National Signing Day Recap: 15 Coast Players Sign with Division I Institutions

The day after National Signing Day is a lot like a championship hangover where in some ways it feels like it’s time to move on and yet there’s still so much left to celebrate, except in this case that celebration is just an extra day to put it all in perspective.
Yesterday the Gulf Coast saw 15 football players sign with Division I schools and that’s not even including a preferred walk-on at Southern Miss as well as three other guys that previously signed DI in the fall.
Leading the pack was St. Stanislaus with four high profile signees, Myles Brennan being the headliner to sign with LSU. In any other case, Purdue, Air Force, or ULL could have easily been the lead.
USM pulled in quite a haul from the 228, signing three guys straight out of high school and two more from the JUCO ranks. For the ones we got a chance to chat with yesterday, they say the decision to go Black and Gold was the obvious choice.
Southern Miss Coach Jay Hopson said, “Tyler Barnes, another Coast guy, just fired up. Tim Jones, just fired up. Guys that are Southern Miss guys and I just love being around.”
D’Iberville safety Tyler Barnes said, “When I got that offer, it was a no-brainer. I just immediately wanted to play for them. I wanted to be an Eagle since I was young, and it was great”
Biloxi wide receiver Tim Jones said, “”For me, it was pretty much really easy cause I like it cause it’s really close to home. I’ve been up there a couple times and visited around and stuff and been to a couple games and I just like everything about their school, all the coaches and everything like that.”
Biloxi offensive lineman Ethan Myers said, “It just seemed right to me. I went out on the field and asked myself if I could see myself playing there, and I said yeah.”
The five Coast players signed by Southern Miss for the class of ’17 are the most since Damion Fletcher’s class in 2006.