MOBILE, Ala. — South Alabama football received national letters of intent from six junior college transfers Wednesday, the first day junior college players were allowed to sign.
Running backs Jay Jones and Cristobal Dinham, cornerback Montell Garner, linebacker Desmond LaVelle and twin defensive backs Steven and Steffon Fuller signed with the Jaguars. All six will enroll at South Alabama in January and will be eligible for spring practice.
Jones: ‘We Have Upgraded Our Team’
“Any time you sign junior college kids, you want to upgrade your starting lineup. Not that these young men will be given a starting job, but when you sign a junior college student-athlete you anticipate that they can come in and start,” head coach Joey Jones said.
“We’ve got a couple of safeties that we feel really good about — they are real good athletes who had a ton of offers — who will help us fill the void losing B.J. Scott, and a tall cornerback,” Jones said. “We also signed two running backs because we had a lot of depth issues with injuries there in the fall. You can’t have enough good running backs.”
“I think we have upgraded our team for sure,” Jones said.
Running Backs
Jay Jones, a 5-foot-9, 180-pound running back from Horn Lake, Miss., transfers from Northwest Mississippi Community College. He rushed for 504 yards and three touchdowns, ranking among the top 50 rushers nationally, and caught 11 passes for 150 yards and a touchdown, including a 51-yard reception.
Jones opened the season with 83 rushing yards and a touchdown plus 23 receiving yards on three catches against Copiah-Lincoln Community College. He followed with a season-high 157 yards on 29 carries in a win at Jones County Community College and then ran for 126 yards and a touchdown against Holmes Community College.
Cristobal Dinham, a 5-foot-10, 210-pound running back from Lithonia, Ga., transfers from Independence Community College in Kansas. He ranked fifth in the NJCAA at 126.5 rushing yards per game and finished with 1,012 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Dinham topped 100 yards in five of his eight games. He ran 30 times for 276 yards in a season-ending win over Highland Community College and tied a school record with four touchdowns while rushing for 176 yards against Dodge City Community College. He also had back-to-back games of 157 and 110 rushing yards in wins.
Secondary
Montell Garner, a 6-foot-1, 185-pound cornerback originally from Colleyville, Texas, transfers from Navarro College. He had eight pass breakups, tied for fifth in the Southwest Junior College Football Conference, along with 23 tackles and an interception. Navarro finished 10-2 and ranked fourth in the NJCAA poll.
Garner had 10 tackles in a 42-14 win over nationally ranked Kilgore College and recorded seven tackles, three passes defended and an interception in a win over Blinn College.
Steffon Fuller and Steven Fuller are twins from Scooba, Miss., who attended Kemper County High School and East Central Community College in Mississippi.
Steffon Fuller, a 6-foot-4, 205-pound safety, recorded 54 tackles and four pass breakups last season and was named first-team All-State by the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges. He had eight tackles in three of East Central’s nine games, including against nationally ranked East Mississippi Community College.
Steven Fuller, 6-foot-4 and 200 pounds, played in the secondary, at wide receiver and on special teams. On defense he had 20 tackles, three for loss, two pass defenses and a blocked kick. On offense he caught seven passes for 95 yards and recorded 13 pancake blocks on running plays.
Linebacker
Desmond LaVelle, a 5-foot-11, 230-pound linebacker from Decatur, Ala., transfers from Northwest Mississippi Community College. He tied for fourth on the team with 53 tackles, including 4.5 for loss, and added two fumble recoveries, an interception and a pass defended while earning first-team all-conference honors.
Northwest Mississippi finished 8-2 and ninth in the final NJCAA rankings, with a defense that ranked 14th nationally at 316.6 yards allowed per game. As a freshman in 2011, LaVelle had 25 tackles, two for loss, an interception and a fumble recovery.
Signing Period
Junior college transfers may sign national letters of intent through Jan. 15. South Alabama recently completed its 2012 season, the second and final year of its transition to the Football Bowl Subdivision, and will be eligible for the Sun Belt Conference title and bowl play beginning next season.
