Southern Sports Edition
Spring Is In The Air
By: Michael Spiers
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Spring football is underway in Athens, and the Georgia Bulldogs football are already starting to get a clearer picture of what the roster might look like heading into the 2026 season.
The Bulldogs are approaching the midpoint of spring practice, and in a recent press conference head coach Kirby Smart said he’s been pleased with the work his team has put in so far.
Practices have been competitive, with plenty of young players getting valuable reps as Georgia continues to build depth across the roster.
Of course, it wouldn’t be spring practice without a few bumps and bruises. Quarterback Gunner Stockton has been wearing a sleeve on his knee after dealing with a minor injury during offseason workouts. Smart said Stockton was limited a little early in spring practice but has been out there competing and continuing to improve.
Several other Bulldogs have also been limited.
Wide receiver Isiah Canion, a transfer expected to help lead the receiving corps, has been dealing with a sprained ankle. Defensive back, and former Camden County Wildcat Ja’Marley Riddle is still working back from a significant injury and hasn’t been able to participate much physically yet.
On top of that, a handful of players have been held out of spring practice entirely while recovering from injuries, including Drew Bobo, Gabe Harris, Zayden Walker, Jordan Hall, Kyron Jones and Carter Luckie.
Even with those setbacks, Smart says the team has shown good energy during the first several practices.
One of the biggest storylines this spring is along the offensive line. Georgia made a change during the offseason, promoting Phil Rauscher to offensive line coach after he spent last year with the program as an analyst.
Rauscher brings a long NFL background to the position, and players say he’s already introduced some new ideas, especially when it comes to understanding how the offensive line fits into the bigger picture of the offense.
There’s also plenty of competition up front. Georgia lost a couple of experienced linemen and is rotating multiple players at tackle, guard and center this spring.
Smart said the coaching staff is using spring practice to evaluate as many players as possible while building depth at one of the most important positions on the field.
Another player drawing attention early in spring practice is defensive lineman Elijah Griffin.
Smart said Griffin has shown flashes of being disruptive with his quickness and strength.
The freshman still has plenty of development ahead of him, but the coaching staff believes he has the tools to become a major contributor on the defensive front.
The quarterback room has also been busy this spring. Behind Stockton, several younger quarterbacks are getting a lot of extra work in practice and during seven on seven drills. Smart said repetition is key for developing quarterbacks, and Georgia has been intentional about making sure those players get as many reps as possible.
Meanwhile, the running back group is focusing on the next step in its development.
Smart said players like Nate Frazier and Chauncey Bowens are working on things like pass protection, catching the ball out of the backfield and creating yards after contact.
All of that work will eventually lead to one of the most anticipated events of the spring in Athens.
Georgia’s annual spring game, known as G-Day, is set for April 18 at Sanford Stadium.
The scrimmage begins at 1 p.m. and will give fans their first look at the 2026 Bulldogs in a game type setting.
With several practices still ahead, Smart says the focus right now is simple. He wants his team to keep competing, keep improving and keep building toward the fall.
Needy Falcons
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The 2026 NFL draft is less than one month away.
We are going to take a look at the Atlanta Falcons and see what the team’s biggest needs are after free agency.
Atlanta Falcons (8-9): Atlanta traded their 2026 first-round pick to the LA Rams last season to move up and draft DE James Pearce Jr. He had a very good rookie season in 2025, which includes 26 tackles, 10 TFL and 10.5 sacks.
The problem is the character issues that caused him to slip in the 2025 draft have surfaced.
In early February he stalked his ex-girlfriend, WNBA player Rickea Jackson in Miami. He appeared to intentionally hit her vehicle as she attempted to reach a police station.
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s office has brought three felony charges against the pass-rusher. They are aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, fleeing and eluding police, and resisting an officer with violence to his or her person. He also faces a charge of aggravated stalking that was changed from a felony to a misdemeanor.
I’m surprised the Falcons have not dropped Pearce yet. With that said I think Atlanta can add an edge rusher to the list of what the team needs.
The biggest team needs are WR, DL, CB, Edge and LB.
Here is a list of the players Atlanta has acquired through free agency. QB Tua Tagovailoa, QB Trevor Siemian, RB Brian Robinson, RB Tyler Goodson, WR Jahan Dotson, WR Olamide Zaccheaus, TE Austin Hooper, Edge Samson Ebukam, Edge Azeez Ojulari, DE Cameron Thomas, DT LaCale London, DL Da’Shawn Hand, DL Chris Williams, LB Christian Harris, K Nick Folk and P Jake Bailey.
