2023 Secondary Position Preview

2023 Secondary Position Preview 


DB Davon Ferguson (photo via BG Athletics)





Looking back at 2022 


2022 was a very up and down year for this defense as a whole. Some games were lights out like WMU, CMU, Miami OH. Other games were TERRIBLE like Buffalo, Kent, Ohio. 


Two incoming transfers last year in Chris Bacon (Georgia State) and DJ Taylor (Wake Forest) along with BG stalwarts Darren Anders had over 70 tackles. Karl Brooks is obviously the biggest name, reaching 50 tackles, 10 sacks and being drafted in the 6th round to the Green Bay Packers. Losing a guy like Karl who has been a Falcon since the Mike Jinks days is a huge loss but as a collective defense we could see an even better year. 

In terms of the secondary, Chris has a great year along with Trent Simms, Jordan Anderson, Deshawn Jones, Jalen Burton, and Jordan Oladokun who saw the majority of starts last year. Pat Day also had a great year in terms of rotating in and special teams in which he had a punt block TD against Toledo. Davion Daniels also had a punt block in the Quick Lane Bowl. 

Departures 


Chris Bacon graduates after one year at BGSU and Jordan Anderson transferred to UCLA for his final year of eligibility. Other than that most of the departures did not see a lot of playing time. Marcus Sheppard was a solid special teams player who is off to North Dakota State (FCS) and Willie Jones is headed to Western Illinois (FCS) after hardly seeing any time the past two seasons. 

Incoming 


Coach Loeffler attacked the portal again this off season, in comes Steve Lubischer from Boston College and Jordan Jackson from Stony Brook (FCS) to add some veteran experience to the DB room along with 2 JUCO players in Justin Lynch and Shamoun Duncan-Niusulu. Incoming high school players are Romello Flowers, Jace Henry, and Tracy Revels. 


Who will start in 2023? 


I am not at fall camp so the best I can do is guess. With Davon Ferguson returning from injury/transferring I would 100% peg him into a starting role as I am confident he is the best player in the secondary if he can stay healthy. I would also guess Deshawn Jones will start at CB so that leaves roughly 3 more starting DB spots to be filled by Simms, Oladokun, Libischer, Jackson and others such as the JUCO transfers, Davion Daniels, Pat Day etc. As of now I really only feel confident in Jones and Ferg starting. Either way, this much depth is great for producing the best starting lineup and championship teams win by having better 2s and 3s than the rest of the conference. This secondary needs to have a good year and I am confident they will lock teams down. 


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