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Bearcats’ senior wide receiver Antavious Murphy, surrounded by family and friends, verbally committed to Georgia Southern University Thursday night.

“With the hard work and the long nights, I now have a chance to put my family in a better position,” Murphy said in an announcement video.

Murphy thanked God, his family, friends, teammates, every coach he’s had and all of the coaches who recruited him during the process.

The three-star recruit had the choice of offers from Cincinnati, Georgia State, Troy, Western Kentucky and Coastal Carolina before ultimately going with Georgia Southern University. 

Bearcat’s head coach, Jeff Littleton, has coached Murphy during his high school career. Littleton said that Murphy is just as good of a person off the field as he is a player on it, if not better.

“He’s a very bright, respectful young man,” Littleton said. “He’s a humble person and does not let all of this attention go to his head. He does a very good job of handling that, and that speaks to his family as well as his coaches.”

Wide receivers coach Blake Cecil has had the opportunity to coach Murphy since he was a freshman. Cecil said he challenged Murphy to step up and lead the wide receivers at the beginning of the season, and Murphy’s 45 receptions, 777 yards, and 12 receiving touchdowns through 9 games speak to that.

“I’m just very proud of you,” Cecil said. “ You’ve done some wonderful things and I’m very proud of the young man you’re turning into. I think that will carry you very far. Keep working hard and remember where you came from.”

Georgia Southern University is a division-1 university in the Sun Belt East Conference. The Eagles are No. 2 in their division and boast the T-3rd best record in the conference at 6-2. The Eagles share a division with James Madison University, where fellow Bearcats teammate Keenan Phillips committed. The two will get the chance to reunite in the 2023-2024 college football season.