 receiving yards. Last year he only played in 5 games, which I assume was injury related.
Welcome to the Falcons, everyone! Ay-ziggy.
Nice round up. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteAccepted at Harvard? We know for a fact Toledo wasn't in the picture for him.
ReplyDelete