BEAUMONT — Coming off his first season as head coach, Lamar’s Mike Schultz divided the recruiting period into two halves, thanks in large part to the introduction of the early signing period for high school and junior college football players.

“Our junior college recruiting process has been set on a national strategy,” said Schultz, who went 2-9 this fall. He emphasized more than half of the 138 football-playing junior colleges are located in California.

“When you have 138 schools, you recruit on a national level,” he said. “Everybody on the FBS and FCS levels, if they’re going to recruit junior colleges, they have to recruit on the national level, just because of the amount of junior colleges in the country.”

The national search led to a cornerback from California nicknamed Scrappy and two players from Mississippi Gulf Coast signing national letters of intent with the Cardinals. Wednesday morning marked the start of the three-day signing period for early Division I signees. Mid-year transfers can officially commit through Jan. 15.

Schultz added the traditional signing period, or as he termed the second half of the recruiting season, will be centered on local, in-state and regional high school athletes. The traditional period is Feb. 7 through April 1.

“We will build from there when we talk about seniors in high school,” Schultz said.

The in-state search for early signees resulted, in part, in twin brothers from West Brook electing to stay home and play for the Cardinals.

Running back James Jones and defensive back Steven Jones were among four high schoolers Schultz landed. The pair helped the Bruins finish 6-3 this season and make the bi-district round of the 6A Division II playoffs.

James Jones (5-feet-8, 172 pounds) rushed for almost 1,600 yards at an 8.2-yard per carry clip and scored 23 touchdowns. He garnered more than half of those yards as a junior, when the Bruins reached the third round of the playoffs.

Steven Jones (5-8, 165) chose Lamar over Army and was a two-star prospect. No statistics for him were available.

The brothers, who will turn 18 on Jan. 6, went 26-10 in their varsity career.

“The thing they bring to the table that I feel we missed is that they bring legitimate speed,” Schultz said. “… You’re talking about guys that can run. That’s a jet. Those guys are fast. Right now, I don’t think we have 10.4, 10.5 [-second] fully-automated 100-meter dash guys on this team. These guys are not overly big, but you can’t tackle what you can’t catch.”

Schultz also stuck with his preference for run-and-pass threats in adding Killeen High’s Marcellus Johnson to the race for top backup quarterback in 2018, but the coach emphasized returning starter Darrel Colbert would be the starter going into spring drills.

The 6-3, 205-pound left-handed Johnson completed 57.1 percent of his passes for 2,128 yards and 15 touchdowns against five interceptions as a senior and carried the ball 151 times for 827 yards and eight scores.

In landing Crenshaw, California, native Stanley “Scrappy” Norman, Lamar got a former high school All-American who was rated four stars out of high school and recruited by the likes of Alabama, Florida State and Oklahoma, to name a few. He signed with Arizona State but grayshirted for the 2015 season, meaning he didn’t report to school until the spring of 2016. He was considered a freshman this fall at Cerritos College and recorded 39 tackles, including 2.5 for losses.

“He’s a lock-down corner,” Schultz said. “We’re really excited about him. We think he’s going to bring us help in that area and allow us to move some people around and strengthen the back end of our defense.”

Norman’s addition is key for a secondary that is returning All-Southland Conference performer Nate Jones, who had six interceptions on the year.

Schultz believes he added needed strength on both lines with Mississippi Gulf Coast center Stephon Cooper (6-2, 300), Navarro College offensive lineman Aries Gilmore-Gardner (6-3, 336), Cypress Fairbanks graduate and defensive lineman Hunter Adams (6-1, 291) and Tyler Junior College d-lineman Darien Wilson (6-0, 315). Adams initially attended West Point Prep in New York, Schultz said. Wilson is believed to be one of Lamar’s strongest recruits ever, bench pressing 500 pounds.

“There were times I felt like we were being pushed around a little bit this year,” Schultz said. “Now, there are two things you can do. You can start training and get your kids stronger. … Then, the next thing you do is go recruit bigger and stronger kids, and that’s what we did.”

The other MGC signee is 6-0, 235-pound linebacker Isaiah Spencer, who began his college career at Southern Miss before transferring to the Perkinston junior college, where he recorded 31 tackles (22 solo).

Schultz is hoping the junior college signees will enroll in time for Lamar’s spring semester next month.

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I.C. Murrell: 549-8541. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews