About The champion newspaper. (Decatur, GA) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 26, 2019)
SPORTS THE CHAMPION, THURSDAY, DEC. 26, 2019 - JAN. 1, 2020 • PAGE 14 FOOTBALL Cedar Grove football standouts sign LOIs BY JAY PHILLIPS Jay@dekalbchamp.com Cedar Grove senior safety Tee Denson signed his letter of intent with Kansas State Dec. 18, and Cedar Grove senior defensive lineman Alvin Williams signed his letter of intent with Colorado Dec. 18. Denson, who had 35 offers, decided from among schools such as Miami, Virginia Tech, Kansas State and Purdue, with the Purdue and Kansas State being his final two choices. Denson made his choice after visiting Kansas State Dec. 13, the Friday before he won his second straight state championship with the Cedar Grove football team. Kansas State went 8-4 under first-year head coach Chris Klieman this season and will play in the Liberty Bowl against No. 21 Navy Dec. 31. Kansas State has played in a bowl game in nine of the last 10 seasons and have had four seasons with nine or more wins. The Kansas State Wildcats were ranked in the AP Poll in five of those 10 seasons, reaching an AP high of No. 2 in 2011 and achieving a top-10 ranking in three of those 10 seasons. Klieman has made stops throughout the Midwest during his coaching career, with stints at Kansas, Missouri State, North Dakota State and now Kansas State highlighting the way. Kansas State’s first-year head coach was a defensive back coach or a defensive coordinator at six of his past stops. Kansas State has 15 former football players on NFL rosters. Deante Burton (Dallas Cowboys), DJ Reed Jr. (San Francisco 49ers) and Duke Shelley (Chicago Bears) are all former Kansas State defensive backs who are now on NFL rosters, and Shelley went to Tucker High School. Kansas State has seven players from Georgia on their roster, including Daron Bowles from Stone Mountain High School and Justin Hughes and Elijah Sullivan from Tucker High School. Denson joins McEachem’s Tajiri Smith as defensive backs from the Atlanta area committed to Kansas State as a part of the Wildcat’s 2020 recruiting class. Williams choose Colorado after receiving more than 20 D1 offers, including offers from Michigan State, Kentucky, Baylor, Kansas State and others. Colorado went 5-7 this season under first-year head coach Mel Tucker. Colorado has been ranked in seven different seasons since 2000. Colorado was ranked in the top-10 eight times between 1989 and 1997, including multiple stints at No. 1. However, the Buffalos have only played in one bowl game in the last 12 seasons. Tucker, despite being in his first year as a head coach, brings experience from the NFL, where he was a defensive backs coach and a defensive coordinator, Alabama, where he was a defensive backs coach and associate head coach, in addition to stops at Ohio State, LSU and Georgia. Tucker was the defensive coordinator at Georgia before taking the head coaching job at Colorado. Stone Mountain’s Javier Morton is also considering Colorado in the class of 2020, according to 247 sports. Cedar Grove’s Isaiah Ratcliff, Brandon Hall, Chris Stinson and Travis Rivers have yet to decide where they will play college football. Si'i ■ il J : a* Vi - • -*V,* _ V mji / f 1 ” ■» . <. -r. ■»«\ , A VJff \ I v r ' 5 ’ • SLfJ&Lt 'r Alvin Williams gets ready to make contact after reading the play. Tee Denson celebrates a fourth down stop during the State Championship.