Happy Easter to the Falcon Nation

Happy Easter to the Falcon Nation.  Regardless of your religious faith, we can all unite around the idea of a new beginning.  One happens every day.

Thomas Gets 6th Year, BG adds RB Transfer from Georgia Tech

#BGSU football: 1st, DE Bryan Thomas has received 6th year eligibility from #NCAA per Instagram. 3rd-team All-#MAC for #Falcons last year.
— JWagnerBlade (@jwagnerblade) April 4, 2015

#BGSU football: 2nd, #Falcons have added RB Donovan Wilson to roster. Ga Tech 3* transfer ran for 2,006 yards & 26 TDs as HS sr. in '12.
— JWagnerBlade (@jwagnerblade) April 4, 2015

RT @orangeandbrown: @jwagnerblade Eligibility for Wilson? <{- Redshirt sophomore, eligible this fall. #BGSU football
— JWagnerBlade (@jwagnerblade) April 4, 2015

Spring football continues.  John Wagner has a couple news items from the scrimmage today.  The biggest news is above...BG will have a key element of last year's defense back for a 6th season, and that is DE Bryan Thomas.  This is huge.  BG's defense was hit heavily by graduation losses and getting Thomas back will help a lot.  He led the team with 8 sacks and the MAC with 5 fumbles forced last year and was 3rd team All-MAC.  BG can absolutely, 100% use him and we are thrilled to have him back.

The second is the news that Donovan Wilson transferred from Georgia Tech and will be eligible to play this fall.  In fact, the Georgia Tech blogosphere reported he was coming to Bowling Green back in August, so presumably he "sat out" this year already.

Wilson is originally from Dublin, Ohio, where he went to Jerome HS.  Here is Georgia Tech's HS bio for him....

High School: Jerome HS... a four-year football starter for Coach Mark Hundley... served one year as a team captain... also played three seasons of basketball... rated as a three-star recruit by Rivals... named All-Central Ohio three times... a three-time all-conference, three-time all-district and three-time all-metro selection... named all-state as a senior in 2012... rushed for 2,068 yards and 26 touchdowns as a senior... owns every rushing record at Jerome HS, including 62 carries for 425 yards rushing and seven touchdowns in a game versus Westerville South... finished his prep career with 4,796 yards rushing and 59 touchdowns... made the academic honor roll.

His father played in the NBA.  It does not appear that he ever played for Tech.  Obviously, you don't know what he is bringing to the table now, but if we had signed him out of HS we would have been doing handsprings.

BG continues to build RB depth.  In addition to Travis Greene, Fred Coppet and Andre Givens, they have added Illinois transfer former enrollee Matt Domer as well as Wilson. (Domer technically is not a transfer. We regret the error).

Beyond that, they also have a RB who has never been mentioned as part of a recruiting class, which is Brian Jennings II.  Notably, his bio says he played one season at Eastern Illinois.  As a FR, he was a special teams player who had 7 carries in a reserve RB role for Coach Babers.

Finally, there was one RB in the FR class...CJ Lamar of Florida.

Greene and Coppet have been effective but injured frequently, so seeking depth (beyond Givens) was critical and BG has brought in some guys who have nice credentials and who were considered as players by high level programs (in the case of Domer and Wilson).  Obviously, that still has to show itself out on the field, something I look forward to watching.

Quick football news in the Jans carnage

Dino Babers and the BGSU football continue to work their way through the Spring.  A little tidbit of news was that Coach has announced that he wants to have his starting QB named before the end of the Spring.  As readers know, my position is that battle is between Johnson and Nicholas, despite any talk of a 3-way battle.

One mop-up note from last week...there have been a couple position changes. Nilijah Ballew was moved from S to LB, where there were big losses.  And backup QB Nolan Dieter has moved to S, which seems like a little bit of a surprise.

The goal is not having good players standing on the sideline.

The Jans Papers

OK, kids.  So the media has run down the Jans documents, which will allow everyone to understand for themselves what caused Jans to have his position terminated.   I'm glad these things are out because they will let people decide how they feel about the dismissal based on actual facts, and not the rumors that have been bolting around all day.

The termination letter is attached here.  It is pretty clear.

Essentially, while at the bar, Coach Jans was seen lowering a woman's head to his crotch.  He also patted a woman on the buttocks and the letter says he asked her to walk away so he could "enjoy her assets."  He was confronted by a woman who was in the bar who was a student-athlete at another college.  He called her a bitch and then was confronted by some table companions.  An altercation broke out and some other members of the basketball program had to separate Jans from the people who had confronted him.

