VALDOSTA — Valdosta State head football coach David Dean announced the addition of three players to the Blazer squad Monday.
Two of the new players will compete for the starting quarterback position with the Blazers as former Indiana quarterback Kellen Lewis and El Camino College’s Jimmy Coy have signed scholarships to join VSU when camp opens in August.
Lewis, a rising senior, is one of the most prolific quarterbacks in the history of the Indiana program. The Jacksonville, Fla., native passed for 6,395 yards in his three seasons with the Hoosiers, the third-most yards in school history, while also tossing a school-record 49 touchdowns. He also rushed for 1,677 yards and 17 touchdowns while earning Big Ten Player of the Week honors on four occasions during his career. A second-team All-Big Ten honoree as a sophomore, Lewis holds 16 major passing records at Indiana.
Coy led El Camino to a 10-2 record and a semifinal appearance in the Southern California State Junior College Playoffs in 2008. The rising junior completed 188-of-295 passes on the season and threw 14 touchdowns against just three interceptions. He completed 63.7 percent of his passes on the year and owned a 155.8 passer rating while also rushing for 59 yards and three scores on the year.
Lewis and Coy add depth to a quarterback position that has been decimated by departures and injuries since the end of the 2008 season. The duo will compete for the starting job with rising junior Russ Callaway, who had assumed the starting job during spring practice before tearing his ACL two practices before the Blazers’ annual spring game. Additional candidates for the starting job will include rising junior Ronnye Nelson, who came to VSU as a quarterback before playing running back the last two seasons, red-shirt freshman Austen Roberts and true freshmen Stephen Warren and Brett Whitmire.
The final addition to the roster adds is defensive tackle Tommie Duhart. Duhart saw action in 19 games over the course of the last two seasons at Pittsburg, including three starts. He registered 27 tackles, including five for loss, two forced fumbles, a pass broken up and two blocked kicks during his two seasons with the Panthers.
He joined Pitt from Coffeyville Community College, where he was an All-Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference performer and was rated as the No. 26 JUCO prospect in the nation.
“We are excited to have these young men join our program,” Dean said. “Jimmy and Lewis will both compete for our open starting position. Both of them fit in perfectly with the system that we run and bring a lot of athleticism to our squad.”
“Tommie is a big, athletic presence on the defensive line,” Dean concluded. “He has the athleticism to do a lot of things out on the field and is very strong. Tommie has already enrolled in school and has been working out with members of our team. We have been very impressed with his work ethic and look forward to having him join our defensive unit.”
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