Football Update

Well.  A very action-packed couple of days for the football program.

There's signing day, with good news.  A presser with more clues. The All-MAC teams...and then, well, whomp-whomp, people began to announce they were heading into the portal.

Let's start with the recruiting.

All normal caveats apply here.  Ratings can be unreliable, especially for MAC-level players.  Also, Mike Jinks had a #2 ranked class in 2017...you can scan the class here and see how many you recognize.

Even with all that, it's a data point. And in this one, BG ended up with the #2 ranked class overall in the MAC and the #1 rating per player.  It doesn't decide anything...but it represents progress.

Again, using 247 numbers, the top ten recruits in the 247-era for BG had 6 of them sign yesterday.  For full info on each of the guys, check here.

We have been following this and covered these guys when they committed.  We had two guys we expected who did not sign--Jordan Tarver, who announced he was opening his recruiting and then Isaiah Hayward, a WR from Whitmer from which no one has heard anything publicly.

We had two late additions.  One was Travis Robertson, and he becomes, again by the ranking, the #2 recruit we have ever had.

He's a 6'5", 320 pound OL that we had once.  He flipped to UCLA and then we flipped him back. That has the potential to be big...he could even contribute right away at a position of severe need.

The other was Samuel Roussos, who we talked about a couple days ago.

Every player we signed has 3 stars...that's never happened.

Now, it needs to be turned into wins.  But for now, this is a big day for our program.

Coach had his presser today.  There was a lot of stuff about leadership, meeting families, character, etc.  It's important, but you can watch that if you want.

The key was the talk about the portal.  To be clear, he is going to look for a QB, OL and WRs in the portal.  And they are all needed.  As much as they might like Jarin Mock, they don't want to throw him right into the fires.  So starting 1/2, that will be worth watching.

The All-MAC team came out.  The headline was Cameron Pettaway being the MAC FR of the Year.  This is wholy deserved.  I hope we see him again next year.  

Lampron and Jyrin Johnson were also well-deserved members of the first team. Pettaway made it as the returner. 

Also, OL Nate Pabst and PK Jackson Kleather on the second team, while CB MJ Cannon and CB Jalen McClendon earned third-team recognition.

Not bad, it's what you would expect for a team with two league wins.  FWIW, only 3 of those players signed with BG out of HS.

Soooo.  Now, the literal worst part of the year.  Watching guys march into the portal.  These are the players far.  Moses, Eklund, Goodloe and Stocksdale did not get many snaps for us this year.

The others.  Starting with kind of heart-breaker, as Jacob Harris entered the portal.  Given everything, you'd hope to hold him, but if it's going to be a business, he is as entitled as the next guy to make his move.  Caden Marshall moved up when Pringle was injured and did pretty well.  Chris Edmonds didn't play too much, but Chris McMillian was the lead RB to start the year and ended up sidelined by the end. Finally, RJ Garcia played a lot but was part of our underperforming WR unit.

DT	Malik Moses
LB	Justin Eklund
LB	Caden Marshall
RB	Chris Edmonds
RB	Chris McMillian
TE	Jacob Harris
WR	Reis Stocksdale
WR	Caleb Goodloe
WR	RJ Garcia

 There will be more.  Such is the road we travel.

Commit....Portal...and Signing Day...

This commit is Samuel Dossous, a DE/Edge from Massillon HS.

Listed at 6'4" and 225 pounds, he also had offers from Kent and Miami.

He was named to the all-county team in a county where football is King.  Beyond that, there are a number of stories about his wreaking havoc with sacks, TFL and forced fumbles.

The Falcons have their first player in the portal...Justin Ecklund.  He is a LB transfer from San Jose State, who made one start but played sparingly, making 7 total tackles on the year.

Samuel, welcome to the Falcons.  Justin, best of luck to you.

Tomorrow is signing day. The BG football feed does a pretty good job of posting every time a document comes in.  Feel free to check it out, and then tomorrow night, we'll look at what happened.  Presumably, there will be guys who committed and de-committed at the last minute.

This is an important class.  The portal signees will have a more immediate impact, but BG's model requires them to recruit HS players effectively and then develop them.

Falcon MBB Gets First P4 win in 20 years

Well, now.  How about that?  It was a great night to be a Falcon...as BG went on the road to a P4 opponent, double-digit underdog, and led wire-to-wire to beat the Wildcats by 16 on the road.  It was a great performance by our boys that is turning some heads.

The last P4 win was much different.  BG beat Virginia Tech when a Hokie tipped the ball into his own basket in a last second melee at the rim.  Pre-replay, Coach Dakich debuted his strategy of dealing with the close call by getting his team off the floor quickly...which came back to haunt in the even more famous overtime loss in Buffalo years later.  Note:  That team finished 9-21

It was one of those nights.  We showed what we can do.  BG scored the first 5 points and led the entire way. With 8 minutes left, they were up 7. With 5 minutes left, K-State cut the lead to 2, but the Falcons closed on a 16-4 run to lead by 14 heading into the locker room.

