The Bowling Green football team has bolstered its defense with the addition of a highly-touted transfer.

Justice Dingle, a 6-foot-2, 230-pound junior linebacker who played for Oakland High School in Murfreesboro, Tenn., has joined the Purples and will be eligible to play this season. Dingle has moved to the area with his family after his father got a job in this area.  

Dingle already has offers from several Division I schools including Kentucky, Louisville, Middle Tennessee and LSU.

“From a personal standpoint, I think this is a really difficult transition for him to make,” Bowling Green football coach Kevin Wallace said. “I don’t think the timing of it was real good for him or his family. It forced them to make some difficult decisions. He’d been playing in an exceptional program in Oakland. It’s hard on a young man, especially to leave after you have already begun practice.

“I think how he has handled coming in and trying to be part of our football team, I have a lot of respect for because I realize how difficult this transition is. I think with every day that goes by he will be a little more comfortable about playing at Bowling Green and being around our players and our coaches.”

Dingle, who also played tight end at Oakland, joins a Bowling Green team that is coming off a fourth 5A state title in five years. He’s expected to bolster a defense that allowed 12.5 points a game last season.

“He’s really a quality student, a quality young man and obviously has a lot of football talent,” Wallace said. “We haven’t got a real idea of that. He hasn’t been practicing long. We can look at his tapes from his days at Oakland and understand what an outstanding player he is. It’s a learning curve right now, but not necessarily understanding how to play. He knows how to play. He’s having to learn a foreign language (a new system). If we can get him to where all he has to do is play and not think, he is a superior talent. That is our job as coaches, to get him there.”

– Follow sports reporter Micheal Compton on Twitter @mcompton428 or visit bgdailynews.com.