Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Coach Lennon Signing Day press conference transcript
02/04/2015 | 12:00:00 | Football
Player Bios (PDF) | Signing Day Central
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Southern Illinois head football coach Dale Lennon met with the media on Wednesday to discuss Southern's 2015 football recruiting class. The class is comprised of 22 high school student-athletes and four mid-year transfers.
OPENING STATEMENT
I'm very excited about this signing class. Today, Saluki football got stronger, and a lot of hard work went into this class. One year ago, looking back to where we were at that point in time, we only had about half a staff in place at that time, and still had three positions to hire going into the off season. The coaching staff came together very well. David Elson was given the responsibility of recruiting coordinator, and he did an incredible job of putting together a plan of how we should recruit. We did some things differently than how we have done in the past - we got out sooner, we covered more areas. There was definitely a team effort within the staff to help throughout the recruiting process, and I think what you'll see today is the end result of all the hard work that the staff has put into this recruiting class.
Just to cover a couple things with the class, we had 22 signees today that would be the high school recruits currently coming in as freshmen, and we'll also introduce the four mid-year transfers that are currently on campus right now that will be competing for playing time this spring.
To start off, I'd like to go with the freshman class. This is a pretty interesting class. There's a lot of stories that go into recruiting, and with each one of these individuals, there's a story of how they ended up here.
Rondarian Bell
Rondarian is a very athletic outside linebacker out of American Heritage High School in Florida. He was a two-star recruit, listed as a top-40 player in south Florida, also plays basketball. If you watch his film, that's what we're looking for at the outside linebacker spot - that 6'3", 190-pound athletic type individual.
Parker Buenzli
Parker's a big boy; he's 6'4, 225. At one point in time he was in the mid-300s, so he's a big kid. We're excited to have Parker with us. He played both ways and we're actually going to start him on the defensive side and see how he does, and we can always move him over to the offensive side. But he's athletic - he plays basketball; he's very impressive. We met him in camp, and that's were he made his impression on us.
Cody Crider
Cody's another guy that was at our camp. He was a two-star recruit and a finalist for Mr. Football in Kentucky. He's one of those guys who right now we have him listed as inside linebacker, but offense wants him. He's good enough where he could go to either side. You talk to him and he says `Wherever you need me coach,' so you kind of like that attitude. We'll put him at the inside linebacker position because we do have some needs at that position.
Ernest Dye, Jr.
Ernest comes from Milton High School in Georgia, which plays at the top level of Georgia football. This is a very good well-established high school football program. He's also a two-star prospect and first team All-Region. His father, some of you may remember the name Ernest Dye, he did play in the NFL for six years and was a first-round draft pick out of South Carolina. He's a big man. His dad is about 6'7" and Ernest isn't at that level yet, but his dad said that he grew after he got out of high school too, so there are some interesting blood lines with Ernest.
Josh Haynes
Josh Haynes will be a kicker for us. Many of you are extremely familiar with Josh, and we're excited to have him. We've worked with him in the past at a lot of camps, and he has some talent. He's an individual we're signing on a scholarship to have a chance to be our kicker, and I don't think he had a field goal on the season, but he has a history of kicking and making big field goals. This is a kid that we think has a chance to compete next fall. So we're extremely excited about Josh joining us and I think he has a great future in front of him.
Tanner Hearn
Tanner Hearn is our quarterback that we signed, and Tanner, he was our first commit. He was the guy that kind of got it all going. He ended up being the type of quarterback you want. His numbers are extremely impressive. He was rated as the 25th-best prospect in central Florida. He has the numbers to back up his performance, but he also was pretty instrumental in us recruiting Florida. He knew everybody and made a point to get the word out there about Saluki football. So we're excited about Tanner.
Zack Ingle
If you're familiar with Kentucky football, Corbin High School has a strong tradition. This is a football-is-king type of school, and he's a big physical offensive lineman that's right in the mold that we're looking for. If you'll see here in the offensive line position, something we emphasized in recruiting this year was to find an offensive tackle-type lineman, so of the five lineman that we signed, four of them have that offensive tackle look to them. Actually, they can play other positions, but there was a little more emphasis put on that type individual.
Daquan Isom
Next is Daquan Isom, known as Ice. Ice is pretty special. This is an individual that was rated 56th All-Purpose Player in the nation. If you watch his film you'll go `wow.' He's a guy that's capable of doing a lot of different things. We're going to start him at the running back position and we expect him to be competing for playing time early.
Graham Lawrence
You look at this size - he definitely looks the part. He had a two-star ranking also. He was also ranked up there in the top-40 prospects in the state of Kentucky, so the accolades are there for him, and he's exactly what we're looking for at the offensive tackle position.
