They say no man is an island. Christopher Johnson might be.
Many opposing teams found that out the hard way this season when their best wide receivers were matched up against the lanky Columbus High School cornerback. The 6-foot-2 senior simply “eliminated parts of the field,” Columbus coach Joshua Pulphus said.
Before long, colleges began to take notice. Johnson received scholarship offers from East Mississippi Community College, East Central Community College, Copiah-Lincoln Community College and even NCAA Division I program Louisiana Tech.
But he couldn’t shake the school that wanted him the most: Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.
“From Day 1, they kept it real with me,” Johnson said. “They kept coming by the school, coming by my house.”
For the Bulldogs, that persistence eventually paid off. On Wednesday, Johnson signed his national letter of intent to play football at Gulf Coast.
“Chris is gonna do great at Gulf Coast because one, he’s a competitor, and two, his willingness to learn,” Pulphus said.
Johnson is just one of the four Falcons who took their next steps during Wednesday’s National Signing Day ceremony. Strong safety Kameron Jenkins signed to Coahoma Community College, and offensive linemen Deveon Boykins and Gerald Wells both signed to Mississippi Delta Community College.
“It’s just a dream come true,” Jenkins said. “I’ve been dreaming of this day since elementary.”
Both he and Wells were “full qualifiers,” achieving an ACT score high enough to mean they can sign with an NCAA program after just one year at the community college level. For Pulphus, who wants to see even more of his players reach that mark in his second year at the helm, that’s just what the Falcons expect.
“Our goal here at Columbus High: We don’t want to put a limit on success,” he said. “We want to be college and career ready, so we want to just be ready in life. For them to have the option to go to a four-year college or to a junior college, I consider that a success.”
Wells said the ability to play three years at a Division I program, should the chance arrive, “means a lot.”
“I’ll probably be out in one year, so I’m going down there with the mindset that I’m ready to grind,” he said. “It makes me feel like I’m completing what I wanted to do: get to that bag and work hard.”
He and Boykins will team up again at Delta, where former Columbus offensive line coach Tobias Smith will be waiting for them. Smith, who coached at Heritage Academy, took over as Delta’s offensive coordinator, and his presence was a factor in Boykins’ decision.
Boykins, who is 6-foot-4 and 242 pounds, has brought together an inexperienced offensive line, Pulphus said.
“He’s one of those offensive linemen who’s constantly gotten better and better and better,” Pulphus said. “His impact on our program was the fact of his leadership. He also led the youth in showing them how to practice and what new standards we were going by.”
Wells, a four-year starter, was hurt by the coaching changes the Falcons went through in the past few years, his coach said, but the guard and tackle is a “great kid” with a “great motor.”
“He was one of the forefront leaders of the team as well,” Pulphus said.
Jenkins will enter a Coahoma program with a new coaching staff led by former Northwest Mississippi Community College defensive line coach Travis Macon, who took over the job in November.
“Coahoma, with the new groups that they’ve got coming in, they’re bringing in guys that have a winning tradition, winning culture, and they want to get that program changed, which is great,” Pulphus said.
Even after the Tigers went 1-8 in 2019, Jenkins has high hopes for his time in Clarksdale.
“We’ve got to get one of them rings, baby,” he said. “We’ve got to.”
Pulphus’ expectations for Jenkins and his teammates are even higher.
“I really believe all four of these kids, we’ll probably be seeing them playing on Sundays one day,” he said. “I know the city’s excited, I know the community’s proud for them, and they’re gonna go and make a great mark on Columbus.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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