Locked in: Dalton’s Jeffson Locke signs with Austin Peay

Published 9:18 am Wednesday, December 20, 2023

On Wednesday morning, Dalton High School’s Jeffson Locke made it official.

Locke is going to be a Gov.

As the early signing period for college football opened Wednesday, Austin Peay State University announced that Catamount two-way standout Locke had signed.

Austin Peay is a Division I Football Championship Subdivision program in Clarksville, Tennessee.

Locke is a one-time commit to Army. Locke announced in July that he intended to attend college at West Point, but then announced in November that he’d be reopening his recruitment.

Austin Peay, which had originally offered Locke, reaffirmed that offer after Locke’s de-commitment and then did so again after a head coaching change earlier this month, and Locke signed with the Governors Wednesday morning. Austin Peay’s head coach for the last three seasons, Scotty Walden, left to take the head coaching job at Texas-El Paso after the 2023 season. Jeff Faris was brought in to replace Walden, who led the Govs to back-to-back conference championships.

It was an official visit last weekend that sold Locke.

“With the coaching staff moving on to a new job, I wasn’t really sure if I still had my offer. I reached back out and they told me that I did. They sent a recruiting guy to the school to talk to me and invite me to the official visit,” Locke said. “That’s when I decided to commit.”

Faris was most recently the tight ends coach at UCLA and was co-offensive coordinator at Duke prior.

“I really liked the new coaches when I was on the visit,” Locke said. “I really liked the energy they had and what their vision for the program.”

Locke, who played both tight end and defensive end for the Catamounts, is listed as an athlete by the Governors. Locke said it’s still not decided which side of the ball he will stay on primarily.

“During the visit, it was mostly with the defensive side, but the offensive coaches said they might can use me on the offensive side too,” Locke said. “Really it’s still up in the air.”

Locke was named Region 7-5A first team after a 2023 season in which Dalton finished 8-4 and reached the second round of the 5A playoffs. Locke helped revitalize a lethal passing game behind quarterback Ethan Long, and made life difficult on opposing quarterbacks with his pass rushing on defense.

“It was fun seeing the community get back into it,” he said. “We played a lot better my junior year, and you could see people start to get back into it, and then we capitalized on that and took it even further this year.”

Locke had 316 receiving yards and two touchdowns and also had 22 pancake blocks. On defense, Locke amassed 126 total tackles, including 19 tackles for loss and 10 sacks.

Locke transferred to Dalton from Christian Heritage before his junior season. At Christian Heritage, Locke played with his older brother, Solomon, a running back and linebacker for the Lions. Jeffson is set to join Solomon as a Division I football player. The elder Locke plays at Chattanooga.

“It is special, because it’s been a dream that we’ve both had since we were very young to grow up and play DI football,” Jeffson said.

Locke said his older brother was a source of guidance throughout his recruitment process.

“He was a big help. When you’re doing your recruiting, you’re hearing so much stuff from different people, you don’t know who exactly to follow,” Locke said. “He’s already been through it, so he understands what I’m going through. Having him there to guide me on who to listen to and who to follow was very helpful.”

Austin Peay has also been a successful college landing ground for former Catamounts in recent years.

Former Dalton running back Ahmaad Tanner played at Austin Peay from 2017 to 2021, becoming just the ninth Governor to rush for 2,000 yards or more in a career and finishing tied for third in rushing touchdowns in school history.

Former Catamount John Wesley Whiteside also spent a few seasons at Austin Peay as a defensive tackle.

Wednesday was the start of the early signing period for NCAA Division I football and was the earliest Class of 2024 recruits could officially sign to play college football. The signing period closes Friday, then opens again in February.