The Bowling Green State University football team has been no stranger to the bottom of the standings of late, so in light of recent events, the Falcons find themselves on an unfamiliar perch.

They are No. 1 in the country ... in offseason arrests.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say the team shop won’t be selling foam fingers this fall.

According to the website Arrest Nation — a rubbernecking site that tracks reported incidents involving pro and college athletes — Bowling Green’s five arrests this year has the program in a three-way tie for first among football teams, along with Texas Tech and the New York Jets.

Not ideal.

If the burner beneath the seat of third-year coach Mike Jinks could get any hotter, it just did — the spree of misconduct casting into further question the bedrock of the program.

Here’s the cynical truth: A coach must be good enough to justify the baggage of his team.

And you can do the math.

Six wins in two years.

Five arrests in six months.

The former is the most barren stretch in Falcons history, the latter among the most prolific.

To review:

■ In March, multiple players were involved in a spring break brawl in Miami, the footage of which went viral nationally;

■ In April, sophomore receiver Matt Wilcox drove drunk into a tree — his second OVI arrest in less than three months;

■ In May, Datrin Guyton — a senior receiver previously dismissed by Oregon State — was charged with robbery, assault, and criminal trespassing after allegedly storming into an off-campus house he thought had intercepted a package meant for him. One witness told police: “He got furious claiming we had stolen weed from him that was worth $3,500 and ... if he don’t have the weed or $3,500 ... [he threatened] he was going to pump us with hot lead.”

■ In June, redshirt sophomore linebackers Dirion Hutchins and Armani Posey were charged with racking up charges on a university credit card; and

■ In July, Jinks booted Hutchins and Posey, the fourth and fifth scholarship players shown the door in three months.

Sorry, that’s not boys being boys. That’s a program crying for help.

Now, to Jinks’ credit, he took swift action in each instance. Rather than blather on about letting the legal process drag out — as many coaches would — he judged the players named above put themselves in horrible positions and promptly dismissed them. Jinks is nobody’s enabler.

“We can’t make excuses, and I’m not going to make excuses,” Jinks said. “We have expectations, we have standards, and we’re going to uphold them. If kids are going to make poor decisions, they won’t be with us. Period. I do understand due process. I do understand you’ve got to wait to see what comes of [the charges]. But football is a privilege, not a right.

“You represent the name on the back of the jersey, and you represent the name on the front. You put us in a bad situation, you’re not going to be here. You disrespect your family, you disrespect our family, we’re not going to have you.”

It is a good message, and why Jinks dismissed my suggestion the run of arrests suggests a ruptured culture in his program.

“I feel good about where we are,” he said.

Unfortunately, the evidence suggests otherwise.

I like Jinks, a good guy who wants the best for BG, and the vast majority of his players are fine representatives of the school.

But the numbers are the numbers. For as much as we can all talk about the inherent challenges of monitoring more than 100 college kids, Ohio State, Michigan, and Toledo have one reported player arrest among them this year. BG has five, all by players signed by the current coaching staff.

More than that is the program’s alarming attrition rate. Ten of the 18 four-year players BG introduced on signing day in 2016 have since left the school, as have eight players — including one junior college transfer — from the 2017 class.

That tells us something is amiss. That tells me an inexperienced staff is recruiting too many marginal characters out of self-preservation.

While every coach fashions himself a Father Flanagan — think Tom Amstutz or Gregg Brandon in their later years — it takes but a few agitators to burn the entire program and embarrass the community, and Jinks is walking a dangerous line.

“There are 105 football players, and unfortunately we’re focused on the five who are no longer with us,” BG athletic director Bob Moosbrugger told me. “But we have to do a better job.”

Or, it goes without saying, Bowling Green will find someone who can.

On the field and off.

Contact David Briggs at: dbriggs@theblade.com, 419-724-6084, or on Twitter @DBriggsBlade.

First Published July 27, 2018, 9:00 p.m.