BG Lands Potentially Significant OL Transfer from Iowa State

Beyond to be able to say I have committed to Bowling Green State University @CoachGregNosal pic.twitter.com/pAu3Whe7qs

— Hunter Deyo (@DeyoHunter) May 30, 2023

 Well, BG has landed a new transfer, and this one has the potential to be a big one.  Not just a big one...an important one.  Depending on how you feel about recruiting ratings, he's one of the best players we have had here in the era where we have ratings.

His name is Hunter Deyo, and he is transferring from Iowa State.  The Des Moines Register said that he was one of the top-rated recruits the Cyclones had ever had, for that matter.

He was rated with 4-stars and chose Iowa State over Iowa and Arkansas, among numerous other suitors. He was listed as the 38th-best defensive lineman nationally and fourth-best player in Iowa by 247Sports.  He was picked as the 26th-best defensive tackle nationally and fourth-best player in Iowa by Rivals and On3.  He was three-time first team all-state selection by the IPSWA and Des Moines Register and named to the 2021 Des Moines Register Elite Team.  As a senior, he tallied 4.5 tackles and 2.5 TFL in the state championship game… he also tallied 42.5 tackles, including 16 TFL, and ran for a touchdown in 2021 … led Class 3A in TFL (22.5) as a junior … also had 38 tackles and 3.5 sacks … amassed 45.5 tackles, 3.5 sacks and 26.5 TFL as a sophomore … tallied 43.5 tackles, 3.5 sacks and 13.5 TFL as a freshman.

Woof.  That's some production.  Now when he got to Ames, they moved him to the OL.  He didn't play at all his first year and then apparently didn't play in the Spring Game and then went into the portal.  His Twitter announcement (above) indicates he is still looking at the o-line.  At ISU, he was listed as 6'2" and 280.

O-line remains one of the biggest questions for the BG team.  The 2021 line was a nightmare.  BG was 11th in pass blocking and 12th in run blocking.  The 2022 line was better, but still far from championship level.  BG moved up from 9th in pass blocking and 11th in run blocking (via PFF). 

Jakari Robinson and Jalen Grant are gone from that line.  Cade Zimmerly was injured last year and Tunde Fatuski was in a split time role.  

But Deyo and Armon Bethea, both coming from P5 programs, have the potential to help get the line up to at least MAC average.  If running the ball is going to be a priority, run blocking has to get better.

Welcome to the Falcons, Hunter.

BG MBB Gets Transfer

 I have no information, but I am assuming this young man is a PWO as he was at EMU.  His name is Joey Zaher, and he's from Fenton, MI, the home of Todd Simon.  PWO in the sense that his Uncle owns the Detroit Pistons, so presumably he can afford tuition.  He played 2 minutes last year for EMU and averaged 4 PPG as a senior in HS.  FWIW, he is pinning his recruiting on being a maniacal hard worker.

Welcome to the Falcons, Joey.

Football Announces Nine New Players

 Most of which had already been discovered on Twitter.  There were two new names and one "new" name.

The "new" name is Davon Ferguson, who is returning to BG.  This is tremendous news.  Ferguson is a transfer from Kansas who has been star-crossed by injuries, playing 8 games his first year and 2 last year.  Notwithstanding that, he has been one of our best players on defense through that time, and we definitely have a spot for him.  He had transferred to Georgia Southern, that didn't work out for some reason and he's back in BG.

Chris Akporoghene is an OL transferring from Tulsa.  Before that, he was at Tennessee for 3 years. He's 6'3" and 310, and played 10 games in one year at Tulsa and 7 in 3 years at Tennessee.  Most of his snaps have been on kick protection.  He played only 14 offensive snaps last year, in a game against Jacksonville State.  He was a three-star recruit who played at IMG his senior year.  He had offers in HS from almost two dozen P5 schools and 33 in total.  If he can help, we need it, having lost our two best lineman from last year.

Evan Branch-Haynes, he is a DL who is 6'2" and 300. He played for two years at Arizona and has three years left to play.  He played 4 games for the Wildcats.  He was all-state in HS as a sophomore, all-conference as a junior and then lost a season to COVID. He had offers from Fresno, Montana State and Stetson, in addition to Arizona.

Welcome or Welcome Back, Davon, Chris and Evan.

BG MBB Gets Transfer

Players continue to come through the portal to the BG MBB program.  Greg Spurgin is the 8th, leaving BG with 12 scholarship players for next year, assuming everyone we have announced is on scholarship.

Greg is the brother of Jason Spurgin, who played for Coach Simon at USU and announced his transfer to BG earlier.

Greg is 6'7" and Coach Simon says he is an "up and coming stretch forward" who can play the offense we envision, which is a 4-out spread offense.  If you are interested, and I mean REALLY interested, here is an hour+ seminar by Simon on the attack.

Greg was at Westminster College in Salt Lake City for two years.  He red-shirted one year and then played sparingly last year.  Last ye forget, the Spurgins are from Australia.

Welcome to the Falcons, Greg.

BG Nets 2 WR Transfers

BG has a couple commits at WR...both are transfers, could be scholarship could be PWO...

The first is Finn Hogan.  He's 6'5" and 190 and is transferring from CMU. He started there as PWO.  He red-shirted and did play last year, with 19 catches and 6 starts, one TD. According to PFF, he played wide and in the slot and was most effective in middle-distance routes.

He was all-state in Michigan, first team.  He also won the 400 yard dash and was the Traverse City Record-Eagle Male Athlete of the Year.  He's from Maple City.

Jaylon Tillman is a transfer from Grand Valley State. He's 6'0". Grand Valley is a highly successful DII program and they were 12-1 last year.  He is originally from Plainfield, IL, also the home of RayJ Dennis. As a senior in HS, he caught 18 catches for 11 TDs and 29 yards per catch to be the team MVP.  At GVSU he caught 31 passes last year, 18 yards per catch and 4 Tds.

