MOBILE, Ala. – The foundation of the University of South Alabama's 2022 recruiting class includes a mix of four-year and junior-college transfers along with high school prospects after head coach Kane Wommack announced that 15 individuals signed National Letters-of-Intent or grants-in-aid with the program on Wednesday.

Eight members of the group will enroll in school in January and practice in the spring with the Jaguars, including D.K. Bonhomme (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada), Carter Bradley (Jacksonville, Fla.), Chrystyile Caldwell (Elba, Ala.), Kenton Jerido (Tuscaloosa, Ala.), C.J. Person (Montgomery, Ala.), Marquise Robinson (Crosby, Miss.), DaMarcus Thomas (Whatley, Ala.) and La'Damian Webb (Opelika, Ala.).  Additional high school recruits Malachi Carney (Pleasant Grove, Ala.), C.J. Davis (Watson, La.), Ricky Fletcher (Lexington, Miss.), Khalil Jacobs (Niceville, Fla.), Braylon McReynolds (Mobile, Ala.), Caeleb Schlachter (Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada) and Tremel States-Jones (Surrey, British Columbia, Canada) will join South prior to the start of preseason drills.

"We're moving in the right direction, we've certainly added some great pieces to the puzzle, but with the early signing period and all the things that go with the transfer portal recruiting is not going to stop today," Wommack said.  "When you operate in this landscape, at the end of the day you have to do what's right for your program but you have to do right for the young men around you.  From our perspective, we want to make sure that we do things a certain way here; I feel like we have done right by these young men who are coming into the program and are excited to be a part of something that we are building.

2021-22 South Alabama football recruiting class bios

"I want people to be excited about what we are doing and the young men that we've brought into this program, yet understand that recruiting is an ongoing process — particularly for this class — and there will be guys we sign and add to the puzzle in January and a few more who we add to the puzzle in May.  The product will show itself once the season starts, but this is certainly a great start today."

Bradley has thrown for nearly 2,500 yards the last four years at Toledo, including ranking among the top 10 in the Mid-American Conference with a 164.1 pass efficiency rating and 212.3 passing yards per game at the end of the 2020 season.  Bonhomme and Person were teammates at Indiana for three seasons, with the former posting a high of 15 tackles highlighted by two for loss in 2020 and the latter selected the Hoosiers' Defensive Newcomer of the Year that fall.  Over the last two years, Thomas has appeared in 11 games at Ole Miss as the Rebels won the Outback Bowl last season before posting a 10-2 overall mark in 2021.

In his only season at Southwest Mississippi C.C., Robinson — who is rated among the top-10 junior-college cornerbacks in the nation — posted 34 tackles, an interception and an additional pair of passes broken up.  Webb currently leads the National Junior College Athletic Association with just under 140 rushing yards per outing as he earned first-team all-Mississippi Association of Community Colleges Conference honors after finishing with 1,399 yards and 14 scores for an 8-2 Jones (Miss.) College squad.

Caldwell has recorded 218 stops, including 44 behind the line of scrimmage with 12 sacks, the last three years at Elba High, with Jerido considered a three-star prospect on the offensive line by both 247Sports.com and ESPN.com after helping lead Northridge H.S. to back-to-back appearances in the state 6A playoffs.

Carney, who was part of a Pleasant Grove High squad advanced to the championship game of the state 5A playoffs his only two seasons on the varsity, also earned three stars as an offensive line recruit from 247Sports.com.  Davis caught 28 passes for 415 yards and five scores to be named first-team all-parish and all-district for the second year in a row after helping Live Oak High reach the state 5A playoffs for the second straight fall, while McReynolds rushed for 1,980 yards and scored 26 touchdowns last season for a McGill-Toolen Catholic H.S. team that advanced to the second round of the state 6A playoffs.

As a senior at Holmes Country Central H.S., Fletcher finished with 47 stops and five passes broken up after helping the Jaguars qualify for the state 5A playoffs, and Jacobs was credited with 60 tackles — highlighted by 17 for a loss — as a senior in leading Niceville High to a 10-2 overall mark following a first-round victory in the state 7A playoffs.

Schlachter and States-Jones teamed up to help Clearwater (Fla.) Academy International go 10-2 this fall on the way to earning the Sunshine State Independent Association title.  Schlachter hauled in 15 receptions for 307 yards and three touchdowns, with States-Jones supplying 34 tackles, five passes broken up and an interception for the Knights.

"We did a great job of evaluating these high school players, every person who committed we saw in the summer, we did a position meeting with them, we made them regurgitate that information back to us, we checked their character and their grades," said Wommack.  "We know exactly what we are going to get from these young men."

The Jaguars concluded the 2021 campaign — the program's first under the direction of Wommack — with five victories, South's highest win total in five seasons.

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

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