Atlanta did franchise tag TE Kyle Pitts. They also made a trade to Philadelphia for S Sydney Brown. He is the identical twin brother of Cincinnati Bengals running back Chase Brown.
The Falcons receive Brown and 2026 fourth- and sixth-round selections, while the Eagles receive 2026 fourth- and sixth-round picks. Brown has started 9 games for the Eagles in his tree years with the team.
As you can see, Atlanta hasn’t really signed any marquee players. I believe they should add a playmaker at wide receiver to play opposite of Drake London.
Darnell Mooney was WR2 for the last two seasons. He was great in 2024, with 64 receptions, 992 yards and 5 touchdowns. Last season was terrible though. He only had 32 catches, 443 yards and 1 TD in 15 games.
The interior defensive line could use more size. The team also needs to upgrade the cornerback position around A.J. Terrell.
The Falcons only have five draft picks this year. They are; #48 (Round 2), #79 (Round 3), #122 (Round 4), #215 (Round 6) and #231 (Round 7).
It is hard to tell who will be available in the later rounds. I think the second-round pick will be an offensive or defensive lineman.
Edge Malachi Lawrence (UCF) might be an option. He had 28 tackles, 11 TFL and 7 sacks in 2025. He was also named All-Big 12 First Team.
Offensive tackle Max Iheanachor (Arizona State) could also be an option. He started all 14 games at right tackle and he played on 923 of ASU’s 974 offensive snaps on the season. He also posted the nation’s 38th-best grade on zone blocking run plays among tackles at 78.1.
Jarring Loss
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
An uncomfortable silence filled Florida’s locker room in the aftermath of the contest between the Gators and Iowa Hawkeyes, save for sniffles and, from center Rueben Chinyelu, an uncontrollable sob.
The Gators, who’d played with a target on their backs all season long as the defending national champions, had suffered a one-point loss to Iowa less than 20 minutes earlier, with defeat having ended their season far sooner than the collective had expected and hoped for, with the team intending to make another deep run in March and into the first weekend in April.
The season-ending defeat came at the hands of an Iowa team that for much of the contest was more physical and carved up a UF defense that entered the NCAA Tournament as one of the nation’s best, and it was difficult for Florida to process what had occurred, as much as they tried, as tears flowed around the room, from players to managers and athletic trainers.
Micah Handlogten sat in his locker, tears filling his eyes – to his credit, he spoke openly on what the team had meant to him, how it felt to see his collegiate career potentially conclude barring a medical hardship waiver from the NCAA, less than an hour earlier.
The team’s reserves, who will have opportunities in the future to make another run in the NCAA Tournament, in Olivier Rioux, Alex Lloyd and CJ Ingram, sat in silence.
Meanwhile, Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon and Xaivian Lee addressed the media nearby in the postgame press conference, with Haugh’s emotional dismay evident, a far cry from his exuberance nearly a year prior when he threw his hands into the air to celebrate Florida’s national championship.
There was no one in particular to blame for the loss the Gators just got beat, simple as that but more could have been done, and the Gators acknowledged as much.
A critical role player down the stretch, sophomore Isaiah Brown split a pair of free throws with eight seconds and change remaining in regulation, to give the Gators a two-point lead.
After connecting on the second attempt, Iowa beat Florida’s press and found Alvaro Folguieras wide-open in the corner for what would be the go-ahead three-pointer, and the Gators, after a timeout by the Hawkeyes, were unable to get a shot off in the closing seconds as Lee drove right and couldn’t get a clean look at the rim, instead attempting to find Haugh under the basket to no avail.
The loss will stick with the team beyond the weekend, and Brown won’t soon forget his timely misfire at the charity stripe, although he’ll look to use it as fuel to the fire in the years to come.
As Brown spoke, the sobs of Rueben Chinyelu could be heard nearby. The 6-foot-10 center, who finished with zero points and a lone rebound against an undersized Iowa frontcourt, couldn’t hide his devastation, even as associate head coach Carlin Hartman attempted to console the third-year big man who’d played a pivotal role in UF’s run to the national championship a season ago and had blossomed into one of the nation’s best defensive players as an upperclassman.
But Iowa didn’t go away, far from it, instead scoring five-consecutive points to swing the momentum back in its direction.
