Skip Holtz and the USF football team picked up a pair of verbal commitments over the past 24 hours as Merced College OL Lawrence Martin and Navarro College DE Tevin Mims. Both commitments were first reported by Bulls247.com, (Mims and Martin links) who've been on top of things so far this recruiting season.
Let's start with the 6'4, 250 lb. Mims, who originally signed with Texas out of high school before after sitting out all of 2010. Mims was a reserve player his freshman year, playing in four games and collecting 3 tackles and a TFL. In his one season at Navarro, Mims had 19 tackles, with 7 TFL, and 3.5 sacks.
Mims will be able to step in and jump right into the rotation at defensive end. USF only has 4 defensive ends currently on the roster and one of those is 1st year player Clavion Nelson. Mims will give Nelson and HS commit Eric Lee time to develop.
Martin is a 6'4, 290 lb offensive lineman who played high school ball at Daytona Seabreeze. Lightly recruited due to grades, Martin was set to enroll at Arkansas State this January, but when Hugh Freeze left to go to Ole Miss, Martin immediately moved on as committed to the Bulls.
Like fellow JUCO commit Chandlor Matthews-York, Martin will move from tackle to the interior while at USF. Martin can play either guard or center, which could be a position battle to watch in the spring between Martin, Austin Reiter, and Thor Joswiak.
I should point out that Martin played point guard while at Seabreeze, and according to Greg Auman scored a triple-double against Dr. Phillips. If you didn't think of Martin being a possible USF Human Victory Cigar ala Kenyatta Jones, I don't know what to think of you anymore.
Martin and Mims are the 12th and 13th commitments for Skip Holtz this season. Each will have two years of eligibility when they arrive on campus.
Welcome to USF Tevin and Lawrence!