MOBILE, Ala. – University of South Alabama head football coach Joey Jones announced Wednesday that two junior-college transfers from schools in Mississippi, Kennedy Helms and Gabe Loper, have signed National Letters-of-Intent and will join the program in the spring of 2011.
Helms, a 6-foot-3, 240-pound tight end from Gulfport, Miss., is the younger brother of current Jaguar Kevin Helms — who will be a senior next season — while Loper hails from Decatur, Miss., and is a 6-foot-3, 185-pound defensive back.
Helms was part of a Mississippi Gulf Coast C.C. program that has won 19 games the last two seasons and finished in the top 10 of the final National Junior College Athletic Association poll each fall. He caught a pair of touchdown passes in 2010, helping the Bulldogs record a 10-2 overall mark, win the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges (MACJC) championship and defeat No. 3 Grand Rapids (Mich.) C.C. 62-53 in the Mississippi Bowl. MGCCC was third in the final national rankings released at the beginning of the month, as both of their losses were by a field goal including one that came in overtime.
As a freshman, Helms helped the Bulldogs to a final record of 9-3 as they finished eighth in the final NJCAA poll after participating in the C.H.A.M.P.S. Heart of Texas Bowl. He was a three-year letterwinner at Gulfport High.
“Kennedy is a very good blocking tight end, he has a lot of toughness to him,” said Jones. “We really need him to come in and learn the system to show us what he can do. He has a lot of talent, though, so we’re looking for great things out of him.”
Loper earned second-team all-MACJC accolades at East Central (Miss.) C.C. this fall after posting 39 total tackles (28 unassisted) and breaking up three passes. That included a career-best 10 stops against Itawamba (Miss.) C.C. in the opening month of the season, as well as seven tackles — all solo — at nationally ranked Northwest Mississippi C.C. the previous week. Loper was also credited with six tackles in contests against Southwest Mississippi C.C. and Pearl River (Miss.) C.C.
He made 30 tackles overall, with 22 of those unassisted, to go along with two interceptions his freshman season for the Warriors. Loper’s season-high total in the fall of ’09 was eight stops (seven solo) against Pearl River in the finale, and he collected six tackles against MGCCC as well. Loper earned second-team all-state and all-district honors at Newton County H.S during his prep career.
“Gabe is someone who can play both corner and safety in the secondary; we’re going to start him at safety,” Jones observed. “He has good range, but the cover skills to be able to handle man-to-man schemes. We feel like we got a really good player in Gabe.”
USA, which has won all 17 of its contests the program’s first two years on the field, will begin a two-year transition to the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly I-A) level in 2011. The first contest in the fall is a Thursday, Sept. 1 matchup against West Alabama to be played at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile.
For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).
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