Bowling Green Transfer Portal Recap

With training camp just around the corner, it’s time to take a look at all of the Bowling Green Transfer Portal transactions of the last year. With the emergence of NIL and the Portal, there have been growing concerns that playmakers at the Group of 5 level will jump ship to try their hand at the Power 5 level.

According to the school’s official 2022, there are 23 Falcons who started their careers at another institution. 16 of those will be suiting up for Bowling Green for the first time in 2022.

Brand-New Falcons

Jakari Robinson, Center (from Memphis)

Jordan Oladokun, Cornerback (from Samford)

Kitione Tau, Defensive Line (from Laney CC)

DJ Taylor, Linebacker (from Wake Forest)

Delonus Kabir, Guard (from Florida A&M)

Marcelo Mendiola, Guard (from Cincinnati)

Bronson Warner, Offensive Line (from Abilene Christian)

Cedric Dunbar II, Tackle (from Jackson State)

Kameren Stewart, Tackle (from Coastal Carolina)

Owen Rozanc, Kicker (from West Liberty)

Camden Orth, Quarterback (from Long Island)

Jordan Jackson, Running back (from Army Prep)

Chris Bacon, Safety (from Georgia State)

Ian Drummond, Tight End (from Elon)

Odieu Hilare, Wide Receiver (from Alabama A&M)

CJ Lewis, Wide Receiver (from Boston College)

Out-Going Transfers

It continues to amaze how eagle-eyed everyone is when it comes to P5 programs when, at the same time, many things fall through the cracks for G5 programs. According to 247Sports’ Transfer Portal Tracker, 13 Falcons have transferred out since August 2021. Meanwhile, our friends at BG Football Talk compiled a list of 25 outgoing Falcons. One player (LaBronz Davis, quarterback) removed his name and will be returning to BG. This time, since there are so many, we will just organize by destination.

FBS

Jayden George, Quarterback (to Miami (FL))

Brian Kilbane, Offensive Line (to Akron)

FCS/JUCO/Etc

Sy Dabney, Defensive back (to Illinois State)

Elijah Eberhardt, Defensive back (to Alabama A&M)

Matt Kordas, Defensive back (to Paloma)

Jack Wardzala, Defensive Line (to Dayton)

John Madden, Defensive Line (to Ohio Dominican)

Chris Oliver, Defensive Line (to Duquesne)

Gabe Brown, Offensive Line (to Grand Valley State)

Malone Van Gorder, Offensive Line (to Chattanooga)

John O’Brien, Offensive Line (to South Dakota State)

Fortune Woods, Linebacker (to Carson-Newman)

Riley Keller, Quarterback (to Tiffin)

Kody Sparks, Quarterback (to UT-Martin)

Tucker Melton, Quarterback (to West Alabama)

EJ Sutton, Running Back (to Lock Haven)

Cole Lakatos, Wide Receiver (to Bryant)

Nowhere…yet

Aaron Washington, Linebacker

Laylen Lawson, Linebacker

Joey Carroll, Tight End

Jarrad Kerekes, Punter

Jaylen Smith, Wide Receiver

Transfers Are Nothing New

Before this Transfer Portal haul even suits up, Bowling Green is likely to start five transfers, including starting quarterback, Matt McDonald. McDonald initially transferred from Boston College and was in the same recruiting class as incoming transfer, CJ Lewis.

This is the world of College Football. MAC schools tend to have plenty of transfer activity. BG lost Jarrett Doege a few years ago to the Portal. Gehrig Dieter and Anthon Samuel tried their hands elsewhere.

The Falcons are going to need a number of their newcomers to step up and contribute right away in order to improve in 2022. Soon, we will take a more in-depth look at the positional groups for Bowling Green leading up to their Week 1 matchup at UCLA.