Vicksburg High is fertile ground for recruiters

Published 9:02 am Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Vicksburg High football coach Marcus Rogers led his team to the playoffs last season. Now he’s leading his seniors toward the light of college football as his players will announce on Wednesday which colleges they plan to attend.

On Sundays during the season, Rogers compiled each player’s highlights from the week into a reel and then send those films to 120 coaches every three weeks.

“I’m happy to be a part of it. If you’ve never been a part of the process it’s very difficult,” Rogers said. “What I’m in the process of doing now is explaining to parents the numbers game. Some kids will de-commit, some kids will ultimately not make it because of state tests and some kids won’t play. You just have to be patient.”

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As many as a dozen Gators are expected to sign, but not all of them will do it Wednesday on national signing day. Wide receiver Te’Darious Brown is one of the players who will wait, Rogers said.

Brown was a Mississippi All-Star and Class 5A All-State selection who caught 70 passes for 1,006 yards and nine touchdowns this season. He finished his high school career with a Warren County record 123 receptions.

Rogers said Brown had interest from junior colleges and Jackson State, as well as Football Bowl Subdivision teams Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Southern Illinois, Tulane and Georgia Tech, but the numbers game caught up to him. Rogers said Brown will wait to see what offers solidify before signing.

“It’s not a process of where you want to jump into something. Wednesday is signing day but it’s the first day of signing,” Rogers said. “Let’s see how things fall and how things pan out on Wednesday.”

Offensive lineman Torrey Price has met with Copiah-Lincoln Community College, Mississippi Delta Community College and Coahoma Community College.

2015 Vicksburg Post Playmaker cover winner Antonio “T.O.” Brown, the team’s leading tackler, received an offer from Lane College to play linebacker. Long snapper Zach Coomes and left tackle DeShun Younger will sign with Belhaven on Wednesday morning. Younger will sign as a defensive end.

Wide receiver Brandon King will be an early enrollee at Mississippi Delta.

Another Antonio Brown, defensive lineman Antonio D. Brown, is in a unique situation.

“Antonio Brown, he’s a junior kid and he wore No. 30 for me as a defensive lineman. He’s an 11th grader on the books but he’ll be too old to play next year,” Rogers said. “He’s going to get his diploma and enroll in Holmes Community College. That’ll give us 11 kids altogether that’s going to sign. Wednesday we may have six or seven.”

During this process, Rogers has asked his players what schools they want to attend, then he’d get them information for one-day camps and nudge them to participate in those for notoriety.

“That’s the only way you’re going to get noticed by those big schools. Your biggest deal is to get to the one-day camps,” Rogers said.

Next, he told his players to see how many active players from the power five conferences are from Vicksburg and look at the size of active players. Even though not everyone is cut out to play Division I football, he said, there are still plenty of opportunities out there to use the sport to get an education.

“I try to school them on that and be realistic. Everybody’s not going to be a professional football player, but at the end of the day you can still get a college degree, get your education and be productive in today’s society,” Rogers said.