Post-defeat it’s even tougher, with players not wanting to think about the loss marking a conclusion to their time with a program, though Condon and Haugh in particular knew the questions would come.
Their decisions in the weeks if not days ahead will determine how Florida begins the process of moving on and regrouping for the 2026-27 season.
There were many skeptics from the jump this season, starting with Florida’s season-opening loss to Arizona in Las Vegas, a contest that may have been under-appreciated for its difficulty considering the Wildcats weren’t largely expected to be a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
UF would suffer defeat three additional times in non-conference play to start the season with a 5-4 record, and many questioned whether or not the Gators would be capable of making another deep run.
Doubters soon turned into believers as the Gators won 21 of their next 23 games to win the Southeastern Conference regular season title and secure a second-consecutive No. 1 seed for the first time in program history.
That’s how Florida’s coaching staff will remember this iteration of the Gators: not for Sunday’s loss in Tampa, but for the team’s ability to overcome adversity, become a close-knit group and play their best brand of basketball into the closing months of the regular Hartman, who has been instrumental in developing Florida’s under-recruited frontcourt into the nation’s best, is hopeful it won’t be the final time he’ll coach the team’s forwards and centers.
Yet he knows the chances are slim to none the group does what they did a season ago and return for another ride. His support for them won’t wane, however, if the frontcourt comes to the determination that moving on is in their best interest.
Exit meetings will occur in the near future, after Florida’s decompressed and processed more of the end result, not that coming to an understanding and eventual acceptance will ease the pain of a jarring defeat.
That’s how this group will be remembered by those within the confines of Florida’s basketball program: as winners, many of whom achieved the ultimate goal of cutting down the nets as the last team standing in the NCAA Tournament a year ago. Doing it once is rare enough hoisting the trophy in back-to-back seasons is an elusive feat experienced by just three programs over the last 53 years.
Jason Bishop Show March 26 2026
The Walking Dead
By: Michael Spiers
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
For the past couple of seasons, it has felt like the Atlanta Braves have been playing two opponents at once: whoever is on the schedule and the relentless injury bug.
Unfortunately for Braves fans, the second opponent is already winning again in 2026, and the season hasn’t even officially begun.
Spring training is supposed to be a time for optimism. It is when teams fine tune their rosters, build momentum, and dream about October baseball.
Instead, the Braves once again find themselves scanning medical reports and patching together a pitching staff before Opening Day.
The latest blow came when Spencer Strider was scratched from his final spring start and placed on the injured list with an oblique strain.
Strider had shown encouraging signs this spring after working his way back from surgery and other injuries that affected the previous season.
Now he will begin the year on the shelf, leaving a major hole in the rotation before the first real pitch of the season is even thrown.
On its own, losing Strider would be a concern. He is one of the most dominant strikeout pitchers in baseball when healthy and a cornerstone of Atlanta’s pitching plans. But the real problem is that he’s just one name on a growing list.
Spencer Schwellenbach is already on the 60-day injured list after elbow surgery earlier this year. Hurston Waldrep is also sidelined following elbow surgery. Joey Wentz tore his ACL during a spring training game and will miss the entire season.
Suddenly the Braves are entering the season with a rotation that looks very different than what the front office envisioned when camp opened.
Chris Sale will almost certainly take the Opening Day start, but the rest of the rotation already feels like it is being assembled on the fly.
Reynaldo López is attempting to return after shoulder surgery and has shown a concerning drop in velocity during recent outings, though he insists it was simply mechanical issues.
Behind him are pitchers like Grant Holmes and Bryce Elder, with depth options such as José Suárez or Didier Fuentes potentially being forced into action earlier than expected.
It is the type of situation that makes Braves fans feel like they have seen this movie before. Over the last few seasons, Atlanta has had the talent to compete for championships, but injuries have repeatedly disrupted the plan. When one key player returns, another seems to go down.
The pitching staff in particular has been hit hard, and the cycle is continuing in frustratingly familiar fashion.
If you ask me, the thing that makes this year especially concerning is the timing.
These injuries are piling up before the regular season even begins. Teams expect to deal with injuries during a long 162 game season. They do not expect their roster to look like a triage unit in March.
Even the position player group has not been spared from setbacks.
Newly re-signed shortstop Ha Seong Kim is expected to miss time following finger tendon surgery, while catcher Sean Murphy is still recovering from hip surgery.
As we all know, Jurickson Profar will miss the entire season due to a PED suspension, and I hope he is never given the chance to put on a Braves jersey again.
