Lone senior signs with Tusculum

National Signing Day came and went with little fanfare in Columbia County. While 16 Augusta-area football players signed NCAA D-I commitments, only one Columbia County senior signed with a college team.

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"It seemed like this year there was a very strong junior class (in Columbia County)," Greenbrier athletics director and football coach Scott Chadwick said.

"It may be just one of those years. I've had years where four kids will sign, and some years when there's only one."

Greenbrier's Freddie Jones was the only football senior in the county to sign on Wednesday. The Wolfpack running back committed to Tusculum College in Greeneville, Tenn.

Chadwick said the Tusculum football program got a steal by signing Jones.

"I feel like they did. Freddie is, in my mind, at least a division I-A or II-A player," he said. "I've often told Freddie the fact that he and I stand eye-to-eye probably isn't in his best interest."

The 5-foot-7-inch, 170 pound Appling resident will play at Tusculum - an NCAA D-II school that earned the South Atlantic Conference Championship in 2003 and went 6-5 last season.

Jones rushed for more than 1,100 yards into fall and scored 10 touchdowns on the ground at Greenbrier as a senior but saw limited action before then.

"It's a shock to me because this is my only year playing varsity," he said.

Jones said Tusculum has considered putting him at the receiver position. As a senior, he caught 23 passes for 210 yards and a touchdown.