2014 South Alabama football recruiting class highlight video
Joey Jones press conference video
2014 South Alabama football recruiting class capsules

MOBILE, Ala. – Twenty-one individuals, including eight transfers, make up the 2014 University of South Alabama football recruiting class after 17 signed National Letters-of-Intent or grant-in-aid with the school on Wednesday.

The group will be joining a Jaguar program that posted a 6-6 overall mark last season to earn bowl eligibility in its initial season as an NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision member; that included finishing in a tie for third place in the Sun Belt Conference after going 4-3 in league action.

"We signed more defensive guys than offensive guys this year — we lost a lot last year on defense — with a major emphasis on the end, tackle and secondary positions," stated Jag head coach Joey Jones, who was selected the league's Coach of the Year in the fall.  "We had six or seven scholarships to give out to balance out the offense, and we signed a couple of kickers that we feel really good about.  Overall we hit every need we were targeting, we feel really good about this class."

The class includes four junior-college transfers who signed with the program in December — Braedon Bowman (Mesa, Ariz.), Jimmie Gipson III (Coldwater, Miss.), Nigel Green (Flowood, Miss.) and Demarius Rancifer (Pensacola, Fla.).

USA added a pair of teammates from North Dakota State College of Science on national signing day, Claude Garrett (Calumet City, Ill.) and Bryson Johnson (Champlin, Minn.).  The former was a first-team all-Midwest Football Conference selection in the fall after catching 53 passes for 772 yards and four touchdowns, while the latter earned second-team all-league honors following a season in which he posted 59 stops including 4½ behind the line of scrimmage.

Curtis Williams (Miami, Fla.) is an offensive lineman from ASA College, where was named second-team all-Northeast Football Conference last season after helping the Avengers to a 9-1 mark; in addition to finishing seventh in the final National Junior College Athletic Association poll, his efforts helped ASAC rank among the top 20 nationally in rushing, passing, total and scoring offense.  Also joining the program is placekicker Zac Henry (North East, Pa.), who as a sophomore at Westminster (Pa.) in 2011 scored 44 points, making all nine field-goal tries as well as 17 extra-point attempts.

The Jags' recruiting class included seven high school defensive backs, all of whom received a minimum of two stars from at least one national recruiting service.  Malcolm Buggs (Opelika, Ala.) and C.J. Johnson (Douglas, Ga.) were three-star recruits according to ESPN.com, with Buggs participating in the Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Game after posting 60 stops and five passes broken up at Opelika High and Johnson supplying 80 tackles and two interceptions for a Colquitt County HS squad that advanced to the semifinals of the state AAAAAA playoffs.

Marice Fluellen (Dothan, Ala.) finished with 47 tackles and intercepted a pair of passes as a senior at Northview HS, while Chris Wilkerson (Bessemer, Ala.) recorded 49 stops and broke up 11 passes while helping Bessemer City High finish 10-2 after advancing to the second round of the state 6A playoffs.  Darian Mills (Winter Haven, Fla.) was an all-county and all-district performer at Winter Haven High, where he led the Blue Devils to a 9-3 record and a first-round state 6A playoff win, and Jeremy Reaves (Pensacola, Fla.) was part of a Pensacola Catholic HS squad that ended the 2013 campaign 12-1 after reaching the quarterfinals of the state 5A playoffs.  And while Joshua Smith (Everett, Wash.) was an all-conference selection as a quarterback and defensive back at Cascade High as a senior, he played two years at Chiefland (Fla.) HS as well.

Defensively, the Jaguar recruiting class was rounded out with the addition of Caleb Butler (Enterprise, Ala.) and Chason Milner (Spanish Fort, Ala.).  Butler was credited with 108 tackles — including 5½ sacks — and 11 quarterback hurries last year to pick up first-team all-state honors after helping Enterprise High to a first-round 6A playoff victory, and Milner was part of back-to-back 5A state champions at Spanish Fort HS as the Toros posted a 30-1 mark during that stretch.

The Jaguars added two individuals up front on offense as well, Corbin Finlayson (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) and Noah Fisher (Decatur, Ga.).  The former was a three-year letterwinner at Palm Beach Gardens High, where the Gators qualified for postseason action each fall, with the latter named honorable mention all-state — as well as first-team all-region and all-county — after helping Decatur HS to a 7-3 mark his senior year.

Dallas Davis (Panama City, Fla.) was an honorable mention all-state quarterback at Rutherford HS after posting 3,765 yards of total offense and accounting for 40 touchdowns last fall, and Corliss Waitman (Milton, Fla.) picked up first-team all-state and all-area honors his final year at Milton High, averaging 44 yards per punt while connecting on 8-of-10 field goals and 15-of-16 extra-point attempts.

"We don't really worry about what others do, we trust our evaluations and feel we do a good job with them; that's why our program is where it is at such an early stage," Jones observed.  "In the past we've tried to find some guys who are underneath the radar, so to speak, but guys who can play.  We take pride in how we evaluate guys and go through a lengthy process to do so, so we try to get the very best players we can get.

"We think we have some really good players, but until they put the pads on in August and play against the guys who have been here four or five years we really don't know who will play immediately."

The Jaguars' 2014 schedule will be announced officially in early March.

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).

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