After their most successful season since 1971, the Memphis Tigers football team began laying the groundwork for next season with the announcement of 30 new signees on National Singing Day.
The national letters of intent rolled in from 8:30 a.m. to about noon to add to the players to transfer players and early signees coach Justin Fuente already signed.
According to rivals.com, the Tigers have the no.79 ranked class in the country and according to scout.com the no.88 class, which would make this Fuente’s best signing class yet.
Fuente said at his National Signing Day press conference he was very excited about his new class and that the offensive line and skill positions are much more balanced now than they were in previous seasons.
“I’m excited about the signing class obviously,” Fuente said. “From the offensive standpoint we finally got at least our offensive line numbers balanced out in terms of seniors, juniors, and sophomores our numbers are back up there and in a much healthier situation. We still have a lot of development to go there. We needed to make a big charge in our skill position areas. Offensively, we have been way under numbers there, and this class boosted those numbers up and leveled things out a bit there.”
Leading the class for the Tigers, is four-star recruit receiver Jae’Lon Oglesby. He is a freshman transfer from Fork Union Military Academy. As a senior at D.W. Daniel High School in Central, South Carolina, he rushed for over 2,176 yards and 28 touchdowns as well as catching 38 passes for 557 yards and six touchdowns out of the backfield and helped lead his team to a 14-1 record and a trip to the state title game. Oglesby has already enrolled at the University of Memphis for the spring semester.
Fuente said once Oglesby knew his time at Fork Union wasn’t going to workout both parties became interested in the chance to work together.
“At the risk of delving too much into his personal life, Jae’Lon (Oglesby) signed with Clemson,” Fuente said. “He’s from right there. I have some good people that I know at Clemson, through just coming together over the past however many years. He went to prep school and then for whatever reason it wasn’t going to work out for him coming back. We got a phone call and went out there to investigate it and go through all of our leg work. It was something that Jae’Lon was interested in and something that we were interested in. It just kind of worked out.”
Apart from Oglesby, the Tigers added to their stable of running backs with the addition of the two Hendersons, Darrell and Jamarius both of whom are three-stars recruits, according to scouts.com. Darrell who is from South Panola High School in Batesville, Mississippi, was named the 2014 Gatorade Football Player of the Year for the state of Mississippi by USA Today High School Sports and rushed for 2,253 yards and 32 touchdowns as a senior leading South Panola to the State Championship.
Jamarius who is from Dale County High School in Ozark, Alabama also set incredible rushing records as he set the Alabama single-state season record, rushing for 3,483 yards and 48 touchdowns, three away from the state record.
Fuente said he was happy because having a good running game makes the game easier for everyone else.
"I'm pretty excited about it," Fuente said. "Obviously, we want to run the football. I think it all centers around running the football. It helps your defense play better. It helps your quarterback play better. It helps your offense play better. It's just a huge part of what we're trying to do. They are hard-working kids that are anxious to be Tigers."
Another new Tiger who will hope to make an immediate impact on the offensive line is senior transfer Ryan Mack. Mack who played in Memphis in high school is transferring from Louisville and started the Cardinals’ first seven games at right tackle last season and started 19 games overall in his time at Louisville.
It is on the defense however that Memphis will have to do the most rebuilding. The Tigers lost eight starters from last year’s 10-3 team to graduation but Fuente said that regardless of the planning ahead for this day that they still needed to find a good group of front seven guys in the class and he felt they accomplished that.
“Defensively, obviously we have graduated eight senior starters and three senior backups, so 11 guys in the two-deep,” Fuente said. “We have been trying the best we can to plan for this day ahead of time. Regardless of how it worked out, we were still going to need to sign a good group of front seven players in this class. That’s what we did. Guys are going to have opportunities to play early as everybody will, but just from a numbers standpoint, they will be in the two-deep rather quickly.”
Leading the way among those who will be competing for those front seven spots are
three-star recruits defensive lineman Jared Gentry and Michael Edwards. Gentry who is from Opelika High School in Opelika, Alabama, helped the Bulldogs claim their first regional title in seven years. Edwards is a junior college transfer from Iowa Western Community College. As a sophomore, he registered 10.5 sacks in 12 games and helped lead Iowa Western to an 11-1 record.
Fuente also brought in several players from the Memphis area. A couple of those players being Tony Pollard who is officially listed as an athlete and played at Melrose High School, defensive end Peyton Jones from Memphis University School and long snapper Tim Belles from Germantown High School.
Fuente mentioned how proud he was of the regional diversity class as well as the recruitment in Memphis.
“I’m proud of the kind of regional diversity we have in this class,” Fuente said. “Obviously, we want to do a great job here locally. We’re basically recruiting throughout the southeast part of the United States. I think some of our work in Alabama paid dividends this year along with some of our local work.”
However, he said that the new Tigers still need a lot of development and that those who handle the transition to the U of M better will determine how much playing time they get early on.
“They all have a lot of work to do. That step is a big step,” Fuente said.
“Some of the junior college kids here that are mid-term guys and high school kids that are mid-term guys, their eyes have been opened. How those guys handle that transition, will determine how ready they are to play early. Until we get them on campus and see how they learn and see how are they are physically will determine how it’s all going to play out.”