Add it all together and the Braves are entering the year already short-handed.
The frustrating part is that this roster, when healthy, still looks like a legitimate contender. The core talent is there. The lineup can still produce runs and the pitching staff still has high end arms.
But baseball seasons are not played on paper, and championships rarely go to the team with the best roster on opening day. They go to the team that survives the grind of six months.
Right now, the Braves are already grinding before the real games even start.
Of course, there is still a long season ahead. Some of these injuries may turn out to be minor setbacks rather than long-term problems.
Pitchers will return. Young arms may step up. Baseball seasons often take strange and unpredictable turns. But the early signs are impossible to ignore.
For a team that has spent the last few years battling bad injury luck, the Braves appear to be picking up right where they left off.
New Sting Operation
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Recently, Georgia Tech fired men’s basketball head coach Damon Stoudamire
. When he was hired in 2023, I thought it was a great move. He’s a former NBA player and I thought that would lead to getting better recruits at Tech.
A 12-game losing streak to close the season left Georgia Tech with an 11-20 record and a last-place 2-16 mark in the ACC. Stoudamire went 42-55 over three seasons with the Yellow Jackets.
According to Stoudamire’s contract, Georgia Tech is set to owe him $2.6 million over the next two years, a number that is subject to offset if he takes another job.
Athletic director Ryan Alpert was hired in July from Tennessee. He’s in his first-year in Atlanta and he needs to make a move to save this program from becoming irrelevant. Tech has made just one NCAA tournament appearance since 2010.
“On behalf of Georgia Tech, I want to thank Damon for his commitment to the Institute, our men’s basketball program and, most importantly, our student-athletes,” Alpert said in a statement released by the school. “He is highly respected and admired throughout the Georgia Tech community and has been a strong representative of the Institute. We wish him the very best.”
Scott Cross was hired as the new head coach over the weekend. He was the head coach at Troy for seven seasons (2019-26) and he also served as the head coach at Texas-Arlington for 12 years (2006-2018).
Cross has won seven conference championships and 350 games in 19 seasons as a head coach – including five-straight 20-win seasons and back-to-back Sun Belt Conference regular-season and tournament titles at Troy.
“Coach Cross is a proven winner with 350 career victories and seven conference championships on his resume,” Alpert said in a statement. “His combination of experience, success and development of student-athletes, both on and off the court, makes him the perfect person to carry on the proud tradition of Georgia Tech men’s basketball. He is a great fit for our program, the Institute and the Georgia Tech and Atlanta communities.”
Tech deputy executive AD Brent Jones, who came to Tech from Troy, where he served as AD — made him the prime candidate for Alpert.
Cross has shown that he can take over a struggling program and turn them into winners. He has also excelled at developing players. He’s coached three conference players of the year (2025 – Troy’s Tayton Conerway, 2017 – UTA’s Kevin Hervey, 2010 – UTA’s Marquez Haynes) and 25 players that have earned all-conference honors in his 19 seasons as a head coach, including 12 first-team selections. The total includes four first-team all-Sun Belt honorees and six total all-conference selections in his seven seasons at Troy.
When he was hired at Troy, he took over a program that had finished with a losing record in eight of the previous nine seasons and had been to the NCAA Tournament twice since moving up to Division I in 1993.
Tech is currently the worst team in the ACC, so there’s nowhere to go but up.
Same Old Tricks
By: Colin Lacy
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the 2025-26 Georgia Men’s basketball season will be looked at with multiple conflicting feelings.
On one hand, this rendition of Bulldog’s Basketball was the winningest and highest scoring team in program history with a 22-11 record and averaging 89.4 points per game, but on the flip side, Georgia’s season ends with another embarrassing loss in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in the 8/9 matchup.
Georgia got off to a red hot start out of the gate and carried it thru the first half of the season with a 14-2 thru the first sixteen games of the season.
That said, the start of the questions began in late January when Georgia lost five of the next six games, with the only win in that four-week stretch came at LSU who finished in the cellar of the SEC standings.
So, what do you take away from Georgia hoops in 2025-26? Let’s break it down:
Positive: First and foremost, even with the tough four week stretch, 22 regular season wins are the most ever in the regular season in the 121 seasons on the hardwood in Athens.
With those 22 wins, it earned the Dawgs a second straight NCAA bid for just the fourth time in Georgia history and the first since the 2001 and 2002 postseasons.