That's 49-35, I might add.  The Falcons had 49 first-half points.  

The game was stable early in the second.  BG had the lead to 17 before the first media timeout. K-State hung tough, chipped it to 11, and it stayed in that neighborhood, and then the Wildcats got it to 8 with 8 minutes left, and you figure they are ready to make their run.

But that's not what happened.  BG turned them back.  It never got that close again, and heading into the last media timeout BG was up 11.  And they did what good teams do...they kept extending the lead until it was 17 points with about a minute left and the game was dribbled out.  K-State quit fouling and it was over.  82-66.

It was amazing, if not for nothing else, it was so easy.  Even when K-State pressed, BG handled it with poise every time.  How many times has BG wilted in the last 10 years under pressure?

So how did the game get won?  BG had 1.28 points per possession, their best offensive game of the year.  Since the horrible shooting game against W&M, BG's EFG has been right in the .55 range...solid and effective.  BG made .44 on 2FG and 46% on 3FG, with 41% of their shots from 3FG. This time, BG got the turnovers back under control and continued to have outstanding offensive rebounding.  And BG made 74% of their free throws.

Meanwhile, Kansas State came in #3 in the nation in 3FG%...and made 26% against the Falcons.  Their 2FG shooting was 48%, also not great.  They had a slight lead in turnovers, got a lot of offensive rebounds, and got to the line, though they were 12-22 for 55%.

This is the first game BG has won without forcing over 20% turnovers. 

Coach said they focused hard on guarding the 3FG line, and it certainly showed.  

Individually.....hey Sam Towns!!  Take a bow. Career night, 27 points, 6 of 9 2FG shooting, 3 of 5 3FG shooting, 6-6 at the line, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and 0 turnovers...if that might work for you.  In fact, he was "line o' the night" on kempom.

Javon Ruffin is really looking solid...17 on 0 of 3 and 5 of 8 shooting, 2-2 at the line, 5 rebounds and 3 assists.  Javonte Campbell had 17 on 5 of 9 and 1 of 2, 4 of 7 at the line, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 turnovers.  He's adapting well to an offense where he isn't the only guy to shoot.  Troy Glover had 8 boards...and man if he converted a zero-footer here and there?

Marcus Johnson played 2 minutes against his old team, as a kind of gift it appears.

Excitement is gathering.  We ran a very tight 7-man rotation last night and this team just seems to gel.  We don't even mention Justin Thomas, who doesn't generate numbers but might be the best player on the team.

Last night was very exciting and a great accomplishment for our team.  Our Kenpom jumped 30 sports to 108.  Our game with Utah Valley--kenpom of 90--will be very interesting Saturday and a good opportunity to see the team play.

BG MBB in the Little Apple

The Falcons MBB team is on the road again, this time playing the only P4 game on the schedule--at Kansas State in Manhattan KS.

The first note is that this was expected to be a reunion with Marcus Johnson, the Falcon's leading scorer last year.  Johnson went into the portal and ended up at K-State...which has not appeared to be a very good move for him.  He appears to be healthy, but has not appeared in any of the games this year, including both exhibitions.  According to this, Coach Tang told him that there would not be any minutes this year for him.

Certainly, we all saw that there were holes in his game... especially on defense.  I'd think that K-State would have watched enough film to know about that.  Apparently not.

Anyway, he hasn't played 1 minute and there's no indication he will.  They have had 3 wins over of 20 and he didn't appear.

This is a high-level program over-shadowed by the big brother in Lawrence where Dr. Naismith used to coach. They have made the NCAA tourney 10 out of the last 20 years. In total, they have been in the tournament 32 times.  They were quite the powerhouse in the 1950s and 60s.  They finished #2 in the NCAA Tournament in 1951 under legendary Coach Jack Gardner.

Today, they are coached by Jerome Tang, who was an assistant at Baylor.  In his first year, he took the Wildcats to a #3 seed and was Big XII coach of the year.  The next two years they did not make the tourney and he is in his 4th.  His record is 66-44.

It is our first game vs. Kansas State. Their last MAC opponent was NIU in 2004 and 2005, when they split a home-and-home.

They were picked #10 in the 16-team Big XII by Blue Ribbon. They were #9 in their league poll. 

The Wildcats are 5-2, all D1 games. They started at 61 on kenpom and now they are a 54. A neutral floor win over Mississippi State by 21 is helping them the most...other wins are UNC-Greensboro, Bellarmine (see they can be beaten), Cal, Tulsa and Mississippi State.  After a 5-0 start, they have lost to Nebraska (n) and @Indiana by 17 in their only road game to date.

Offensively, they score.  They have 1.18 points per possession, which is #60 in the country. They are a great 3FG shooting.  They take an average amount, but they make 42.9%, #3 in the country.  Add in 56% on 2FG and you have the #19 shooting team overall in the country.

Not that it matters too much when you shoot that well, but they are worse than average in turnovers, a little better than average on the boards, and they do not get to the line. When get there, they make 78%.

