Jones College sophomore Allan Follis is the starting quarterback for the Bobcats. Follis fell in love with the game as a child throughout his young life and has been perfecting his game.
When Follis was in kindergarten, he fell in love with football. He started playing flag football, and everything fell into place. Peewee football and youth football rolled around, and Follis began to learn the fundamentals that would lead him to where he is today.
From there, Follis played junior high football, then high school football, the sacred Friday night lights that every young boy once dreamed of playing under. Day in and day out, Follis prepared to be the absolute best he could be.
“Football came naturally to me, but I had to work extremely hard all the time to be great at it,” he said.
A vital part of Follis’s journey to greatness comes from the adversity he faced in his junior year of high school.
“I separated my AC joint in the second round of the playoffs after I got hit,” he said. I was not able to throw well in the South State Championship game. It was just something I had to fight through and overcome.”
Senior season was right around the corner for the starting quarterback. Lots of rest was on the recovery plan for Follis.
“It was very painful, but I knew I had to get the rest that I needed to recover to come back and do better for my school and my teammates,” he said.
He credits his high school coach for his readiness to play college football.
“My offensive coordinator, Coach Blackledge, made me a great player,” he said. “Coach Blackledge was always very hard on me when I was younger because he saw that I could be great one day,” he said.
Follis never thought about giving up when he got injured. With the help of his coaches and players, he embraced it and kept moving forward.
Going into the summer before his senior year of high school, Follis received an offer from Jones College to continue his athletic and academic career. That same year Follis led West Jones to win their first-ever 5A State Championship title over West Point. He was named the MVP of the 5A State Championship game, MAC First Team All-State, and Bernard Blackwell All-Star Game South Offensive MVP. He went 35-4 in his high school career, threw for 5,913 yards and scored 79 touchdowns as a three-year starter for the Mustangs.
Just by these accomplishments, one would have never known that the previous year Follis had injured his shoulder.
As a true freshman, Follis started in seven games for the Bobcats where he went 10-for-17 with 77 yards, a touchdown and an interception. His first career touchdown pass was in a 55-6 win over Southwest, and he had a 58.8 completion percentage. Follis is a highly decorated individual when it comes to honors; he is a Distinguished Academic All-MACCC and NJCAA All-Academic First Team player.
Jones head football coach Steve Buckley describes Follis as a very high football IQ player who makes plays with his arm and legs. According to the Coach, in the pocket, Follis is quick and can read his offense very well. Buckley also said that Follis has worked extremely hard during the off-season and summer to put himself in a position to be successful.
For the 2022 season, Follis performed very well for the Bobcats. He helped lead the Bobcats through the regular season and into the MACCC semi-finals playoff game.
by Farrah Jordan
