Probably Bowling Green Football’s best-kept secret until the week five game against Georgia Tech, Finn Hogan is a 6-5 205-pound wide receiver/tight end hybrid with a combination of speed, height, and athleticism that was probably made in a lab.
Just kidding – maybe.
Hailing from a small town at the top of Michigan’s “pinky finger,” Hogan originally went to Central Michigan University, a two hour trip from his hometown of Maple City.
He was lightly recruited and unranked coming out of high school and ended up having to walk on at CMU.
“I’m from a pretty rural area of Michigan, so college sports at that level (Division I) isn’t something that kids get to do a whole lot, so I think it wasn’t a surprise,” said Hogan. My whole mindset with it was betting on myself and believing that if I was in different circumstances, I would have opportunities. My high school head coach who was like a second dad to me, Coach Jerry Angers, knew the defensive coordinator at Central Michigan so he helped set that up, I had a couple of Division II offers and some Division III stuff as well, but it came down to betting on myself and whatnot, so that’s why we ended up going with that option.”
After spending two seasons in Mount Pleasant, Hogan decided it was time for a change.
“Super thankful for the opportunity they gave me to build my name, it just came down to a money situation. They didn’t have any scholarships available, and I felt like, at a certain point, I had done enough to get one. So, I ended up deciding with my family to move on and look for another option,” Hogan said.
That other option ended up being Bowling Green, and the coaching staff sold him hard.
“Coach [Scot] Loeffler and Coach [Erik] Campbell reached out to me, and I came on a visit, and I could tell right away that it was a coaching staff I wanted to be a part of, and that’s a big thing for me; being somewhere where I’m appreciated, and they genuinely care about us,” Hogan said.
The move was worth it for Hogan. He earned a scholarship to play football in Bowling Green.
“He came here and was gracious to come here. He earned a scholarship here, was a walk-on at Central Michigan. He is exactly what we’re looking for,” Scot Loeffler said after the team’s game against Georgia Tech. “He exemplifies everything we want in our program.”
High praise from the head coach, and Hogan isn’t taking it for granted.
“That’s a huge thing for me personally, morally. Like I said, I appreciate him more than he’ll ever know for giving me the opportunity to be here,” Hogan said. “I think it gives me new-found confidence and shows me that he believes in me, and that means more to me than he’ll ever know.”
Now, about that Georgia Tech game…
Hogan came to play down in Atlanta, having the best game of his career: six catches, 102 yards, and a one-handed touchdown that landed him the number one spot on Sept. 30’s edition of ESPN’s SportsCenter Top 10.
@finneashogan Crazy #fyp #foryoupage #funny
And for a guy who made the play of the day, across every sport going on, he continues to be humble about it.
“It was an awesome game, offensive line came out and played great, defense had an unbelievable game, I’m just super thankful Coach put in a position where I could make plays and the rest of my teammates believed in me enough to give me the ball,” said Hogan. “The catch was super cool, O-Line did a great job picking up the blitz, Connor [Bazelak] had pressure in his face, threw it off his back foot which was incredible. As a wide receiver, you’ve got to go make plays. I’m just super thankful that those guys believed enough in me to give me an opportunity,” he said. “It was pretty cool (seeing myself on SportsCenter), that’s definitely a childhood dream growing up, to make the top of that was definitely a childhood dream.”
His goal was always to bet on himself, and right now it looks like that bet is beginning to pay off.
Hogan also brings more to the team than just what he does on the field, as he also brings a social media following of nearly 130,000 followers on TikTok, and it’s infiltrated the locker room.
“I’ve always been into social media, back in the Musical.ly days, I used to make fun of the sister for it. I’m not into the dance side of it, but the comedy aspect of it. I’ve always been making videos with my friends, starting to get my teammates involved made it more fun. It’s something we’ve always liked to do, and it kind of took off from there,” Hogan said. “It helps bond with the team, everybody gets into it, which is super fun. The exposure it gets, everyone gets super hyped up, ESPN will repost one and everyone gets super excited.”
Like he said, he’s not much of a dancer, but he enjoys getting into the trends that make their way around TikTok.
His favorite?
A classic trend from 2016 that found its way back to the forefront within the last couple of years.
“We did the Mannequin Challenge, it came out a long time ago, but it re-came out on TikTok, so we made one of those,” Hogan said. “That one got like nine, ten million views. We had the whole dorm, there were like 40 people in the video, that one was a fun one.”
That one was made while he was still up north, but out of the many videos he’s made and teammates he’s made videos with while as a member of the Orange and Brown, there’s one guy he includes that trumps the rest.
His roommate.
“My roommate, Cam [Orth], he’s pretty into them. He’s a really good dancer, he loves that stuff,” said Hogan. “A bunch of guys on the team are really into it, at first, they weren’t totally sure about it, but now everybody’s into it.”
Despite all of his teammates that he’s gotten to join in on the fun, there’s still one more who he’s hoping will hop in a video one of these days.
“If I could get Connor [Bazelak] in one, I think that would be pretty sweet. He’s not super into that stuff, but I’ll work on it.”
Hogan and his teammates are on the road again this week, taking on Miami-Ohio down in Oxford, and if they win, don’t be shocked to see a TikTok posted from a red locker room on October 7.
For more stories related to BGSU Athletics, follow Falcon Media Sports Network on X (@bg_fmsn).
