The Owls have signed nine new players in Kennesaw State’s 2023 football recruiting class.
The new additions include four offensive players and five defensive players. Out of the nine newest Owls, four are native to Georgia, while the remaining hail from Alabama, Florida and South Carolina.
“It is the foundation for FBS football right now like how we have talked about the foundation with the OG’s when we started here,” Head Coach Brian Bohannon said. “It is a big class with kids who have bought into making history, leaving a legacy, and doing something that has never been done like becoming the first class to win a conference, and first class to win a bowl game. I’m excited about their buy-in and ready to get them all on campus.”
Cruising in from Alabama, Que Billingsley had 30.5 tackles (28 solo), 5.5 tackles for loss, one forced fumble and five interceptions as a senior. The defensive back punted 25 times in 2022 for 811 yards.
Georgia’s own, Ramontei Dardy, earned all-state Defensive Line Player of the Year, Co-Defensive Player of the Year and all-region Defensive Player of the Year honors as a senior in 2022.
Georgia homegrown, Kenai Grier notched 1,625 rushing yards with 20 touchdowns as a senior. The running back earned 2022 Region 8-AAAAA Offensive Player of the Year honors, 2022 AAAAA All-State Honorable Mention, was named 2022 All CovNews Most Valuable Player and in his four years, marked 3,042 rushing yards and 700 receiving yards.
Trey Hargrove, a Georgia native, won the 2022 Georgia AAAAA state championship and was named Defensive Player of the Year. The linebacker also won an academic award for having a GPA of 3.0 or higher in three of his four years.
Baron Hopson, a transfer from Jackson State, played in all 13 games as a sophomore in 2022. The linebacker had 51.0 tackles, 7.5 tackles for loss, four sacks and one forced fumble.
Soaring from South Carolina, TJ McElmurray had 1,012 passing yards with six passing touchdowns as a senior. The wide receiver also tallied 953 rushing yards with 20 rushing touchdowns and earned back-to-back MVP and all-region honors in his final year while also being an Honor Society member.
KSU also welcomes Isaac Paul, a defensive back from Florida. Paul had 83 tackles as a senior (49 solo) with two interceptions and three forced fumbles. The DB collected seven interceptions in his high school career and earned Defensive MVP honors.
Flying in from Alabama, Offensive Lineman, JT Pennington, played in eight games in 2022 for the Jacksonville State Gamecocks. Pennington helped JSU accrue 2,761 yards on the ground with 37 rushing scores. The OL was a member of the offensive line that allowed only 16 sacks in 11 games.
Rounding off the new batch of Owls is Florida’s DJ Scott. The running back gained over 3,000 all-purpose yards for the Lions during his four years including over 2,800 rushing yards. Scott had 1,188 yards and 14 touchdowns on the ground in 11 games as a senior.
The new signees come after a huge early signing period for the Owls in December when Coach Bohannon recruited 19 new players.
