Mississippi State Signs All 21 Commits In Early Period

STARKVILLE, Miss. (MSU Athletics) – Head football coach Joe Moorhead and his Mississippi State program entered Wednesday morning with 21 commitments for the 2020 early signing period and finished the day with 22 signees as he and the Bulldogs landed their third-consecutive top-25 class.

State’s #MoorDawgs20 class is ranked as high as No. 21 by ESPN and No. 25 by both 247Sports and Rivals. The complete class was unveiled on HailState.com/MoorDawgs20 throughout the day.

“I think that’s important that we dominate our state, and I think we’ve done a very good job making sure that the message that we sent – that we want to keep the top talent at home where it’s not like a place where a kid’s born in the state and he has a talent, but the expectation level is that he goes out-of-state and goes somewhere else,” Moorhead said. “That’s been part of my philosophy here, that we have to do whatever we can to keep the best players in the state of Mississippi home and turn this into a place where kids don’t have to go other places.”

#MoorDawgs20 Hometown Breakdown

Mississippi: 14

Louisiana: 2

Alabama: 1

Arizona: 1

Australia: 1

Georgia: 1

South Carolina: 1

Tennessee: 1

#MoorDawgs20 Position Breakdown

Defense: 11

Offense: 9

ATH: 1

Special Teams: 1

DL: 5 – DE Jevon Banks (Olive Branch, Miss./Olive Branch), DE Jordan Davis (Memphis, Tenn./Copiah-Lincoln [Miss.] CC), DE Tre Lawson (North Augusta, S.C./Mississippi Gulf Coast CC), DT Armondous Cooley (Shubuta, Miss./Wayne County), DT Ben Key (Cranbourne, Australia/East Los Angeles College)

DB: 4 – CB Emmanuel Forbes (Grenada, Miss./Grenada), CB Javorrius Selmon (Jackson, Miss./Provine), S Janari Dean (Batesville, Miss./South Panola), S Cam Threatt (Lewisburg, Miss./Lewisburg)

OL: 2 – OT Grant Jackson (Brookhaven, Miss./West Lincoln), OT Calvin McMillian (Houston, Miss./Houston)

LB: 2 – LB Rodney Groce Jr. (Pleasant Grove, Ala./Pleasant Grove), LB Tyrus Wheat (Amite, La./Copiah-Lincoln [Miss.] CC)

WR: 4 – WR Caleb Ducking (Rolling Fork, Miss./Holmes [Miss.] CC), WR Lideatrick Griffin (Philadelphia, Miss./Philadelphia), WR Malik Heath (Jackson, Miss./Copiah-Lincoln [Miss.] CC), WR Jaden Walley (D’Iberville, Miss./D’Iberville)

RB: 2 – RB Dillon Johnson (Greenville, Miss./Saint Joseph), RB Jo’quavious Marks (Atlanta, Ga./Carver)  

QB: 1 – QB Will Rogers (Brandon, Miss./Brandon)

ATH: 1 – ATH Decamerion Richardson (Bossier City, La./Bossier)

K: 1 – K Brandon Ruiz (Tempe, Ariz./Arizona State)

The Bulldogs’ class is highlighted by four-star prospects Marks, Forbes, Griffin, Davis and Heath.

Marks is a top-15 running back nationally. He, Forbes and Griffin are among ESPN’s top 300 prospects overall for 2020, while Davis and Heath are considered two of the best junior college prospects in the country.

Forbes, Griffin, Johnson, Threatt, Walley, Dean, Cooley, Selmon, Banks, Rogers and McMillian are 11 of the top-30 players in Mississippi according to 247Sports.