Former Wildcats shining bright in college

A number of former Enterprise Wildcats are making their mark in college football this season, especially former all-state athletes Marcus Jones and Josh McCray.

Jones has already been a star in college – earning All-American honors at both Troy and Houston – but his start to 2021 has been truly electric. Houston head coach Dana Holgerson has begun to use the speedy cornerback on offense and last week he secured his first collegiate offensive touchdown.

Against Navy on Sept. 25, Jones caught three passes for a career-high 58 yards and his first offensive touchdown in college. Jones also returned three punts for 82 yards, including a 73-yard touchdown.

That offensive touchdown means that Jones has scored a touchdown in all three phases of the game – offense, defense and special teams – during his college career, which is something he also did while playing at EHS. On the season, Jones has recorded 10 catches for 109 yards and a touchdown so far along with with seven tackles on defense. He’s also returned nine punts for 155 yards and a nation-leading two touchdowns.

McCray came into the season as a true freshman and carried the ball zero times in the Fighting Illini’s season-opener, but since that point he’s been given more and more touches every week until he exploded for 156 yards on 24 carries on Sept. 25 against Purdue in his first career start.

The prior week, McCray scored his first collegiate touchdown on a 45-yard run. McCray leads Illinois in rushing this season with 265 yards and a touchdown on 44 carries along with one catch for 40 yards.

Former Enterprise all-state offensive lineman Dylan Bradshaw came into 2021 as one of the top-rated centers in the country for Troy and is on the Rimington Trophy Watch List. He’s started all Troy’s games this season and was selected as team captain for the season-opener. Chance Warren – a former all-state receiver at EHS – is a starting running back at Navy. So far this season he’s rushed for 42 yards on 10 carries and caught one pass for 11 yards, while also returning three kicks for 31 yards.

Former Enterprise receiver Jared Smith has also begun making his mark at West Florida, recording two catches for 69 yards, including a 45-yarder in a 35-17 win over Texas A&M-Commerce on Sept. 18. In total this season, he has three catches for 74 yards.

Enterprise also has two alumni currently serving as starters on special teams at FBS schools with Jacob Quattlebaum serving as the starting long snapper at Auburn and Andrew Osteen as the starting punter at Central Florida. Quattlebaum handles all snapping duties for the Tigers – including field goals, PATs and punts – and Osteen is averaging 39 yards per punt.