Starkville's Edwards impressive at camp
Starkville High School's 2019 football class is already turning heads around the city, state and now the Southeastern Conference.
That continued on Saturday when defensive lineman and linebacker Zach Edwards performed at Mississippi State's elite camp on campus. Edwards spent all of his time working with defensive coordinator Todd Grantham and the linebackers to prepare for the season ahead.
“I'm making a transition from defensive line at defensive end to linebacker and I like it a lot,” Edwards said. “It's new with nothing but work ahead of me. I've been playing everywhere at that position.”
After a few hours of work was put in by the talented athlete, MSU head coach Dan Mullen and Grantham had a chance to evaluate enough to pull the trigger on an offer for the junior defender. It was one that Edwards has been waiting on for a long time.
“Coach Mullen offered me," Edwards said. "He told me that he liked my effort and the way I played. He wants me to be a leader and stay that way.”
Edwards enjoyed a breakthrough sophomore season at SHS. Working primarily on the defensive line, Edwards corralled 51 tackles with a team-high nine sacks. He credits most of what he learned to
two former Yellowjackets, who are now making a name for themselves in maroon and white.
“I looked up to Willie (Gay) and Kobe (Jones)," Edwards said of the MSU duo. "They were my role models. They taught me that nothing is going to be easy. You've got to work for everything.”
Now that both of those players are gone, Edwards is expected to be one of the leaders on the defense. He expects much out of his unit, especially with his talented classmates in their junior year.
“It's 11 brothers," Edwards said. "If we work together, we're going to be very good. We've been together for a while and we're always competing to make each other better. I expect big things out of everybody.”
As for recruiting, it's still too early for Edwards to make a decision and he reports nothing will happen any time soon. He's already picked up an offer from Ole Miss and Marshall to go along with hometown MSU, but the Bulldogs are now in the driver's seat after they offered on Saturday.
“(The offer) puts them at the top,” Edwards said of the Bulldogs. “I'll be up here a lot during the year and spending a lot of time with them for sure.”