Running back Franklin Green's Georgia Southern debut is going to have to wait a couple of years.
Before he can play football as an Eagle in Statesboro, the recent Jenkins High School graduate's football career will have to go through Georgia Military College in Milledgeville.
After failing to qualify to meet NCAA Division I eligibility requirements, according to GMC coach Bert Williams, Green will go the junior college route in hopes of raising his grades while playing for the Bulldogs.
"We're looking forward to having him in,"
Williams said. "He's an outstanding talent. We're looking forward to getting him into camp, spending some time with us, getting him squared away and get him back to Coach (Chris) Hatcher."
Hatcher, GSU's head coach, signed Green on National Signing Day on Feb. 6. Shortly thereafter, Williams said Green also signed to GMC as a back-up plan in case he didn't earn the SAT score he needed to get into GSU.
To play in Division I, student-athletes must meet a score on their SAT test that corresponds on a sliding scale to their high school grade-point average. The higher a student's high school GPA, the lower the required score on the SAT, and vice versa.
"(Athletes) will sign with their four-year school, but if they have a lot of work to do to get (eligibility) squared away, they want to have their kind of back-up plan in place in case it doesn't work,"
Williams said. "We've been there as kind of a back-up plan for a while now."
The Savannah Morning News' 2007 Offensive Player of the Year, Green led Jenkins to an 8-2 record and its first playoff berth in more than 20 years. The 5-foot-11, 207-pounder totaled 1,663 yards on 165 carries with 21 touchdowns.
Green had verbally committed last summer to play at the University of Florida, only to see the Gators rescind their scholarship offer over concerns about Green's ability to become eligible.
He joins a GMC squad that is one of the top junior college programs in the country. The Bulldogs went 9-1 last year, won the junior college national championship in 2001, and were runners-up in 2002 and 2005.
Entering GMC as a Division I non-qualifier, Green will need to graduate from the two-year school before he can join Georgia Southern, Williams said.
"Generally, if you're a non-qualifier, you've got to get a degree. You've got to stay an academic year and a term. That's NCAA regulation," Williams said. "(Green's stay) could be a year and a half time frame; it could be two. It kind of depends."
Regardless of how long Green is a Bulldog, Williams is excited about what he can bring to the field.
"We do have a very good program, and we've had a lot of success,"
the coach said. "Franklin is an outstanding athlete, and because of that we expect him to come here and compete to start."
