BOWLING GREEN — Persistence on the recruiting trail can sometimes unearth diamonds in the rough.
For Group of Five football programs like Bowling Green State University, the transfer portal has become a helpful tool to help boost depth at the top of rotations. Coach Scot Loeffler has utilized the portal for depth options in previous years, but over this offseason, he has pulled in Day 1 starters to help with a young nucleus.
He might have killed two birds with one stone in sophomore defensive back Jordan Oladokun.
“We’ve always thought he was a really good football player,” Loeffler said. “He’s got great speed, great hands, athletic. The most impressive thing besides his character are his mom and dad. His mom and dad are phenomenal. They get it. They know it’s not going to be easy, and I think from their experience, they realized our staff was sincere, legit, and wanted to really mold Jordan into the best possible player and person he could possibly be.”
Oladokun was a three-star recruit out of Gaither High School in Tampa, where he was a four-time all-state selection in football and an all-state selection in baseball. He committed to Iowa among 26 offers — 18 from Power Five programs and one from BGSU — but decommitted in October, 2020, amid racial discrimination allegations against coach Kirk Ferentz and the program.
As a result, Oladokun attended Football Championship Subdivision program Samford and played six games in the 2021 season before sustaining a torn labrum.
He entered the transfer portal, and eventually found a home with BGSU, Loeffler, and defensive coordinator Eric Lewis.
“I have a really good relationship with both of them, and just taking it day-by-day playing and going out there showing them what I can do,” Oladokun said. “I showed glimpses of that in spring football — I’m battling back from my injury — but when I get back I should be 100 percent, and hopefully I can come in and do what they want me to do.”
Oladokun has the chance to be in the mix to rotate in and roam with his ball-hawk style of play. He registered 24 interceptions in his high school career.
He said he’s expected to be ready by the fall, after fully recovering from his injury.
“I feel like coming out of the portal, a lot of people were nervous to take me, scared to take me because I was committed, decommitted a couple of times during high school, and went to Samford during my freshman year, and it didn’t work out the way I thought it was going to there,” Oladokun said. “[BGSU is] showing they believed in me, that really made me and my family comfortable on my official [visit] there. They showed what I could do if I came here and how I could get back to my goal, the same goals I had in high school.”
He is the younger brother of Chris Oladokun, who went on to play quarterback at South Florida, Samford, and FCS program South Dakota State and was recently drafted in the seventh round of the NFL draft by Pittsburgh.
The brothers are separated by 4½ years, and Jordan said Chris helps bring a motivating factor into his own collegiate career.
“It’s a never-quit attitude that he has,” Jordan said. “Playing football in college for six years, and that’s even crazy to think about. It’s crazy that we had the chance to play in college football together. For him to never quit and keep going through the adversity that he went through and beat the odds, it’s given me so much motivation, it’s given me hope that I can still do it.”
First Published June 28, 2022, 1:31 p.m.