Torian Lewis
Corner was the other main area that we wanted to find and get that talented corner to do some of the things we wanted to do offensively. Torian was rated as the eighth-best corner back in state of Illinois. These are all just things to throw at you to show what the perception of what his abilities were. He also played a lot of offense. Here's a guy playing a good level of football doing both offense and defense, and he's extremely impressive to watch on film. Just the ability that he has from the corner position, plus we like the fact that he's in that 5'11" range.
Kamahl March
Kamahl is just like Rondarian. He's what we ant at the outside linebacker position. He's got a good frame, very athletic; when you see his highlight tape he's going to remind you of Jayson DiManche. He just has that type of play - very reckless. He set the school record for sacks and tackles. The thing I'm most impressed with about him is that he blocked 12 punts in his career, so that kind of shows you something special, his knack for the game. You don't see that stat very often. Plus, he's a track and baseball player.
Jacob Marnin
Jacob is probably the only offensive lineman that's a true guard, center-type for us. This individual is extremely interesting. He's the No. 1 All-State player, and he did everything you want to see him do on the field. But he's also currently the No. 2 ranked heavy-weight wrestler in the nation. So he has all the schools talking about wrestling, but he wants to play football. Also, this is something that doesn't happen very often in wrestling, but he was the triple crown winner in the USA wrestling which included the Greco, freestyle and the folkstyle combination. So that's pretty significant.
Michael Nero
Running back naturally was a concern for us, and I think we addressed our needs there with some high quality backs that could all come in and compete early on, and Michael is one of them. He had a big junior year, and had everybody on him coming out of his junior year. Unfortunately he had a knee injury in the first game of the season his senior ear and everything backed off on him. But we stayed on him and stayed with him. His recovery has been complete, and he showed us some workout film here on his recruiting visit, and we think he's pretty special .So Michael Nero is another individual that we think is going to be able to contribute to our run game.
Chris Perkins
Chris is from Carmel High School, near Indianapolis, which is a nationally recognized program. He comes for a program with a rich tradition, and he's a four-year starter. This is something that doesn't happen in this program. They won the 5A championship in 2011, and they were runner-up the last two years at the 6A level. The numbers speak for themselves. He's also a pretty impressive running back.
Airan Reed
Airan is an extremely versatile player. We're looking at the safety position, and he is talented. You watch his film and he's playing every position on the field, literally. On offense he was a running back, you see him at receiver, you see him making catches, you'll see him lined up as quarterback from time to time. Defensively, he's all over the field. Airan is very talented and we love his size and we love the way he plays the game.
Withney Simon
This guy has a unique story. He was rated the No. 16 prospect in central Florida, and his numbers on defense are incredible - 254 career tackles in just 21 games, so the stats are there. He has great instincts. His family is form Haiti. In fact when Coach Hill was in on the home visit, Withney had to do interpretations for his mom and dad just so they could understand what Coach Hill was saying. We're excited about Withney - he'll bring a lot to the program and he definitely knows how to play the game of football.
ShawnTrez Spates
ShawnTrez was also ranked as one of the best cornerbacks in the state of Illinois. He was a First-Team All-State player, and the numbers are there for him. He also played quarterback his senior year, so he's another one of those guys playing both sides of the ball. He's also a very good basketball player. This kid's athletic, what you're looking for a the cornerback position. Plus he has some great ball skills, so we're excited about ShawnTrez. He was also a guy that came to our camp and he has been able to get other guys into our camps and had a chance to connect with them and get them fired up about Saluki football as well.
Jake Summers
He's a big, physical defensive lineman. Again, he's an All-State player. His style of play is similar to Adam Brandt. You watch Adam play and then we're watching Jake's film, and that's the first guy that pops into our minds. He plays a physical game; it's an aggressive game. He plays very strong. There's a physical dominance out there. With his stats, you look at them and think those are pretty average numbers, but he was on a defense that had five shutouts over the course of the year, so when you're playing on a very strong defense, a lot of times you don't get defensive stats.
Nate Sylvester
Nate is another individual that was at our camp. He'll be a nose guard for us. We just like how he plays the middle. He's very athletic. Also you'll see that he plays basketball and track and field, so he's active on that end. What I'm impressed with as much as anything is he's also a three-time Academic All-State player for us, so we're excited about Nate joining the program.
Jake Varble
Here we have Jake at the tight end position, but he played quarterback all year long. He caught our eye when he was in our camp, and he was competing at the tight end and receiver positions and he caught everything we threw at him. So he's very athletic. You look down his bio and it's extremely impressive, but he was twice named All-State while playing three different positions, so it kind of shows you a little bit about his athleticism.