Again, you can read it yourself.

One of the "table companions" was Ron Tiller, a BGSU alum.  He emailed AD Chris Kingston with his concerns--the thread of which can be seen here.  Interestingly, Tiller did not want to see Jans fired.  The second-to-last email is Kingston asking to call Tiller, this morning after the decision was made.  The last email is Tiller apparently responding following the conversation.

A few things.  First, you do have to view this in terms of what time it occurred.  Back in the day, BG had a hockey coach who was known to have a few too many beers and get relatively wild.  Things were just different.  Again, you might or might not think that firing was appropriate, but I don't think you can justify that because this kind of thing was accepted in the 1970s.

The second issue is the issue is that it impacts women.  There have been high-profile issues in athletics with women, and I don't think that helped the case at all.  He appears to know at least one of the women involved and does not know the second one at all.  Not sure if that matters or not but it seems like it does.

We also don't know the history of this issue---whether there had been other discussions or concerns raised in the past.  Also, this is not the first controversial issue between an athletic department employee and alcohol.  Not going to go into details, but it isn't the first time.

The final element is just the ability for something like this to get higher amounts of publicity.  Mr. Tiller mentions specifically that he considered taking the story "national."  If it goes national and you then are forced to act (hello Roger Goddell) the whole university takes a hit and looks like it condoned the activity until it was forced to do the right thing.  Heard of Deadspin ever?

For all those reasons, I think this on balance was a difficult thing to do but the right thing to do.  It is 100% clear that Jans violated the letter of his contract.  I think the definition of what is acceptable has changed a lot over time, and things that were ok a little while ago are liable to get someone fired.

I highly doubt Kingston did it lightly.  He hired Jans and had seen success right from the beginning.  He can't have wanted to do this.  So, for better or for worse, I'm sure he felt it was the only viable choice available to him.

Jans Fired for "Public Conduct"

BG fired coach Chris Jans after an incident an off-campus bar involving inappropriate behavior by Jans towards at least one patron.
— Zac Jackson (@FSOhioZJackson) April 2, 2015

There are no charges pending currently. The incident was more than a week ago. A person involved just found of Jans' termination.
— Zac Jackson (@FSOhioZJackson) April 2, 2015

It's believed that at least one person filmed the incident with a cell phone camera.
— Zac Jackson (@FSOhioZJackson) April 2, 2015

The incident occurred in Bowling Green either late Saturday night Mar. 21 or early Sunday the 22nd, the night BGSU's season ended.
— Zac Jackson (@FSOhioZJackson) April 2, 2015

Hearing from multiple sources that Chris Jans was involved in an incident at a bar. I was told that Jans was surprised that he was let go.
— Jordan Strack (@JordanStrack) April 2, 2015

@michaelshugars1 @jordanstrack From what I've heard, it's inexcusable. BGSU did the right thing.
— Grant Cummings (@GCPepperguy) April 2, 2015

So, there could not be anything more surprising than seeing this over my lunch hour.  Things were in good shape, the program was healthy and moving ahead with a new direction and now that's all starting over.

The tweets above show--from journalists, by the way--what is known right now about what happened.  Obviously, I don't know anything more than that, but my first reaction was that it had to bad, and this is confirmed.  But don't worry, we will see the video soon enough.

The University reported public conduct. For the record, there's no buy out in this situation unless he was offered one, since this is a termination for cause.  Such an issue is often litigated, but that's how it is supposed to work.

I'm completely shocked and, assuming that the video is as serious as described above--all by people who have not seen it themselves, to be fair--than I am very disappointed in Chris Jans.  A lot of was invested in him and this is a huge blow to a lot of people's hopes and desires.

Implied above is something I will reinforce...I support the administration for upholding the idea that our players AND our coaches have to be good representatives of the University at all times.  We do not want to be a place that lets coaches and athletes run over their bosses...see OSU, Syracuse, etc.

More as more is learned.

Holy shit

	JWagnerBlade (@jwagnerblade)
4/2/15, 12:02 PM BGSU has just fired men's basketball coach Chris Jans. More coming.

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Blade: Holmes invited to Portsmouth Invitational

From the Blade today, Richaun Holmes is headed to the Portsmouth Invitational, which is a huge honor and opportunity for him.  He wants to play professionally and he will.  This is the showcase for him to show what he can do.  I would assume the scouting includes not just the NBA but also overseas leagues.  Check the story out for more info on Richaun, but he's healthy again, which is good news.  He was a warrior for BG and I wish him nothing but the best of luck.  He will continue to make us proud.