What Jacksonville State football's Rich Rodriguez said about Ron Wiggins rejoining team

JACKSONVILLE — Jacksonville State football's biggest offseason addition might be one who was on the team last year.

During spring practice Jacksonville native Ron Wiggins entered the transfer portal, before rejoining the Gamecocks in the summer. Since the transfer portal opened, he was one of the first player to return to the team after entering the portal. After the first day of fall camp, coach Rich Rodriguez talked about why Wiggins was able to come back to the team.

"It wasn't no conversations, he wanted to come back and I let him come back. Bout as simple as that. Sometimes guys make mistakes when they enter the portal, some guys when they enter I say 'hey what the hell, whatever' and other guys I think are making a mistake and got lied to. He'll have to earn his way back in there," Rodriguez said.

The readdition of Wiggins came at a crucial time, when the Gamecocks were looking for depth behind Anwar Lewis. During the spring game, the Gamecocks had a major concern of depth, using some of their athletes to get carries. Some of it was waiting on transfer and freshman to get on campus but it signaled there was some work to do in the summer.

Wiggins was one of many running backs brought into the fold over the summer. Khristian Lando and Justus Savage arrived on campus as part of the freshman class. Transfers Andrew Paul and Tre Stewart also have made their way to campus.

It gives the Gamecocks one of their deepest positions and its a key reason that Wiggins will now have to earn his way back to where he was before entering the portal — a possible co-starter with Lewis.

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"Coach McDowell did a good job. We got some guys in the portal, two or three guys there. Really like our freshman class, we got four freshman running backs here in camp and all of them will be good players. Of course Anwar Lewis looks in the best shape he's been since he's been here, you got Ronnie who we know can play," Rodriguez said. "We got a little bit of size for the first time with some of our transfers. I think we're in a lot better shape than we we're in the spring."

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: What Jacksonville State football's Rich Rodriguez said about Ron Wiggins rejoining team