Julius Washington
Julius was highly recruited. He was a two-star recruit, had FBS-type offers, and had a lot of Missouri Valley Conference offers, so this was one that we were able to get in on and made a good impression and had him visit early. That was another thing we did differently this year, we had a lot of official visits during the season and that proved to be very beneficial to us. We were able to make those connections and then we were able to maintain that relationship through the course of the period and that's where Julius came in.
Michael Zeigler
Again, Michael is from a storied program and his record as a starter was 29-0, and they won two state championships. I think what's most impressive with Michael - and he is extremely athletic- but he led the defense in total tackles form the defensive line position, so that just tells you a little bit about his style of play. We've got him on the offensive line and we think he could be a good offensive tackle for us.
So those are the 22 high school signees that committed to us today. I think the breakdown, if you look at it, the numbers are very similar to what a football team looks like. The main focus offensively was the O-line and running back, and defensively we wanted emphasis on the linebacker positions and also in the secondary. Those areas were addressed too with our mid-year transfers.
Deondre Barnett and Andrew McCrea
Deondre Barnett is a transfer from Central Florida. He'll be competing for the outside linebacker position here this spring. Andrew McCrea is a defensive back, and he's very athletic. He'll be here competing is spring ball also. He's currently not enrolled, but will be enrolled here in a month.
Aaron Stanton
Aaron Stanton is a running back out of Ventura College, which is one of the top California junior colleges. He plays in the best California junior college conference that they have, and he was named Player of the Year at that level. We expect Aaron to be a strong contributor offensively for us and definitely pick up the slack in what we're losing in some for our talent at the running back position.
D'Eddric Williams
Then D'Eddric Willaims, he's a big, physical type of inside linebacker. Again we're looking to shore up the linebacker position, and we feel D'Eddric can help us.
Is it more probable to help your offensive line with a high school freshman or a redshirt freshman you have developed?
"That is to be determined. We want to get the best combinations out there. When we recruit an individual, I want them coming thinking that they are competing for playing time. They want to show us what they are capable of doing. If someone is capable of playing at a high level early, we will play them. These guys want to play right away. Some know that the redshirt year is the best for them, but a lot of them think that they are ready to go right now. If they are, they will get that opportunity."
How would you describe this class?
"I am excited about them, but they haven't played a play for us. The majority of these guys committed early. We were sitting at the beginning of mid December with 15 commits already. Our biggest fear was how do we keep these guys with us through the whole month of January. Because of that, I think we established a tighter relationship with them than we have had with previous recruiting classes. I think that there is a strong bond the exists with each of them right now. Hopefully that leads to more success down the road. This is a high quality group. We always look at who we are competing against to get them to commit to us. The competition was pretty stiff with these guys. We feel this is a talented group."
Did you meet your goal?
"There was one spot that we did not sign an individual and that was at receiver. Going in, we were only looking at one receiver spot. Some of these guy are athletic enough and are capable of moving over to the receiver position. We were looking for quality athletes more than anything else. The receivers we looked at, came down to the very end. It came down to us and and FBS school, and they chose the FBS school. We are ok with that. The talent is there and those are areas we can take care of."
Are you counting on some of these players playing as freshman?
"I would like to be able to. At the running back position when you bring transfers in, you only have them for a year or two and you are constantly looking. We talked as a staff and want to start early with these running backs if they are capable of playing. I think that they have talent that will allow them to be successful. With a recruit, we also check what they can do in the weight room. Some of these individuals are putting up extremely impressive numbers that are indicative of an upperclassman."
Was this a year where you recruited for a position?
"On the offensive line, we wanted a tall offensive tackle. The toughest position to recruit, and you can ask every program in the country is the tackle. We made it our focus to find those tackles. We wanted better depth on the offensive line and we think this is going to allow us to have the type of depth to be consistent up front."
Did you get most of the people that you expected?
"You always worry about a surprise. We were able to last week pretty much hold everyone in place. We had two situations where we had a decommits. They had decommitted to go to an upper level school. The talent that we got, we did a good job keeping our commits."
What do you expect from Josh Haynes as a kicker?
"This is a job that he is capable of doing. He did so much for the Herrin high school program. Kicking was kind of a side part. Now, he is going to be able to focus just on the kicking end. He has the leg strength. He is pretty polished. He is not a raw kicked coming in. He has a good sense of what he needs to accomplish as a kicker. That will be key for us. He was working with the other kickers and preparing himself. With the graduation of Thomas Kinney, Austin Johnson returns, the spot is open."
