Dante Rones

This is the second installment in a series on football recruiting within the Mid-American Conference. The first issue ran on March 9 where Akron was featured. This week features Bowling Green and Massachusetts. Look next week for Kent State and Buffalo.

Bowling Green (8-5) had a pretty good season last year. Their defense was stellar but they will lose star tackle Dwayne Woods–who will be hard to replace–to the NFL draft. On the offensive side, their veteran quarterback Matt Schilz began to show that he can make the offense efficient. Schilz’s greatest weakness is that he needs to utilize his deep field wide receivers.

Bowling Green is ranked 84 in team recruiting rankings, according to ESPN. They have 23 commits, four of which are ranked as three star players. The two biggest acquisitions are their three-star wide receivers Teo Redding (Pos. Rank 122) from Warren, Mich. (Michigan Collegiate) and Mike Rogers (Pos. Rank 149) from Fort Wayne, Ind. (Bishop Luers HS). These two receivers could be the threats Bowling Green has been looking for.

The newest member of the MAC, The University Massachusetts, had its only win come against the Akron Zips. This team has a lot of work to do if they want to be in contention for a MAC Championship or even for a winning record.

The passing game has to be more efficient and effective; they were only able to get nine touchdowns for the season, and at times were shut out completely. The run game was even worse, only having one 100 or more rushing yard game in the last seven games. The Volunteers have six offensive players graduating this year, which will leave giant holes that they will need to fill. Their defense is of big concern as well, with two defensive joining the six starters in graduation. Simply put, the coaching staff is going to need to rebuild this team from ground up.

Will it be a hard process? Yes! Is it going to take a few years? Yes! But through good recruiting and new schemes on both side of the ball, Massachusetts has the potential to make some noise within the conference.

Massachusetts is ranked fourth in team recruiting team rankings; they have 22 total commits and seven three-star players. Their first concern was offense: Five of the seven three star players are offensive players. They brought in running back Lorenzo Woodley (Pos. Rank 49) from Miami, Fla. (Columbus High School). This pick up should solidify their poor running game.

Also out of those five three-star players, three of them are offensive linemen. Right now their main concern is having a more lethal offense than last year, and they are going in the right direction about it. This is not going to be a one-year rebuilding process; it’s going to take several years to get this team moving in the right direction but they are going about it correctly.