MOBILE, Ala. – University of South Alabama head football coach Joey Jones announced Wednesday Tywun Walters has signed a National Letter-of-Intent and will join the program in the spring.

Walters spent the last two years at Northwest Mississippi C.C. and was part of a program that went 20-4 during that span.

"We felt like we needed a bigger running back," Jones said.  "Xavier [Johnson] is a great speed back, but we believed we needed some size and Tywun is a 215-pound running back.  We've been recruiting him for two years, he's a really good football player who is going to make our program better."

A 5-foot-11, 215-pound running back from Lambert, Miss., Walters rushed for 1,000 yards and a team-leading 12 touchdowns as NWMCC finished sixth in the final National Junior College Athletic Association rankings with a 9-3 overall record this year.  He was selected first-team all-Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges after posting three 100-yard games for the Rangers, including a career-high 147 yards in wins over Mississippi Delta C.C. — scoring three touchdowns in the contest — and 15th-ranked Holmes (Miss.) C.C., adding a 24-yard reception against the latter.  Walters also gained 131 yards and scored twice in a shutout victory over Coahoma (Miss.) C.C., and had 92 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the C.H.A.M.P.S. Heart of Texas Bowl against No. 4 Trinity Valley (Texas) C.C.

As a freshman in 2015, Walters posted 129 yards on 38 carries and returned four kicks for 108 more yards in five contests before suffering season-ending injury as the Rangers would go on to finish 11-1 and win the NJCAA national championship.  He was named the state 3A athlete of the year — receiving all-state and all-district accolades — at Palmer H.S. after recording 1,680 yards rushing as a senior before sitting out as a redshirt at Louisiana Tech during the 2014 campaign.

Walters will join a Jaguar program that is competing in a postseason bowl for the second time in the last three years.  USA will meet Air Force in the NOVA Home Loans Arizona Bowl on Friday, Dec. 30, with kickoff scheduled for 4:30 p.m. (CST) in Tucson.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

—USA—