Defensively, they are averaging 1.06 points per possession, which is essentially average. That's against a pretty good schedule though. They defend the 3FG well, but are weak against the 2FG. They are a little better than average on turnovers, on offensive rebounds, and keeping their opponents off the line.

Individually, the name you need to know is PJ Haggerty.  He's a 6'4" JR, who has played at TCU, Tulsa and Memphis. He is scoring 27 PPG, the top in the nation right now.  He makes 57% from 2FG and 39% on 3FG, both outstanding. Also 83% at the line. And #35 with 5.7 assists per game.  He's #7 on the kenpom player of the year list to date.

Nate Johnson is the next leading scorer at 13.7 PPG.  You remember him, to be sure.  He played at Akron, where he was the Player of the Year and the Defensive Player of the Year for the Zips. He's making 59% from 2FG and 47% from 3FG, a top-100 overall shooter. He leads the team with 6 rebounds a game and 11 steals.

They have 3 other double figure scorers: Abdi Bashir (50% from 3FG), David Castillo and Kahmari McGriff.

K-State is -13.5.

Record-Setting Performance over VMI

This was one for the books.

BG played VMI, a game they were certainly favored to win. 

It was one-sided from the front.  BG led wire-to-wire.  The Falcons were up 7 into the first media timeout, and went up 11 (16-5!!) with 13 left in the half.  The lead would never be closer than 10 again.  With 2 minutes left in the half, BG went up 21.  BG led by 25 at the break. Four minutes into the second half, BG was up 30.  It got as high as 36, and ended at 81-48.

Wow.

According to kenpom, it was the 4th most dominant victory in D1 so far this year.  It is not close to BG's biggest margin of victory.  Even eliminating military bases and non-D1 schools, BG beat Miami (1962) by 50.

VMI simply could not make a basket.  They shot 20% OVERALL for the game.  That's 32% on 2FG and 11% on 3FG.  Overall, the EFG is 23%, which is the lowest against BG in the kenpom era, which would take you back to 1997.  VMI made only 10 baskets.  They made 25 free throws.

Just as remarkably, BG got 56% of the available offensive rebounds, which is #2 all time.  One sneaky little thing...BG had over 20% turnovers for their 3rd straight game.  That's something that will need to get corrected. as MAC play begins.

Mayar Wol was the leading scorer with 21 points off the bench. He was 3 of 4 and 5 of 7 shooting.  He's a real addition to this team.

Towns had 18 rebounds, which is amazing.  He also had 12 points, but 3 of 10 on 2FGs. Shackleford had 12 on 2 of 3 and 2 of 4 shooting. Troy Glover had 11 on 5 of 7 2FG shooting. 

Jason Kimbrough, seeing his first real minutes, had 5 assists in 13 minutes. 

Wol and Ruffin were +27.

So the team has the holiday off.  Monday, they head to Manhattan, KS to play Kansas State in their most challenging pre-MAC game.

Happy Thanksgiving to the Falcon Nation

 

Football Closes with a Dub

 Well, it's over.

What a year.  There will be more chances to talk about that....signing day is coming up.  This off-season is critical.  We will not know for sure until the portal closes, but I suspect that we will have real holes to fill.  Even the ones we know about are significant.

UMass is just terrible. This is how the result should have been, and BG made it happen.  I'm glad our guys got to enjoy a win, especially for those whose football career has finished.

BG burst out to a 28-0 lead over the first 20 minutes of the game, and it appeared like the rout was on.  It was, however, not.  Yet.

The Minutemen had 2 first downs at this point.  They went on a 73 yard TD drive followed by an 80 yard TD drive to make it 28-14, and ghosts seemed to be coming out of the closets. 

UMass got the ball coming out of the half.  The Falcons got them 3 and out.  BG drove to the 39.  It was 4th and 2.  Everyone expected BG to go for it, but instead they punted UMass to their 4.  UMass ran 10 plays...to get to their 35...before BG turned them over on downs.

From the UMass 35, BG scored to make it 35-14 and everything eased up a little.  The first drive in the 4th led to a FG (38-14) and then in the waning minutes, BG went on a scoring drive in which long-time Falcon hero Pa'Sean Wimberly capped his career with a touchdown.

Classy touch by Coach George, who also got Blane Cleaver into the end zone for his last game and an XP to Travis Kenner.

At 45-14, BG had its biggest win over an FBS team since 2019.  Yes, we all know, that UMass might well be one of the 10 worst teams of all time...you're supposed to beat them and we did.  BG ran the offensive attack that many have been calling for...only 9 passes...mostly very short, to the extent that BG had 128 yards passing and most of that on runs after the catch. 

In fact, BG's average depth of throw was -.1 yards.  They ran 48 times for 5.8 yards per carry.  I'm not sure this approach would have succeeded against better competition, but it got the team the win today.

So, signing day is next week.  And then there's the portal work....the portal opens in January and after that we will have a better idea what we have.  More on this...but on day 1 we know we need serious help at QB, OL and WR.  Even if no one transfers.

Meanwhile...I will miss it.  See everyone in Lincoln.