Gwinnett Daily Post

Photo by Ben Beitzel

For the past month, the biggest recruiter for the Cincinnati football program was Silverberry Mouhon.

The Norcross defensive lineman had been trying to convince teammate and friend Demetrius Alston to join him at the Big East school.

Alston finally made that decision on Wednesday when the defensive end committed to head coach Butch Jones after his visit to the school.

"He kept telling me you know it's all good, you know you want to join me at Cincy," Alston said of Mouhon's persuasion.

Alston picked Cincinnati over offers from West Virginia and Middle Tennessee.

"West Virginia was cool. I just felt at home with Cincy. The people are like the people in the South."

Alston made his official visit to Cincinnati on Dec. 11 with Mouhon.

"I just really liked it. They showed me love. When I went on my visit, we went out to eat and hung out with the players and coaches," said Alston, who plans to major in aerospace engineering. "The coaching staff is what I really liked. They were all really cool."

Alston was a Daily Post Super Six selection and finished the year with 10 sacks and 101 tackles to earn first-team all-county honors. He's hoping to make that kind of impact early at Cincinnati, which won two Big East titles and played in two BCS bowls in 2008-09. In Jones' first year at Cincinnati last season, the Bearcats were 4-8.

"I think I can come in a play a lot," Alston said. "We're all about winning. We want a championship."

Alston is the fourth member of Norcross' defensive line and the fifth on the team to make a college commitment to a Division I program. He joins Mouhon and fellow defensive linemen Ben Bradley (West Virginia) and O'Shea Bridges (Middle Tennessee) and running back Kenny Huitt (Alabama-Birmingham) as Norcross commitments.