In the reference room of Vicksburg High’s library on Thursday sat Paul Wilson, Te’Darious Brown, Timothy Jackson and DeShun Younger. The teammates joked about the upcoming football games between Copiah-Lincoln, Hinds and Mississippi Delta Community Colleges as they became rivals.

The quartet sealed the deal on playing collegiate football by becoming the latest members of Vicksburg’s 2016 signing class.

Jackson, a running back, will follow his best friend and teammate Roderick Williams to Arkansas Baptist College. The rest of the Gators will remain closer to home. Brown will take his talents to Hinds, Wilson is headed to Copiah-Lincoln and Younger is on the move to Millsaps College.

The Gators have eight players who have received scholarships or accepted offers to play. Millsaps is an NCAA Division III school that does not offer athletic scholarships.

“I feel like it’s a new start and I’m ready to take the adventure,” Wilson said.

“I feel pretty good,” Brown said. “That’s kind of where I wanted to play anyway and take advantage of being re-recruited and going to a real school.”

Putting pen to paper for Wilson, Brown and Jackson was the birth of a second chance at college football.

The stature of these players — the defensive back Wilson is 5-foot-9 and 180 pounds; wide receiver Brown is 5-8 and 180 pounds; and running back Jackson is 5-6 and 170 pounds — were reasons schools turned their cheeks on offers, however they all found the silver lining in the recruitment cloud.

“They gave me a second chance,” Wilson said, with Brown and Jackson sharing his sentiments. “All the schools backed out on me because of my size. They were the school that made me feel like I was the one.”

While the quartet didn’t get a chance to participate in the national signing day extravaganza earlier this month, they patiently waited their turn and luck turned in their favor.

Wilson, who was a four-year starter at cornerback for the Gators, ventured to Copiah-Lincoln for a workout two weeks ago. His performance led to a scholarship offer, on the spot, to play for one of the top junior college teams in the country. Co-Lin spent a month ranked No. 1 in the NJCAA national poll last season.

Brown also visited Hinds two weeks ago with coach Marcus Rogers to talk with the coaches and walked away with an offer.

Jackson’s fate came at the unfortunate expense of another on Monday. Rogers received a phone call from Arkansas Baptist’s staff asking if he had a running back and mentioned Jackson.

“I really didn’t go on any visit, but coach (Rogers) sent them my film and said they needed another running back so they offered me Monday,” Jackson said.

Younger’s older brother, Casey, was an all-conference defensive tackle for Millsaps in the mid-2000s. The younger Younger took his recruiting trip in late January but made his decision two weeks ago.

“I already knew since probably the middle of my junior year I was going to more than likely go Division III,” Younger said. “But I wasn’t sure which school until a couple of weeks ago. I stuck with Millsaps because it felt like home and I’m already accustomed to it.”

Rogers has been a pivotal part in getting his seniors into college to become productive citizens. He’s expressed to parents his passion of helping his players become better men and has stressed the importance of furthering their education.

Out of 19 seniors on this year’s team, eight are in a position to continue playing football and get a degree without much cost to their parents.

“He’s a man of his word,” Younger said. “It’s pretty great that he tells everybody that he’s going to get everybody in school.”

Wilson was also thankful for his coach’s help.

“That dude, he’s amazing,” Wilson said. “He’s been through a lot with us. We’ve been through so much from the summer, to the season until now. I’ve never seen a man put all his work into the kids like he should.”