Recruiting Report is a weekly feature on college recruiting of area interest. It will appear online Wednesdays and in Thursday print editions in the summer months.
BOWLING GREEN — Actual football might be months away from returning to Bowling Green, but the top floor of the Sebo Center has been nonetheless filled with celebration in recent weeks.
The Falcons have been on a recruiting hot streak in new coach Scot Loeffler’s first spring as head coach, a stretch which culminated with the program overtaking the No. 1 ranking in the Mid-American Conference, according to 247Sports’ composite recruiting rankings.
More than half of Bowling Green’s current class of 2020 committed during the month of June, including the three highest-rated players in the 19-person grouping. BGSU’s class has nine three-star players and passed Western Michigan for the current highest-rated class in the league.
Bowling Green has done most of its work near home, securing verbal commitments from eight players in the state of Ohio, but also has had success in the South.
Jacksonville wide receiver Javonte Kinsey is the current top-rated player in the Falcons’ class. A 6-foot-4 prospect, Kinsey chose Bowling Green over 13 other offers, which included Cincinnati, East Carolina, and Connecticut.
Aaron Washington (Atlanta) is the top-rated linebacker in the class and picked BG from 17 total offers — including three MAC schools and Marshall — while Jay Burns (Springdale, Ark.) is the ninth-ranked player in his home state.
247Sports ranks BG’s class 54th nationally, which ranks third among all Group of Five schools.
Bowling Green also addressed its biggest need on its future rosters. Loeffler told The Blade earlier this year he hoped to sign two quarterbacks in the class of 2020, and the Falcons currently have two top-50 commits.
Whitmer’s Riley Keller committed to Bowling Green against offers from West Virginia, Iowa State, and Mississippi, among others. Fellow three-star quarterback Tucker Melton wasn’t far behind. The Phenix City, Ala., prospect committed to BGSU earlier this month against 10 other offers, including Troy, UAB, Akron, and Arkansas State.
Since Keller committed to Bowling Green on May 17, the Falcons have more than tripled the size of their class.
After adding Melton, Kinsey, and Cincinnati Princeton cornerback Elijah Eberhardt — the three highest-rated players in the class — within hours of each other on June 16, BG kept the momentum going into the next week, luring Washington and Sandusky running back Terion Stewart, who rushed for 39 touchdowns last season and is also a standout sprinter.
Respect it🤐 pic.twitter.com/elHimsfWki
— Terion Stewart (@StewartTerion) June 22, 2019
So far, Loeffler and the current Bowling Green staff has accounted for all of their outgoing seniors — the current Bowling Green roster lists 16 seniors for the upcoming season — though the program will have additional openings in the class due to transfers and other attrition.
The NCAA caps initial scholarship offers at 25 in a given year, giving Bowling Green six additional spots for the class of 2020.
Recruits can sign with their school of choice as early as Dec. 18.
If the Falcons can retain their No. 1 ranking, it would mark the first time in the history of online recruiting rankings they finished with the top class in the MAC.
First Published June 26, 2019, 7:00 p.m.
