By By Adam Robinson – sports editor
Jamar Travis' cell phone has been buzzing for months.
But after a signing ceremony Wednesday morning, things may finally quiet down.
After much deliberation and back-and-forth phone calls with Southern Miss and Auburn, the W.S. Neal senior signed with the Auburn Tigers Wednesday morning at a special celebration in the school library in front of fellow students, family, coaches and media.
After announcing his commitment to play for the University of Southern Miss, Travis was reoffered a scholarship from the Auburn Tigers and new head coach Gene Chizik.
Travis changed his commitment from Southern Miss to Auburn a week before National Signing Day.
Travis was one of 28 signees in Chizik's first signing class and will join former W.S. Neal teammate Jared Cooper in Auburn.
Travis finished with 70 tackles, 14 tackles for loss, seven sacks, five forced fumbles and had two blocked kicks during his senior season for the Eagles in which they went 2-8.
Travis, who was ranked 29th nationally among defensive tackles by ESPN/Scouts Inc., was one of six local signees for the 2009 Auburn Tiger recruiting class.
Mabry Cook
At T.R. Miller, senior linebacker Mabry Cook signed with Division II University of North Alabama in Florence.
Cook helped lead the Tigers to a 13-1 record his senior season and reached the semifinals of the class 3A state playoffs.
Cook was one of 27 signees for first year Lion head coach and former Auburn head coach Terry Bowden. Bowden accepted the UNA job just over a month ago.
Cook totaled more than 44 solo tackles for the Tigers during his senior season and assisted in 54 other tackles for a total of 98 tackles. Those stats were through 12 of the Tigers 14 games this past season.
Cook had three tackles for loss and had one deflection and one fumble recovery for the Tigers.
UNA also added four Satsuma players to their signing class on Wednesday.
Typically, nearly every player offered a scholarship will sign a schoarship on National Signing Day. Most players will have verbally committed to a school prior to this day; however, verbal commitments are non-binding and there have been several cases where a player will sign with a team other than the one to which the verbal commitment was made.