Football Add 3 Portalers

 A couple more portal updates for football....we have three more players coming over, two from TN State.

The former Tigers are Kaderris Roberts and Caden Marshall.  Neither played for the Tigers, but that's where they were last year.

Roberts is a RB who spent one year at Tennessee State.  Before that, he was at Stetson for three seasons. He was productive there, running 136 times for 785 yards, which is a 5.8 per carry average, which is productive.  He also had 25 receptions for 142 yards.

I mention the receiving because he is 5'8", so a small RB who we might be looking to put into a 3rd down role.

That's certainly the role he played in HS.

Was an all-around athlete on the field, rushing for 1,910 yards on just 158 carries (12.1 yards per carry) over three seasons, scoring 27 touchdowns, also had 72 career receptions for 1,508 yards and another 20 touchdowns...also returned kickoffs and punts, gaining 555 yards on kick returns and 358 on punt returns.  Not to mention he recorded 92 tackles on defense while also recording six interceptions, forcing a fumble and recovering two.

The other is Caden Marshall. He's a 6'2, 205 LB who red-shirted last year for the Tigers.  George's staff had him targeted to LB from the jump, but he was an all-state QB in HS along with being among five finalists for the 5A Mr. Football (he was in Tennessee).

These two make it 5 players connected to TN State who are coming to BG, adding to George, McClendon and Sanchez, an OL who portal-bounced from TSU to BGSU.

Interesting, looking at the spreadsheet from Nick Golden that is linked in the sidebar, there have been 5 other TSU players who have transferred elsewhere, four of them to FBS schools.  To close the loop, there are three more reported to be still out there.

The third young man is Mark Cannon, JR, who comes from Illinois State.  He played 24 games for the Redbirds, nabbing 6 INT, 19 passes defended and 123 tackles.  All in all, highly productive. 

Out of HS he was a two-star recruit, with other offers from EMU and North Dakota. He was all-state as a junior.

This looks like someone we can use right away.

Welcome to the Falcons, Caden, Kaderris and Mark.

Harold Fannin Day

Oh, the joyous evening in the Falcon Nation.  Our most decorated player ever is in the NFL Draft...wherever he goes, we are going to be thrilled.  And then he goes to the Browns.  Hometown boy. Venn diagram between BG fans and Browns fans is strong (Lions fan, Browns sympathizer here).  Plus, we inspired their colors.

It was an awesome moment.

Let's just stop for a moment in appreciation.  We have had some great players.  We have never had one who did what he did.  What a glorious season he gave us.  And to be first-team All-American on four of the "real" All-American teams.  MAC Player of the year...he is an all-time great if not the all-time great.

That's a conversation for another day. Certainly on the Mt. Rushmore.

Anyway, let's not get distracted.  We were blessed to have Harold Fannin Jr. play for our team.  Today is a day of appreciation.

If interested, here is the post I wrote when he committed.  He's a Falcon forever.

As the Portal Turns...Updates in Football and MBB

 So, updating the week's news...

Starting with men's basketball.  BG signed another transfer.  This young man is Josiah Shackleford, who played at DII Flager College last year.  Flagler is in St. Augustine, FL.  They beat CMU by 19 in 2020, FWIW.

Anyway, Shackleford is a good find.  He was named the 2024-25 Peach Belt Conference Freshman of the Year and earned All-Conference Third-Team honors as well.

Shackelford led the team with 15.8 points per game mostly off the bench. He was efficient.  You will be excited to know he made 45% from 3FG along with 52% from 2FG and 78% at the line.  Another highly efficient scorer.

Turning to football, the first signee this week was Eriq George.  No relation.  HA!  I kid there.

He is the son of our head coach who played at Tennessee State. There was talk of him coming and then a delay during which I would guess he took stock of his options--as you or I would want our son to do--and then eventually came to BG.

This young man can play. He was second-team All Big South-OVC in 2024 and was co-defensive FR of the year in 2023.

Over his career, he accumulated 82 tackles (45 solo), 18.5 tackles for loss and eight sacks. He's 6'2" and 280 pounds and plays DL.

The newest transfer is Keyon Washington, a CB who red-shirted at WVU last year.  He's from MD where he was a 3-star recruit who was also recruited by BC, Temple, UB and UT.  ESPN had him as the #100 CB his senior year.

Just a reminder, there's a link in the left sidebar where members of the Falcon Nation are tracking the portal activity for the program.  

To date, we have brought in 3 CBs, 1 S, a LB and 2 DL to help shore up a defense that was simply decimated after last season.  I would not be surprised to see a couple more come in as well.

Welcome to the Falcons, Eriq, Keyon and Josiah.

Happy Easter to the Falcon Nation

 

Two Commits to MBB

The Simon Crew filled two holes this weekend, bringing in a big and a 3-FG shooter.  Let's review.

The first announced was Troy Glover II.  He's a transfer from the University of Missouri-St. Louis (the Tritons), which is DII.  He's 6'10 and 210 pounds, originally from Wheaton, IL. Prior to UMSL he spent one year at Trinity Christian College.

He was productive at UMSL.  In his first year, he averaged 27 minutes, shot 56% (almost all 2FGs), 8.1 RPG and 49 blocks.  Last season, he played 29 minutes, shot 63%, had 8.6 RPG and 67 blocked shots. That's #16 in the nation. Downside....54% at the line.  (Update:  Like an idiot, I failed to note that he scored 10.1 PPG in his first year and 10.7 in his second year).

The Tritons made a 3-game run in the NCA A DII tournament, including a victory over Ferris State and the Coach who is now getting started at CMU. Glover double-doubled in all 3 tourney games. He put up 18 points and 14 rebounds against Ferris State in the first round, 15 points and 13 boards in the big second-round upset and 12 points and 11 rebounds in the loss to Lake Superior.