The biggest change in the Dawgs program this season was the offensive prowess. Again, this Georgia team could almost score at will. 89.4 points per game were the most in the history of the Dawgs and shattered the old record of the 89-90 squad by 6.7 points per game.
The nickname of “Dunkyard Dawgs” spawned because of the proficiency for rim-rattling dunks. Georgia led the country in percentage of field goals that were dunks at nearly 20% of the buckets were dunks. Somto Cyril led the way of all Division 1 players with 83 regular season dunks.
The Negative: The negative boils down to 2 different portions of the season. From January 24th through the Feburary 14th matchup at Oklahoma, Georgia went 1-5.
At the beginning of the stretch, Georgia was flirting with the top of the SEC and looking to have turned a corner in the history of Georgia Basketball.
It began with three straight losses on the road at Texas and home against Tennessee and Texas A&M.
While disappointing for Georgia fans, its somewhat understandable with all of those teams making the NCAA tournament but compiled with losses at home against rival Florida (who did win the SEC regular season), but the big blow cane with a loss at Oklahoma 94-78 who was near the bottom of the SEC standings.
While you could chalk that stretch as just a tough portion of the schedule, the ending is tough in postseason play for the Dawgs.
In the SEC Championship, Georgia saw the opening matchup with the 15 seed Ole Miss and fell 76-72.
Ok..Ole Miss got hot and the matchup wasn’t the best… Then we get to March Madness.
Georgia was announced as an 8-seed in the tournament and drew a match-up with the 9-seed St. Louis Bilikins.
The Billikens out of the A10 Conference flat out dominated. SLU throttled the Dawgs 102-77 making back-to-back years that Georgia has been embarrassingly knocked out of a first round matchup in the NCAA Tournament. Last season ended with a #8 Gonzaga knocking off the #9 Georgia 89-68.
The last 5 NCAA Tournament appearances have seen the Dawgs bow out in the first round with the last NCAA Tournament win coming back in 2002 as a 3-seed in the West.
It would be ignorant to say that Head Coach Mike White hasn’t elevated the Georgia program back into prominence after missing the tournament altogether from 2015 until 2025, but the tough part to swallow for Georgia fans and supporters is the abysmal performances in the postseason.
In the day and age of the transfer portal, Mike White and company will be scouring the portal to find the next group of Dawgs to help get them over the hump.
Round Table Knight
By: Jeff Doke
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
It is a common turn of phrase to say that someone that is ahead of others in their chosen field is “head and shoulders above the rest.”
Usually, this is a figurative statement. In the case of #88 for the Frederica Academy Knights football team, it is literal as well.
John Cannon Wessel – known as JC to everyone but his mother and his quarterback – is a rising junior that is drawing attention from sources local, regional, and national.
Entering his third year as a starter for the Frederica Knights, Wessel is building on a sophomore season that saw a significant statistical uptick from his freshman campaign.
After seeing action in 6 games his freshman year with 142 all-purpose yards, the 6’7” 225 lb. TE prospect more than doubled his stats with 338 yards on 18 receptions for 3 TDS over 12 games.
Not bad for someone sharing receiving time with Jaylen Baldwin, Jayden Gibson, and Braxton Sykes. Wessel puts a lot of that growth on the improved chemistry with Knights starting quarterback Stanton Beverly.
“Stanton and I are really good friends,” JC describes the relationship. “…The summer between freshman and sophomore year, we did a lot of work on just going to camps, and I learned a ton, just was trying to develop more and more.”
Add to that the fact that he hadn’t played football since Pop Warner, it’s no surprise that he’s noticeably working his way up the recruiting boards.
“I had played basketball the whole time,” says JC about his gap between time on the gridiron, “(but) I knew that I kinda wanted to try out football again just because my dad played football and see what I could do. I just started playing, and it was just super fun, and I loved the physicality of it.”
His family knows a thing or two about football. Not only did his uncle play for West Point after graduating from Colquitt County High School, his father Tadd Wessel won an Ivy League championship in 1995 with the Princeton Tigers. JC might just wind up following some of those footsteps.
As of mid-March, On3.com reports JC as having offers from Princeton as well as a dozen other D1 schools including 5 from the SEC, 4 from the ACC, and 2 from the Big 10.
With two seasons yet to play before graduation, JC hasn’t started narrowing down his choices yet, much less whether he actually wants to play past high school.
