STARKVILLE — The Mississippi State football team is looking to secure a few uncommitted prospects to complete a quiet and relatively uneventful final month before National Signing Day.
In the final weekend for high school and junior college players to visit schools before they sign National Letters of Intent on Wednesday, MSU hopes to land Tee Shepard, one of the best uncommitted JUCO players.
Shepard had to sit out his senior season in high school because of transfer rules. The NCAA declared Shepard ineligible based on correspondence courses he took to graduate from high school before he signed with Notre Dame.
Rated a five-star cornerback by Rivals in 2012, Shepard landed at Holmes Community College, where he finished his career as the eighth-best junior college player in the nation in this recruiting class. Shepard has told many media outlets he considers MSU at the top of his wish list.
Shepard, who likely would make an instant impact at defensive back, was at Davis Wade Stadium to watch MSU defeat Ole Miss in the 2013 Egg Bowl.
“I am going to visit Mississippi State this weekend and they’ve been on me a while,” Shepard told 247Sports.com. “I want to be in the SEC, and this is gonna be my only visit. All of my life I’ve been around great competition, and I want to keep on doing that.”
Shepard’s decision to sign with MSU would lift a recruiting class ranked 40th nationally and 13th in the Southeastern Conference, according to 247Sportscom.
“I love Mississippi, and it’s a good way of life,” Shepard said. “It’s about football and school, and that’s why I came here. I like it here. In California, there is always so much to do, and that can lead to trouble. Here it’s more relaxed and chilled, and the community shows me a lot of love.”
Shepard is one of six prospects visiting MSU this weekend. He is joined by MSU three-star verbal commitment Jordan Harris and Alabama verbal commitment O.J. Smith. One of the official visitors include three-star defensive tackle Marcus Griffin from Bellevue, Wash. MSU coach Dan Mullen went to Washington for an in-home session with the 300-pounder. Griffin headlines three uncommitted players on the MSU campus, including Shepard and Clarksdale players J.T. Gray and Elgton Jenkins.
With only 16 commitments, MSU coaches expect to have a lower-ranked recruiting class nationally, but the common refrain from Mullen is to ignore any publication’s rankings and attention on National Signing Day.
Follow Matt Stevens on Twitter @matthewcstevens.
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