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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.
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Alvin Williams gets ready to make contact after reading the play.
Tee Denson celebrates a fourth down stop during the State Championship.