MADISON- One of the two players on the James Clemens football team known as “bookends” has made his decision on where he wants to attend college. Nate Jennings (DE, 6-5, 250, Sr.) who will graduate in December and enter college early has verbally committed to University of South Alabama (USA). He picked the Jaguars from numerous schools who were reaching out for his talents. Those schools on the short list of finalists included Georgia Southern, Arkansas State, Troy, Central Michigan, Tennessee State and Maryland.

With his decision, Jennings becomes the 11^th commitment for the school located in Mobile. He will follow in the footsteps of quarterback Gio Lopez who is a freshman at the school after completing his high school at James Clemens.

The “bookends” include fellow defensive end Jaylen Brown (DE, 6-6, 235, Sr.) who is also being heavily recruited by the likes of Georgia Southern, Alabama State, Maryland, Jacksonville State, Austin Peay and Illinois State.

“Jennings is as good of a player as I’ve coached as he’s not missing those important intangibles that many players just don’t have,” said Chad McGehee head coach of James Clemens. “His ceiling is unlimited. He’s never had a bad day. Nate is the whole package.”

“Our motto this season is ‘Own it, Earn it,’ as if you want it you have to work hard for it,” said Jennings of his team’s desire to succeed in 2023. “Yes, I’ve taken upon the role as a leader of this team and we remember our season two years ago when we were 10-0, but lost in the first round of the playoffs and last year we struggled due to a lot of injuries. I’ve mentioned to the players on the team don’t get upset if you mess up that one play, just go ahead and move on to the next play. I’ve helped our underclassmen this summer by passing on everything I’ve done this summer.”

James Clemens was projected to be one of the top teams in the state going into the 2022 season, but were hit with a rash of injuries and had to use inexperienced players in many key positions. The Jets fell to 4-6 on the season and missed the playoffs.

“I think we have built on those experiences, so we’ve been all work, work, work and I think this season we’ll capitalize on everything we messed up on last year. I feel we can go 10-0 again this year,” added Jennings.