Newcomers: JUCO5
For Part III of the Newcomers series we will be taking a look at the JUCO5, five Junior College transfers who are looking to make their mark on the 2021 West Florida Football season. In total UWF has added 11 JUCO signees since the end of the 2019 season. For those who may not be familiar, JUCO, or JUnior COllege, is a separate set of leagues outside of the NCAA, constituted of two year Junior and Community Colleges. Often times these are guys who were overlooked or passed over during their high school recruitments, sometimes they are bounceback players, who signed D1 and then left their programs but didn’t want to sacrifice eligibility by transferring laterally. Either way JUCO transfers typically come to play with 2 or 3 years of eligibility left, and have the added advantage of having been seasoned against other college aged football players. UWF has had a great history of JUCO signees including current defensive stars D’Anthony Bell (Butler CC) and Matthew Gotel (Snow College).
RS-Junior Desmond Bland, Offensive Lineman (Arizona Western)
The Argonauts are trying to replace three Offensive Line starters, all of whom had multiple years of starting experience. There seems to be a pecking order in the early part of fall camp but Bland, a 2x 1st Team JUCO All-American could help fill the void of experience. He has been out of football for two years, but Bland was at one point committed to Nebraska out of JUCO in 2019 and had offers from Indiana, Missouri, and NC State in high school, so the talent is there if he is ready to play.
RS-Junior Ra’vieon Hargove, Running Back (GCCC)
A Bowling Green signee in 2018, Hargrove saw action in eight games gaining 127 yards and 1 TD. He also contributed as a kick returner, averaging 17.1 yards per return. Hargrove didn’t play for Garden City in 2019, redshirting his one year there, but came to BGSU with a very impressive preps resume. He was Gatorade Ohio Player of the Year and runner up Mr. Football as a senior. He rushed for over 7500 yards and 100 TDs in his career, and over 2500 yards twice. Hargrove enters the Argonauts backfield that is chalk full of talent, so it could be difficult to see the field this season, but he has the talent to make an impact if given the chance, and provides another good speed option for the Argonauts, behind Shomari Mason.
Junior Larry Rembert, Wide Receiver (Pima CC)
Rembert is returning to the Gulf Coast after two years at Pima CC in Arizona. A prep from Mobile Rembert signed with Buffalo in the 2019 class but never made it to New York. He comes to UWF with two seasons to play, after a pretty productive two year stint at Pima. Over 19 games between 2017-2018, Remebert lead the team in receiving yards both years, gaining 1503 yards and 10 TDs. Rembert, like Bland, has been out of football since the 2018 season. However Rembert did get a specific shout out from Coach Shinnick at GSC Media Days as a guy who was making a push into the Wide Receiver rotation. At 6-0 225 pounds, Rembert is a stout pass catcher who should really help across the middle of the field, but also can make explosive plays, having averaged 20 yard per reception at the JUCO level.
RS-Soph. Parker Thomas, Offensive Tackle (Golden West CC)
A California native, Thomas has been with the Argonauts for a full year, originally signing in the 2020 class. He signed with D2 Colorado Mesa out of Servite High School in 2018, but Redshirted that fall and went the JUCO route at Golden West CC before making his way to Pensacola. Parker was thoroughly in the battle to be in the top 5 Offensive Linemen this spring, seemingly battling Nash Nelson at Right Tackle. However the recent addition of Kenneth Roman from IUP (see Portal Pickups) likely has those two guys fighting for the backup spot and reps as the first guys off the bench for the Offensive Line. Thomas has the kind of long lean frame prototypical of a college Tackle, and he started all 10 games in 2019 for the Rustlers.
Junior Jaylen Zachary, Wide Receiver (East Central CC)
Zachery should bring a good blend of size and speed to the Argonauts Wide Receiver room in 2020, and was already able to make an impact in the spring, hauling in an impressive TD against FAMU during the scrimmage. At 6-2 and chops as a high school track champion in the 400M, Zachery has the kind of length and long speed that the Argos like in their outside Wide Receivers. He had a pretty productive two years at East Central CC in Decatur, MS. Leading the team in 2018 and 2019. He came to UWF in the 2020 recruiting class, so he has as full year with the team under his belt, and will be one of the guys fighting for receiving targets this fall.
This concludes the three part series on UWF’s 2021 Newcomers. If you enjoyed this, please take a look at the rest of our pre-season articles here. Also f0llow us in Twitter @OCGBlog for all of our future content (link at the bottom of the page). Social media drives this site, so follow/like/retweet if you’re enjoying the content.
With the 2021 season just two weeks away, my focus will shift toward research for the season, and prepping for the weekly Pre and Post Game analyses. Beginning Thursday September 2nd and recurring each week of the 2021 season, On Cannon Green will be posting a Preview of that week’s game, with notes on key players and matchups to watch. Each subsequent Tuesday we will be posting a weekly review of the Argonauts’ contest looking at who played, stats, trends, and anything else we learned that week, as well providing some snapshots of other relevant GSC and D2 football news from around the country.
