Three former USF signees at East Mississippi

For the past few years, Pearl River Community College in Mississippi has been a feeder program of sorts for USF football, a school where signees who don't initially qualify can earn an associate of arts degree and potentially move on for two years as Bulls. This fall, USF will have a second Mississippi pipeline in place, with three former signees at East Mississippi Community College.

Three once-promising recruits will be on the EMCC roster this fall: defensive tackle Leslie Stirrups and defensive end Claude Davis, who were both at Pearl River last year, and linebacker Calvin Sutton. EMCC first-year coach Buddy Stephens, formerly Pearl River's offensive coordinator, said all three players were placed at his school by USF, so the expectation is that they'll be Bulls as soon as they get their AA.

Stirrups, perhaps the most highly touted member of USF's 2006 class, had problems with grades and criminal charges in 2006, but Stephens said he hasn't had a problem with him at EMCC.

"He sees the light at the end of the tunnel," Stephens said. "He's a South Florida commitment, and if he's done at Christmas, he's going to South Florida."

Davis, once a high school teammate of quarterback Matt Grothe, had problems at Pearl River, as Stephens said he had to drop out of school after being accused in an alleged campus burglary. Stephens said it was a case of mistaken identity, and charges against him were dropped this spring. He'll likely play the next two falls at EMCC, potentially landing at USF in spring 2010. "He's as good as anybody we've ever coached," Stephens said.

Sutton, a regular visitor at USF's practices last fall as he tried to get a qualifying test score, is likely going to redshirt at EMCC this fall, Stephens said, allowing him to get to USF in two years with three seasons of eligibility.

Stephens said he almost had a fourth player with USF connections, but he had no room for out-of-state offensive linemen. He said tackle Thomas Edenfield, who was off USF's roster this spring after academic problems, will likely play this fall at the College of the Sequoias in California.

For one reason or another, the early players from Pearl -- Gene Coleman, Donte Spires, Carlton Hill, Frank Harry -- didn't pan out for the Bulls. The Pearl River connection could still work out this fall with three players, linebacker Kion Wilson, defensive end Craig Marshall and cornerback Theo Wilson, expected to be on USF's roster.

-- One more where-are-they-now update: Dylan Douglas, the cornerback from Jacksonville who played on special teams as a redshirt freshman last fall but opted to transfer this spring, visited Division I-AA Georgia Southern this weekend. It's the leader out of a few schools he's considering for a transfer, along with Tennessee State and Jackson State. Douglas would have three years of eligibility at a I-AA school.

Comments

[Dave W]

Might as well get a whole bunch of comments out there. The PRCC thing has been really overhyped. Several guys have pointed out the lack of impact players and even problematic players that the school has sent us. Maybe that's why these guys are going to a new place. I'm not a Stirrups fan; I think his past behavioral problems need to always be on the back-burner when considering accepting him. He could be a beast, and DT is always a need spot, but I think that with a 2009 senior in Harris, and two juniors in Genus and McClain, that we should focus on high school DTs. Another JUCO DE would be good for 2009 with the likely loss of Selvie, but there are enough guys at that spot to absorb the loss.

I was really hoping that Sutton would make it. He'll still have a good career, but we needed him ASAP. As it stands this year, a big JUCO LB is really needed, especially if Kion doesn't pan out (which is a terrifying thought).

[BadAssBull]

Its a long summer and that Stirrups link reminded me that there hasn't been a USF football player arrest story for 8-9 months. Bootgate?

Of course Auman may only have a USF Athlete/ Hillsborough Sheriffs Department website cross referencing RSS feed that notifies him by e-mail when A Bull ends up in the back seat of a HSD cruiser. j/k

[nickdelray]

I would love nothing more than to see Sutton in a Bulls uniform.This kid is a real talent.
Good update Greg

[jarred]

I was flippin through Athlon magazine today and they have us ranked preseason number 20. Which I didnt think was too far off, but then they were going through our areas and said our offensive line would be very good because of our experience. I dont know if they really researched it or if they just saw a bunch of seniors and assumed they were good. All I know is we still need a lot in that area. They also had the usual Selvie all-american, Grothe is a poor man's Tebow, its gonna be tough to replace Jenkins and Williams, and all that stuff but overall gave us pretty high marks.

[G.A.]

BABull, let me know if you can rig an e-mail alert on that kind of thing. Would save me a lot of time checking police logs and such. I don't think there's been a football arrest since Woody George. If they can make it a full year, it'd be impressive, by the standards set in college football these days ...

[M.R. Bull]

I don't know if the Woody George "crime" was that serious. The parking Nazi's locked him up and he deided to take the tire lock mechanism off. Not smart to piss off the man but very funny.

[G.A.]

Agreed. If you go back, we wrote in the very first story that charges would likely be dropped if restitution was made, and that's what ended up happening.

[Mike Lakeland]

Parking enforcement fans, eh? You should check out "Parking Wars" on A&E. It's like a mix of "Airline" and "COPS" with a bit of urban colloquialisms mixed in to (pun intended) boot.