The other is Jason Kimbrough of Highland Community College in Illinois.  Last season, he averaged 18.7 PPG, shot 46% from 3FG (I know you like that) and 49.5% from 2FG, both highly efficient numbers. 86% from the line. Also 6 assists over 3.7 TOs.

The 6-foot-1 guard chose the Falcons over offers from UNC Greensboro, South Carolina State University, the University of Texas Permian Basin (UTPB), Auburn University of Montgomery, Lincoln University (Pennsylvania), Western New Mexico University, Florida Tech University and Christian Brothers. He also received interest from Evansville and Long Beach State.

So here is where we stand:

Yo-Yo, Campbell, Towns, Karel, Leach, Goins, Glover and Kimbrough...also Pardon, Spurgin and Squier.  That's 11 guys.  Would expect to see a couple more.

Football Updates

So, spring practice is done and the portal is hopping.  This is to be expected and we're still not even close to where teams usually get when they lose a coach.  On the other hand, we are just getting started.  Today alone there were 1,100 players entering the portal.

Some folks in the Falcon Nation are making it easy to keep track of the whole fracas.  @rhyspatrykus is a great follow and has a spreadsheet with the portal players coming in and out.  And Nick Golden (@nkgolden119 and @talon_talk) has a spreadsheet with known offers in the portal and whether they have committed to BG or elsewhere.  Both are available in the sidebar.  Thanks to both guys....these are a lot of work to maintain.

Notable recent additions to the list are Justin Pegeus, Rahkeem Smith, Marcus Moore (portal bounce to Purdue), Jordan Dunbar (DB revolving door portal guy), Isaas Hill (3-star TE), Iosefa Sapiala (portal bounced to WMU), Rico Steele (3-start OL), Dillon Robinson (2-star OL), Joe Shimko (3-star DL) and JT Kitna.

Best of luck to everyone. I suspect there will be more.

BG has brought in Jalen McClendon, a productive DB from TN State, along with OL Alexis Sanchez from NAU (had committed to TN State).

Let the good times roll.

MBB Updates...

A little MBB Update...in the last 24 hours, BG has had two good pieces of news from the portal.

First, Yo-Yo Khayat will be back.  He's a guy we liked a lot and then he spent most of last year injured.  He's got the size and skill set to be a real match-up problem in the MAC, if it all comes together.  I think it's like being in a contract year....he has the chance to show the market what he can do.

Second, Javonte Campbell chose to come back over going to Oklahoma, his home state. This is very helpful.  With two hands, he can play an important role in our offense by using open floor to get to the rim.  Even with one hand, he played effectively.

Rumor is that Sam Towns is back, but I haven't seen anything about that.

Trust me when I say that BG is recruiting hard.  Last weekend and next weekend have heavy visit schedules and it's all hands on deck.  I know people are impatient, but our guys are grinding.

I'm sure they are looking for shooters.

So, right now, we have Yo-Yo, Campbell, Pardon, Spurgin, and Squire.  Goins (JUCO), Karel and Leach.  Maybe Towns.  I have no idea about Adem but he's still on the roster.

And so the portal turns.

Falcons Land QB

As I had mentioned yesterday, BG had to be on the lookout for QB help for this season, and they have found it.

His name is Drew Pyne, and he will be enrolling at his 4th institution of higher learning.

He started at Notre Dame, where he played 3 years (including the COVID year).  In 2022, he lost the starter's job, but then the starter went down with a season-ending injury.  Pyne had a nice year, making 10 starts and going 8-2.  He completed 65% of his passes, 22 TD over 6 INT, and a QB rating of 155.  

He went into the portal and transferred to Arizona State, where he played only 2 games due to injury. He finished his degree at ND and then transferred to Missouri.  He made 1 start there last year.  He had a big game in Missouri's upset win over Oklahoma.

In the 2022 year, Pyne graded out at 69.1% on PFF.  His passing was 72 and running was 48. His strongest type of pass at Notre Dame was the deep ball and his weakest was 0-10 yards...he says that he is coming to BG to play in Travis Partridge's spread offense.  FWIW, it was short passes to the right that killed him.

For comparison, Bazelak graded at 78 offense, 75 passing and 66 running last season.

He has two years left.

Welcome to the Falcons, Drew.

Portal Updates

 A quick update on the portal news....

For men's basketball, I had previously reported on Johnson, Campbell and Felt.  Since then, Braelon Green entered, as did Derrick Butler, benefitting from the JUCO decision granting him another year. 

To date, only Green has found a new home--and that is EMU.

Even more importantly, there are no reports of players finding their way to BG.  The commits are starting to pick up....I suspect some of the guys we might want and waiting to see if they get a better offer.  This is a vital time, obviously.  As per usual, we are down to very few players and Akron is going to return everybody plus an OSU player they picked up and Kent will return almost everyone.

Since our last update for football, three more players are in the portal...Dillon Robinson, Chace Davis and Justin Lampson.

Robinson was a 2-star recruit and part of the Anthony Wayne crew that came to BG.  Davis played in 24 games over two seasons at BG, without generating any huge numbers.  I think he got a JUCO year back.

QB Justin Lampson, late of Syracuse and Stanford, had committed to BG but he has now gone to Montana State.

Kal-El Pascal, a promising D-back, portaled and then unportaled.

The football crew is also working like mad.  Remember, BG is not out of the woods.  After spring practice, there are often additional portal departures.  To date, our post-Loeffler losses have been less than many others have seen when a coach leaves.

Remember, we were expecting a rebuilding year before the change.  We need to fill some holes to be remotely competitive next year and no one is under any illusions about it.