Angelo State football team adds 35 players on Signing Day

On the heels of the most successful season in 32 years, the Angelo State University football team added 35 new faces to the program on National Signing Day on Wednesday, including San Angelo Central High School safety Ty Casey.

"When I get up here to do this, I'm so excited," ASU head coach Jeff Girsch said during an online ceremony. "I'm excited for a lot of reasons. A lot of it has to do with the people in this room. But the other part of the excitement comes from people joining this family and joining Angelo State.

"We preach 'Ram Fam' here. It's something that's been said since the day I walked through the doors here at Angelo State, joining the Ram Fam. And today is a big day for 35 individuals who are coming and joining Angelo State football. It's big for us as coaches, too, because we get those new personalities and individuals into our program and we get to start coaching and developing them over the years. So it's a great day and we're so excited about that, we really are."

ASU finished 11-3 overall and 5-2 in the Lone Star Conference. The Rams reached the NCAA Division II quarterfinals for the first time since 1989.

Girsch and his staff combed the Lone Star State for talent, and they're happy with what they landed.

"We've done a great job in recruiting the whole state of Texas, which means a very diverse group of individuals, from East Texas, down to Corpus Christi and Houston and Dallas and West Texas," the Rams coach said. "That's hard to do. When you're only looking at 30 to 35 kids a year and you're recruiting the whole state of Texas, you better be a pretty good football player to get picked up."

Casey is a 6-foot, 195-pound safety who also has a lot of experience at linebacker. He was a second-team selection on the all-District 2-6A team this past season and an All-West Texas pick. He had 120 total tackles, five tackles for loss, one sack, two quarterback hurries, one fumble recovery and one pass breakup his senior season.

"We'll figure out where Ty's going to play," Girsch said. "He's a three-time all-district player. Two of those times were first team and he was an honorable mention all-state linebacker.

"They lined Ty up all over the field, playing the high safety there against (Odessa) Permian (pointing to the video board) when they were running some triple-option stuff. He just runs the alley so well and is very physical and we just loved the way he lines up and gets after it on Fridays, so hopefully he'll do the same thing here on Saturdays. We're excited about Ty."

The Rams signed two other players from 2-6A -- Frenship quarterback Chad Pharies (6-2, 185) and Midland Legacy wide receiver Donny Bishop (5-9, 168).

The rest of ASU's signing class includes:

• Donavan Orebo WR 6-4 194 Dayton, Texas Dayton HS

• Demetrias Charles DB 5-10 184 Channelview, Texas Channelview HS

• Henry Cheek OL 6-3 258 Seguin, Texas Seguin HS

• Kameren Kirkwood WR 6-1 179 Crosby, Texas Crosby HS

• Chad Pharies QB 6-2 185 Lubbock, Texas Wolfforth Frenship HS

• Devonte Robertson OLB/SS 6-3 200 Houston, Texas Cleveland HS

• Donald Robertson ATH 6-1 204 Cleveland, Texas Cleveland HS

• Braeden Fuller QB 6-3 180 Floresville, Texas Floresville HS

• Nathan Morcom LB 6-1 220 North Richland Hills, Texas Richland HS

• Ramir McCray RB 5-11 210 New Orleans, LA Klein Cain HS

• Parker Haby LS 5-9 210 Uvalde, Texas Uvalde HS

• Jayce Howell DB 6-0 165 Allen, Texas Prestonwood Christian Academy

• Jeremiah Antoine DB 5-11 179 Houston, Texas Kashmere HS

• Dae'jon Bisby DL 6-0 313 Corpus Christi, Texas Roy Miller HS

• Donny Bishop WR 5-9 168 Midland, Texas Legacy HS

• Murray Robinson DL 6-2 280 Cedar Park, Texas Cedar Park HS

• Ty Casey SS 6-0 195 San Angelo, Texas San Angelo Central HS

• Brenton Frizell DB 5-10 165 Houston, Texas Cypress Woods HS

• Jeremiah Johnson LB 6-4 197 Bryan, Texas Rudder HS

• Zenin Rudnick OL 6-4 335 San Antonio, Texas Reagan HS

• Xavier Walton S 5-11 170 San Antonio, Texas Harlan HS

• Michael Murphy WR 5-9 165 DeSoto, Texas DeSoto HS

• Luke Peterson WR 5-10 160 Burleson, Texas Burleson HS

• Zach Burton DE 6-2 250 San Diego, Calif. Granite Hills HS

• Joshua Straw OL 6-2 275 DeSoto, Texas DeSoto HS

• Roy Morris SS 5-11 201 Houston, Texas C.E. King HS

• Caden Thrift OL 6-6 320 Lampasas, Texas Lampasas HS

• Meshack Ngoie CB 6-1 180 Grapevine, Texas Grapevine HS

• Stilton Mckelvey DB 6-0 159 Houston, Texas Kashmere HS

• Brandon Jones WR/DB 6-1 180 Dallas, Texas David W Carter HS

• Luke Houston WR 6-3 180 Abernathy, Texas Abernathy HS

• Armando Molina OL 6-4 265 Kileen, Texas Ellison HS

• Rocky Jack DT 5-11 265 Houston, Texas Summer Creek HS

• Mekhi Greer TE 6-3 285 Long Beach, Calif. DeSoto HS

• D'Koreion Hammond RB 5-10 170 Houston, Texas C.E. King HS

Charles Bryce is a journalist covering sports in West Texas. Send him a news tip at cbryce@gannett.com. Consider supporting West Texas journalism with a subscription to GoSanAngelo.com.

This article originally appeared on San Angelo Standard-Times: Angelo State football team adds 35 players on Signing Day