After a disappointing debut season at the helm of BGSU football, Eddie George’s program has been ravaged and gutted by transfer portal entries, setting up the 2026 transfer portal window to be the most pivotal and consequential test for George since he arrived in northwest Ohio. 

As of the eve of the transfer portal officially opening, 35 Falcons have announced they are entering the portal. 

The mass departure of players is the latest note on the long ledger of woeful moments surrounding the program over the past year, which includes the quarterback injury carousel, the absence of a consistent passing game and inept wide receiver play, along with the mid-season arrest of three players and the firing of offensive coordinator Travis Partridge. 

Simply put, the first year of the George era in BG has been a roller coaster and anything but consistent. 

The mass transfer portal entries are not just about quantity; they are also about quality. Five of the Falcons’ seven All-Mid-American Conference (MAC) selections from the 2025 season have entered the portal (Cameron Pettaway, Gideon Lampron, Nate Pabst, Jackson Kleather and MJ Cannon). 

On the defensive side of the ball, the top three highest tacklers and five of the top six on the team are in the portal. 

Overall, defensive players in the portal make up 50.1% of the tackles (384) and interceptions (three), 83.1% of the tackles for loss (61.5) and 40.9% (nine) of the sacks from last season. 

Offensive players in the portal make up 69.2% of the receiving touchdowns (nine), 62.2% of the rushing yards (1,160), 56% of the receptions (93) and 46.1% of the receiving yards (837) from last year. 

The transfer portal entries have also decimated the special teams unit, accounting for every field goal made and 98.2% of the kick return yards (821 of 836). 

Even though 28 of the 35 entries are players who were already at Bowling Green when George arrived, the pure mass departure and quality of the losses is a brutal blow to the current state of the program and not a great look optically for a team that won just four games and missed a bowl game appearance for the first time since 2021. 

However, George had a lot of success in his first go-around with the transfer portal last spring, adding 25 players and obtaining the top-ranked transfer portal class in the MAC, according to 247Sports. 

The portal additions ultimately accounted for much of the production last year. 

On defense, the transfers accounted for 54.7% of the tackles for loss (40.5), 52.3% of the sacks (11.5) and 46% of the tackles (352). On offense, they made up 74.7% of the passing yards (1,355), 69% of the passing touchdowns (nine), 38.1% of the receiving yards (692), 31.9% of the receptions (53) and 27.3% of the rushing yards (509). 

What’s even more impressive is that George did not have an opportunity to add players during the first and main transfer portal window, which opened on Dec. 9 and closed on Dec. 28, way before he was hired on March 9. Instead, he had to do a lot of his work with the remnants of the initial entries and the players who entered during the shorter window from April 16-25. 

But retention is once again highlighted as a major issue for George, as seven of the 25 transfers from last season (28%) have entered the portal this year. 

As it currently stands, Bowling Green’s roster is nearly bare bones. 

Among players with returning eligibility who have not yet entered the portal and incoming freshmen, BG has just 75 of 105 possible players on the roster, including just seven starters across offense, defense and special teams. 

Sure, the incoming freshman class, which is ranked the best in the MAC by 247Sports, will help; however, success in this day and age of college football is not determined by recruiting classes, as much as coaches and the old guard will argue. College football success is won and lost in the transfer portal in 2026. 

George needs to hit a grand slam during this transfer portal window. 

If he does, the Falcons will have a chance to compete next season and will accelerate the “retweak and growth to the next level,” as George stated during his introductory press conference last March. 

If George does not find an immense amount of success in the portal, the program risks falling into another dark age and rebuild period, which Scot Loeffler worked so hard to bring the Falcons out of after the Mike Jinks debacle. 

While George has faced many challenges and big moments during his year at Bowling Green, succeeding at some and failing at others, this is the biggest and most consequential challenge and task that he has faced up to this point, and he needs to make sure he succeeds in order to build a winning program and avoid disaster.