National football signing day was this past Wednesday, Feb. 1, and head coach Jason Simpson led a press conference in the newly-built press box to discuss UTM’s new recruits.
UTM has 21 recruits coming in for next season, which is a smaller recruiting class than usual, but Simpson says that is by design.
One of the biggest names coming to UTM is quarterback Dresser Winn out of Dresden High School, who finished his senior year with 38 touchdowns and only 2 interceptions.
Winn led Dresden H.S. to a perfect 16-0 record and its first ever Class 1A state championship win, in which Winn was dubbed Offensive MVP for the game. Winn is ranked as a three-star recruit by 24/7Sports.com and won multiple awards following his senior season.
Simpson values players such as Winn that are from the region and know of UTM. He said he was “pretty excited” about “recruiting the nucleus of your high school class that understands your traditions.”
“We’re young in that quarterback room, even in that backup role,” Simpson said. “We’re fortunate we’ve got a senior quarterback in Troy Cook who won six games last year as a starter so he’ll be back, but all of them will be given an opportunity to see who will be in that backup spot.”
The quarterback position will be young for UTM’s next season, but not lacking in talent. Senior Troy Cook will be the only upperclassman. The other quarterbacks include sophomores Clay Beathard and Kyle Akin, and freshman Winn.
The quarterback position will be a competitive spot for UTM leading up to the season with a veteran senior, a star freshman coming in and two talented sophomores in between. It is a good problem to have and Simpson will be watching his quarterbacks closely to see who comes out with the spot for the 2017 season.
