Nicholls unveils football signing class

Nicholls State University doesn’t have many football scholarships to give this spring.

But the Colonels are making good use of what little they have this recruiting season.

Nicholls announced seven signees on last Wednesday’s early signing period – the first-ever early signing period in the history of college football.

Colonels coach Tim Rebowe said the team has only about 12 available spots because they didn’t lose many players off 2017’s postseason team.

The coach said the early signing period provided a little bit of unknown anxiety, but all-in-all, the team got better, which is the only thing that matters.

“We had a lot of questions – how’s it going to go? How many are we going to sign? I didn’t know. We were going to try and sign as many as we could, but we didn’t know exactly what it was going to be. We ended up signing seven and they’re good football players. It was a really good day for us.”

Offense is where the Colonels added the most to their roster.

The Colonels added two offensive linemen, a tight end, a receiver and a halfback to a core that is expected to be solid already with the return of quarterback Chase Fourcade and a slew of other playmakers.

Up front, Nicholls signed JUCO lineman Tyrin Arceneaux, a St. Charles Catholic graduate who was originally a Colonels’ commit out of high school, but who went to junior college.

The team also dipped into the high school ranks and got a good one – powerful De La Salle lineman Jeremiah James, who stands 6-foot, 2-inches tall and weighs 290 pounds.

Rebowe said he believes both Arceneaux and James can compete for early playing time. Getting linemen was a priority for Nicholls in this class because that’s pretty much the only place offensively that the Colonels lost players to graduation.

“That’s going to give us some meat on that line,” Rebowe said. “We lost a couple of guys, so hopefully, those guys can come in and compete.”

At the skill positions, Nicholls also loaded up, taking a quality receiver, a tight end and one of the best all-around players in the state at halfback.

At receiver, the Colonels inked Central Lafourche standout David Robinson, who was All-Everything for the Colonels in 2017, scoring touchdowns in all three phases of the game.

“What a playmaker,” Rebowe said of Robinson. “He was one of our early commits. Again, it’s back in the family. His dad was a former player here. We’re really excited to have him here.”

The Colonels also got a pass-catching weapon at tight end, signing Plaquemine High School’s Codi Willis, who will land in Thibodaux with a college body, standing 6-foot, 4-inches and weighing 225.

“We think he’s going to be a real good one for us,” Rebowe said.

Perhaps the biggest name in the class is De La Salle standout Julien Gums, who played quarterback in high school, but will shift to halfback at the next level.

Gums was a dynamite talent at the prep level, helping lead De La Salle to the Division II State Championship Game.

Rebowe said his signee will give the team clout on the recruiting market – much in the same way that signing Fourcade did a few seasons ago.

“He’s maybe one of the best players in the city,” Rebowe said. “He’s just a tough, good football player. We’ve been seeming to get some of those over the last couple years.”

On the defensive side of the ball, the Colonels were a bit light in the early period, signing one, maybe two players.

JUCO standout Korey Lewis, a tough, physical linebacker from Lafayette who played his past two seasons at Southwest Mississippi Community College, will definitely join Nicholls’ defense next season.

The ‘maybe’ is St. Charles Catholic athlete Lloyd Nash.

Rebowe said the Colonels are high on Nash’s quickness and speed and think he can play on either side of the ball – likely early in his career, as well.

A formal plan for Nash will be created once he gets on campus.

“He can be a receiver or he can go over and be a DB,” Rebowe said. “He’s just a tremendous athlete.”

With the early period over, but still a month and a half to recruit, Rebowe said the plan will be to continue stockpiling depth defensively, while also keeping eyes and ears open for any game-changing transfer players who may be available.

“We’re going to have to have to look for a couple of defensive linemen and a couple defensive backs – specifically at the corner back position that we need to try and target,” Rebowe said. “But then, there’s always the possibility of that player who lands in your lap – he might be a transfer or he might just be one that you can’t turn down.”

The coach said he likes where Nicholls is headed in the future, adding that recruits are taking note of the successes the team has had in the past few seasons in their rebuild.

The progress that we’ve made to go from 3 to 5 and now 8 wins and the playoffs, it is something that you can tell the guys that, ‘Hey, we can be a team that’s competing for a championship year in and year out,’” Rebowe said. “And that’s invaluable.”

Football vs McNeese 8/31/17 (Photo by Misty Leigh McElroy/Nicholls State University) 

Misty Leigh McElroy

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