Here is the full list of Southern Miss football recruits for 2023
Southern Miss wrapped up a 29-man 2023 signing class on National Signing Day, adding five high school signatures and announcing two transfers who joined the program in January.
It’s Will Hall’s third class and second full class since taking over the football program. His newest group represents the present day state of the Golden Eagles as it pertains to the depth and strength of the roster.
Key position groups, most notably the quarterback room, have filled out with this class and it gives USM what Hall believes is the healthiest roster he’s had in his tenure.
“We just got a really good mix of older and younger in each position group,” Hall said during a press conference. “I’m just proud of how we built this program... I just think we really set this program up to do some great things over the next few years.”
Of the five players added Wednesday, three are defensive backs and four are from Mississippi. The biggest need post-early signing day for the staff was back-filling a thinning secondary with a mix of high school and transfer adds.
Dylan Lawrence arrives from Mississippi State with two years of eligibility and will be vying for a role among new defensive coordinator Dan O’Brien’s safety group. Byhalia native Miles Jones will also join the safeties and is somebody the staff thinks highly of in terms of pure athleticism.
High school defensive backs Wildrekus Johnson and Sentario Willis will both join the corner back room under new corners coach Dwike Wilson, who was already recruiting both to South Alabama before joining Hall’s staff in January.
“We feel we’re really old on defense, which is so awesome for me to say,” Hall said. “I’m excited about just being old in a lot of places and not being young anymore. Defensively, we’re a really old unit. We have a lot of guys that have played a lot of minutes. We wanted to add some youth on defense.”
Hall points to defensive linemen Elijah Douglas and Cameron Mackey, who signed Wednesday, as guys who he believes will become “elite” Group of Five players and credits the experience already on the front line as a big reason why.
Wednesday also produced a second tight end signee in former Georgia Tech commit Justyn Reid. The Georgia native is a three star recruit at 247sports.com and received an offer from USM Wednesday morning.
The class is currently ranked by 247sports as the No. 4 class in the Sun Belt.
The full class can be found below, broken up between high school, junior college and transfer portal players.
2023 Southern Miss signing class
High school signees
| Pos. | Name | Hometown |
| WR | Javieon Butler*** | Forest, MS |
| OT | Tanner Welch*** | Flowood, MS |
| QB | Ethan Crawford*** | Tuscaloosa, AL |
| LB | Tre’mon Henry*** | Columbus, GA |
| ATH | Jaquerrius Gray*** | Hattiesburg, MS |
| TE | Exavious Reed*** | Hogansville, GA |
| IOL | Luke Rogers*** | Brandon, MS |
| WR | Mathew Nixon*** | West Jones, MS |
| LB | Jacob Johnson*** | Covington, LA |
| QB | Austin Gonzalez*** | Lucas, TX |
| OT | Chris Hayes*** | Starkville, MS |
| LS | Ryder Burns*** | Lake Cormorant, MS |
| DL | Elijah Douglas*** | Pensacola, FL |
| K | Connor Gibbs** | New Orleans, LA |
| DB | Miles Jones*** | Byhalia, MS |
| DL | Cameron Mackey*** | Clarksdale, MS |
| DB | Wildrekus Johnson*** | Tylertown, MS |
| TE | Justyn Reid*** | Newnan, GA |
| DB | Sentario Willis*** | Hazelhurst, MS |
Junior College transfers
| Pos. | Name | Hometown | Years left | Notes |
| DB | Ques McNeal*** | Wesson, MS | 2 | |
| WR | Tyquan Henderson*** | Canton, MS | 2 | |
| LB | Ja’Len Sims*** | Birmingham, AL | 2 | Began career at Memphis |
Transfer portal additions
| Pos. | Name | Hometown | Prev. School | Years left |
| DB | MJ Daniels*** | Lucedale, MS | Ole Miss | 2 |
| QB | Billy Wiles*** | Ashburn, VA | Clemson | 3 |
| QB | Holman Edwards*** | French Camp, MS | Houston | 2 |
| LB | Kolbe Cage*** | New Orleans, LA | Arizona | 3 |
| OT | Gabe Cavazos*** | Lake Cormorant, MS | Miss. State | 3 |
| DE | Eric Thomas Jr.*** | Pensacola, FL | Arkansas | 2 |
| DB | Dylan Lawrence*** | Lucedale, MS | Miss. State | 2 |
| RB | Rodrigues Clark*** | Starkville, MS | Memphis | 2 |
***signed.
**walk on.
QB room breakdown
| Name | Years left |
| Holman Edwards* | 2 |
| Zach Wilcke | 3 |
| Tee Webb | 3 |
| Billy Wiles* | 3 |
| Ethan Crawford* | 4 |
| Austin Gonzalez* | 4 |
*Signed
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This story was originally published December 16, 2022 at 12:23 PM.