Welcome to the Falcons, Jaylon and Finn.

BG Gets 7th MBB Transfer

𝕮𝖔𝖒𝖒𝖎𝖙𝖙𝖊𝖉⚫️🟠#AyZiggy #LL5 pic.twitter.com/FyeVqPOSoR

— DJ Smith (@Deangilo_Smith) May 12, 2023

BG has its 7th transfer to the Men's Basketball program, giving the team 11 scholarship players.  This is DJ Smith, from Arkansas-Little Rock.  He's a 5'11" PG who has 2 years left to play.

As a FR he started 20 and played 27 and this year he started all 31 games.  As a sophomore, he scored 10.4 PPG and added 2.8 APG with a 1.3 A/T ratio.  He has not been a great shooter.  He made 47% of his 2FGs and 31% of this 3FGs.  He is an 84% FT shooter.  He had some big games, including 20 against Indiana and 18 against Miami (Redhawks). 

He's from North Little Rock originally. 

Welcome to the Falcons, DJ!

Falcon MBB Lands 6th Transfer

Coach Simon teased a sixth signee and had everyone hanging on the wire, and then today it was revealed and it was a good one.

His name is Marcus Hill.  He is a JUCO transfer from Southern Union State Community College in Alabama. He was third-team All-American there last year.  According to JUCO Recruiting, he is the top JUCO transfer coming to the MAC this year. 

He averaged 26 PPG, which was 4th in the nation.  What's interesting is that he took 606 shots. For perspective, in the 18-19 season, Justin Turner took 489.

Even more interesting is that he took only 53 of those from 3FG.  He made 52% of his 2FGs, which is pretty high for a guard.  It's what RayJ Dennis shot from 2FG.  He averaged 4 APG.

He's a good rebounder, too, despite being 6'2".

He's from Chicago and he's the son of a coach.

The interesting thing here is that not only will BG be pushing the ball and give Hill the chance to get to the rim, but also if the offense is in a 4-out with Spurgin in the post, there's a lot of space to drive and kick.

Welcome to the Falcons, Marcus.

BG MBB Gets 5th Transfer

 BG has brought in their 5th transfer, giving them 9 players coming back for the next season.  Obviously, there's still time for more.  This young man is Da'Shawn Phillip, a 6'5" Junior G from the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore.

Phillip has one year left.  (I'm pretty sure).  He was MEAC All-Rookie as a freshman and third-team all-MEAC two years ago.  He was improved last season.  He went from 9.1 PPG to 9.8 PPG, but improved his 3FG shooting from 26% to 33%, which is about the D1 average. His turnover rate also improved significantly between the two years, despite playing more minutes. In fact he was 2nd in the MEAC in turnover rate and 6th in steals, while rarely fouling.

He had about a half-dozen D1 schools express interest in him in the portal.

Just a quick observation.  Four of the five transfers that Simon has brought it have been guards, and it appears we are making an effort to be longer at that positon.  (Spurgin is a different kind of long).

• Philip 6'5"
• Humphrey 6'4"
• Edwards 6'4"
• Thomas 6'0"

Wekcomed to the Falcons, Da'Shawn.

Football Gets LB Transfer

 BG has a transfer LB coming in...he's coming from Memphis... name is Davian Mayo.  

He's originally from Arkansas, where he was the #9 prospect.  He was a 3-star recruit...seems like we see that a lot.  He played both ways in HS.

At Memphis, he played the COVID year, a special teams player in 21 and made one start while playing 13 in 22.

Based on pff, here was the story to last season.

He played 262 snaps.  Of those, 94 were non-special teams, most of them in the box.  He played quite a bit in the first three games, with 72 non-special teams snaps.  He had a 45 grade in the 3rd game of the year and played special teams almost exclusively for the rest of the year.  

Overall, he had a  65 grade on defense, which would have made him BG's 2nd best LB.  He was strong every except pass coverage. 

He had a 64 grade on special teams.

Welcome to the Falcons, Davian

Football Lands WR Commit

100% commited #ayziggy pic.twitter.com/i0irFNJCxJ

— jared merk (@JaredEmerk) May 4, 2023

BG has a WR commit....Jared Merk.  Jared started his career at Cincinnati Moeller, where he caught 39 passes in his senior year.  He was also all-GCL, which is the Cincinnati Catholic schools.  He then went to IMG in Flordia, where he had 40 catches and 8 TDs.  Obviously, IMG has a lot of D1 players.

He's 6'2" and 185. Scrolling his Twitter feed shows an offer from Robert Morris.  He refers to his BG conversation as an "opportunity."  Make of that what you will.

Welcome to the Falcons, Jared. 

Football Has Transfer DB Commit

C O M M I T T E D..🟠🟤 #AyZiggy pic.twitter.com/tiOhCnVCft

— Jay Jack (@JordanJack21) May 1, 2023

 

Jordan Jackson will be joining the Falcons.  He's a CB who played at Stony Brook, an FCS program. He was there for three seasons, one of which was the COVID spring season and he played 3 games.  

He played in all of their games the last two seasons. He made 44 tackles last year, 1 INT and 1 sack.  He had 4 passes defended.

According to PFF, he played most of his snaps in the box and as a slot corner. He was also active on special teams. Last season, he graded out as an effective player, 63% overall, 70% on tackling, 60% on coverage.  He was significantly better his first year with a much lower snap count.  Just on a quick look, he played in the box a lot more in his 2nd year than his first.

In 2022, he had a 77 grade on special teams.

He's from Long Island.  His team won the Long Island Championship and he made big plays in the decisive game. 

Welcome to the Falcons, Jordan!