Two standouts for the Oak Hall football team are headed to the next level.
Three weeks ago, on Feb. 7, seniors Abram Jerkins and Christopher Davis signed their National Letter of Intent (NLI) to play at Andrew College and Livingstone College.
On Wednesday afternoon, the pair were honored in the Oak Hall Gymnasium with a signing ceremony to celebrate the opportunity to play college football.
“Yeah, it’s really good for us, it’s good for obviously them,” said Eagles’ football coach R.J. Fuhr. “I’m so happy for them. They’ve been loyal to the program. I always say that little by little we get noticed more and more with sending more kids to college and that’s our ultimate goal. If they want to play, we want to make sure we get them to that next level.”
Jerkins and Davis helped Oak Hall to a 7-2 record and a Sunshine State Athletic Conference (SSAC) playoff spot this past season.
Both have started since their freshman year.
“Incredible attitudes and great leaders,” Fuhr said. “Both Abram and Christopher are going to be really good at the next level.”
Davis (6’1, 300) will play center or guard at Livingstone College, a private historically black Christian college in Salisbury, North Carolina.
“This is a great opportunity,” he said. “It’s been a dream since I was like five years old, but I never thought I would make it this far. I called myself a late bloomer. I didn’t really start blossoming until I hit 14 and I played varsity my eighth-grade year at Oak Hall. Yeah, it’s a blessing.”
He graded out at 93% this year and finished with over 120 pancakes in four years.
“His play kind of talks for itself,” Fuhr said. “What a lot of people don’t know is that his football IQ is off the charts. I’ll ask something to my defensive backs and Christopher raises his hand, and he’s our center.”
Davis, who played guard in eighth and ninth grade, moved to center to help a young offensive line.
“His physical prowess is great, and you can see that on film, but just his leadership and his football IQ is off the charts,” Fuhr said.
Jerkins will play junior college ball for Andrew College in Cuthbert, Georgia.
“It felt like home,” he said about the private liberal arts college. “They can really get me to a higher level because they’re really trying to start it up so they can like send film, all type of stuff, so you can go to a bigger college later.”
Jerkins, who averaged six yards per carry this past season with 11 rushing scores, had over 1,200 yards and 21 touchdowns on the ground during his career.
He also had over 125 tackles.
His coming out game was against First Academy (Leesburg) during his sophomore year when two running backs went down with an injury.
He scored three touchdowns in a 51-16 season-opening win.
“Abram is a unique player,” Fuhr said. “I call him ‘baby bus,’ Jerome Bettis, he’s about 5’9, 240, but has great feet, great hands out of the backfield and he was our middle linebacker. In our defense, that’s kind of our anchor, our noseguard and our middle linebacker, and he never came off the field playing two positions that he’s running a lot. He’s a dog. I think that’s the best way to describe him.”
Fuhr gave him his nickname because of his ability to run over players.
Jerkins will get an opportunity to play on both sides of the ball at the next level after playing linebacker and running back at Oak Hall.
“I feel like that will get me on the field more, get me more film,” he said.
Off the field, Fuhr said he’s the nicest kid.
“I’ve never seen him in a bad mood,” Fuhr said. “But man, when he steps on the field, he was a beast. He was great on both sides of the ball.”