Jowon Briggs has been raised to be more than just a football player, but the four-star defensive tackle certainly is an extremely talented football player.
It's become a very "in" thing for high school football recruits to talk about how important their education is to them, and one can only hope that this is a positive trend that will continue to gain in popularity.
Cincinnati Walnut Hills defensive tackle Jowon Briggs has been talking about his academic goals since he was a high school sophomore and first hit the recruiting radar. That is still his message today.
"I do think about college often, but I really don't think about the recruiting stuff all that often," Briggs stated. "I'm just more focused on working, studying, lifting and playing to sports to give that much thought to recruiting. I have a lot of time for that, and the time will come."
"I want to study some type of math or computer programming in college, and right now I'm taking a lot of AP classes to prepare me for that," he added. "I'm taking AP calculus, AP computer science and AP engineering, and that keeps me busy. That's what I like the most."
Briggs is the son of college educated parents, and he credits them for instilling the value and importance of education in him at any early age.
"It comes from my parents big-time, and they always told me that football isn't forever, but you need to have a plan for life after football," Briggs admitted. "My older sister was an academic wizard, and she's in engineering right now, and she motivates me as well."
Even though the four-star lineman might not be focused heavily on recruiting at this time, he is in contact with college coaches and has taken a few visits, including a recent one to Tennessee.
"I haven't taken too many visits lately, but I was at Tennessee a few weeks ago." Briggs explained. "It was really nice being there, and it seems like they're in the middle of a rebuilding phase. I did speak to Coach (Jeremy) Pruitt, and I know he knows how to win."
"He's bringing a new attitude to Tennessee, and I think he's going to be successful," he said. "I am going to consider them going forward, but I'm considering every school right now. I haven't narrowed down my list at all."
Briggs landed early offers from such schools as Michigan, Notre Dame and Ohio State, and he remains interested in all three programs.
"I don't have any visits scheduled coming up," Briggs noted. "My last visits were mostly for games last fall. I haven't really talked to Michigan in a while, and we were in contact when they offered. I think Coach (Al) Washington is a cool guy, but we haven't talked much at all."
"With Ohio State, I would say that Coach (Larry) Johnson hits me up every other day or so," he said. "I would say we have a relationship, and we text back and forth. With them, they know how to win for sure, and they have that type of culture."
"With Notre Dame, things are goods and that program is real nice," he stressed. "Notre Dame is really nice, and I'm trying to get out there in the near future. I'm trying to gather more information on them."
Since Briggs is not concentrating his focus on recruiting at this time, it does not look like a decision will be coming any time soon.
"I will probably wait until Signing Day, because I just don't see the need to rush things," Briggs exclaimed. "I'm just taking things really slow right now, and it's just one more thing I will have to focus on when the time is right."
Briggs is ranked as the No. 4 defensive tackle in America by the industry-generated 247Sports Composite.