“I definitely have a lot interest in going that route, especially because my parents pushed me super hard towards that kind of path, but I have to take into account everything about the future and about my chances and about what I wanna actually do when I grow up,” says Wessel. “So as, as of right now, I have no idea, but hopefully as I go through high school, I’ll get a better understanding.”
The needle seems to be pointing in the collegiate ball route regardless. After earning all-region honors in his second season, words from his Head Coach Brandon Derrick are succinct and unmistakable; ”He’s only going to get better.”
With the schedule the Knights face in 2026, hopefully better happens sooner rather than later. Even though he understands that he’s not supposed to look past the next opponent, Wessel is making some exceptions to that rule.
“I’m looking forward to Charlton County because I haven’t played them…Stratford because we should have won that game last year…and Valwood because we hate them. Same for Bulloch.”
From a fan’s perspective, it’s hard to say he doesn’t have his priorities in order. The biggest payback he’s looking forward to is against the boys from the shores of Lake Sinclair.
”I don’t really remember that much of the (John Milledge) game. I was mad during the game. If we face them again in the playoffs, we’ve got a good chance this year.”
The Knights begin their 2026 March to Mercer with a home opener against Bethesda Academy on August 14th.
Jason Bishop Show March 19 2026
A Pirates’ Farewell
By: Teddy Bishop
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Former Brunswick High School standout Darius “Big Play” Slay has announced his retirement from the National Football League after 13 seasons.
Slay was a 2nd round draft pick by the Detroit Lions in 2013—the 36th player chosen overall. He played for the Lions for seven seasons before being traded to the Philadelphia Eagles, where he played for five seasons and was instrumental in the Eagles victory in Super Bowl LIX, beating the Kansas City Chiefs, 40-22.
Slay was released by Philadelphia in March of 2025 and signed a one-year deal with the Pittsburgh Steelers but was released by the Steelers after 10 games of the 2025 season. He was claimed off waivers by the Buffalo Bills, but Slay elected not to join the Bills, hinting that retirement was eminent.
In 187 career games in the NFL, “Big Play” recorded 655 tackles, 163 pass breakups, 28 interceptions, and 5 defensive touchdowns, earning him six Pro Bowl selections.
At the height of Slay’s career, quarterbacks often opted not to challenge his prowess as a cornerback, instead throwing to receivers who were covered by other defensive players.
In his senior year of high school, Slay led the Brunswick High Pirates to a region championship (6-0, region record; 9-3, overall). In addition to playing cornerback for BHS, Slay also played running back, rushing for over 1300 yards and 15 touchdowns his senior season.
Even as a sophomore, Slay was ticketed for big plays, as he ran for 1100+ yards and scored 13 touchdowns.
After a playoff loss on the road during Slay’s sophomore season, I was descending the steps from the press box when an opposing fan stopped me. Even though BHS had lost, Slay had had a big game.
“That Slay kid,” the opposing fan said, “is only a sophomore?
“Yes, sir,” I confirmed, “only a sophomore.”
The opposing fan shook his head as he commented, “I hope we don’t play y’all the next two years!”
Slay was on pace his junior year for another 1000 yards rushing, but, unfortunately, his season was cut short after five games due to an injury.
Slay was also a multi-sport athlete at BHS, running track and lettering in basketball.
Following his stellar senior year in high school, Slay played two seasons as a defensive back at Itawamba Community College in Fulton, Mississippi, earning All-MACJC (Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges) honors both years.
After Itawamba, Slay went to Mississippi State for his final two years of college, where he recorded 64 tackles, six interceptions and two touchdowns. His defensive coordinator, Geoff Colllins, nicknamed him “Big Play Slay.” Slay was also chosen 2nd– team All-SEC following his senior season at MSU.
Slay has been married to the former Jennifer Williams since 2018. Jennifer is also an athlete, having played collegiate basketball at Southwestern Oklahoma State.
Slay announced his retirement on Instagram, saying, “Dear football, I wanna thank you for all you’ve done for me. I’ve been blessed to play the game I love since I was 5 yrs old. Football was my peace, my joy, everything.”
“It’s hard to say goodbye, but God has a new chapter for me and I’m ready to turn the page and start my new journey.
“To all my BigPlay fans, I will always appreciate the love and support y’all have given me. I couldn’t have done it without you.”
Slay signed off by saying, “Just a kid from Brunswick, GA with BIG dreams.”
Thanks for all the memories, Big Play!
