BG football hopes to sign 4 Wednesday

Bowling Green football coach Mike Jinks, shown during the press conference announcing December's signees, hopes to add four future Falcons Wednesday.

BOWLING GREEN — On Wednesday, it will be business as usual for the Bowling Green State University football staff.

Well, that is not exactly true.

The Falcons expect to camp around the fax machine starting at 7 a.m. as they have in years past, waiting for National Signing Day to provide the program with an influx of new talent.

But instead of expecting a flood of faxes, this year will provide only a trickle.

That is because of the newly minted early signing period in December, when 18 players signed to play for the school. Soon after classes started in January, one freshman and three junior-college players enrolled so they could participate in spring practice. Another junior college linebacker, Hassan Belton, also committed and enrolled at BG as well.

RELATED: Read bios on the 18 players who signed with the Falcons in December.

Bowling Green coach Mike Jinks likes the changes the early signing date produced.

“It’s been very beneficial for us,” he said. “The coaches that I’ve run into in the MAC have been excited about this signing period.”

Since signing day, the Falcons also have placed quarterback Grant Loy on scholarship after Loy played in six games last season. Loy completed 9-of-16 passes for 161 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions, running for 55 yards and two TDs on 22 carries.

All those moves bring the Falcons to 20 newcomers; Jinks said Bowling Green hopes to sign four more players to bring its total to 24.

Among the players expected to sign Wednesday are Karl Brooks, a defensive end/linebacker from Lansing (Mich.) Sexton High School; Presley Motes, a tight end who played at Eastern Arizona Community College, and Cameron Stage, an offensive lineman from Cardinal Gibbons High School in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Bowling Green also hopes to gain a commitment from running back Ra’veion Hargrove of Trotwood-Madison High School near Dayton. Hargrove was named Gatorade’s Ohio high school player of the year and was the runner-up for the Mr. Football award after running for 30 touchdowns for the Division III champions.

Because of the small number of recruits the Falcons targeted in this signing period, Jinks said he used the past month to get a jump start on recruiting for 2019.

“I got to visit a lot of coaches in Indiana, and then I saw coaches in the Dayton-Cincinnati area,” he said a week ago. “I got a chance to meet a lot of coaches, and then I’m going to meet coaches in Cleveland and Toledo.

“It has allowed me to show my face in a number of schools, and it has been good.”

The Cincinnati Enquirer reported Bowling Green made seven scholarship offers in that area the week Jinks and his staff visited. But even though the scholarship offers were made earlier than normal, Jinks said he does not expect the commitments to start as quickly.

“In the South, a lot of guys commit in the spring because the coaches can see them play spring ball and evaluate that,” he explained. “In the Midwest, our evaluation time is more in the summer, during camps and such.”

Jinks said two positions of need for the 2019 BG recruiting class are cornerback and quarterback.

“You have Montre [Gregory], Clint [Stephens], Cameron [Jefferies], and Robert [Jackson] at cornerback,” he said, noting Jefferies will be a junior and the rest are seniors this fall.

“And our 2019 quarterback will be big as well. I’m not happy with the way we are ‘tiered’ at that position: We have sophomore-sophomore-freshman, and one of them might leave.”

Contact John Wagner at: jwagner@theblade.com, 419-724-6481, or on Twitter @jwagnerblade.