Keys: Time for Southern to rock, roll

• By PERRYN KEYS
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Nov 13, 2008 - Page: 1C - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Here’s what you probably know: Southern football players often get treated like rock stars on campus.

Here’s what you probably don’t know: Some of them want to be rock stars.

Not funk stars, not R&B stars, not rap stars. Rock stars — as in, classic rock and roll.

Look at Mike Williams, a cornerback with neatly trimmed hair and diamond earrings. Look at Austin Thomas, a backup safety with curly hair and a mustache. Look at Joseph Selders, a 318-pound monster with dreadlocks flowing in every direction.

As it turns out, this motley crew is into Motley Crue.

They have a band, and the band has a name — MJA, a nod to their first initials.

“You sing the songs and play ’em, and I’m telling you: You really get into character,” Thomas says. “It’s like we’re a real rock band.”

OK, it’s not exactly a real rock band. But close.

This whole saga started when Williams came to Southern’s 2007 fall camp with a PlayStation 2 and “Guitar Hero,” a popular video game in which players, using a toy guitar, hammer buttons in rhythm with classic rock songs. We’re talking about the Rolling Stones, Pearl Jam and Metallica here.

Anyway, the guys got hooked. From there, they graduated to “Rock Band,” which requires a full set of toy instruments.

Evidently, Thomas brought a few teammates to his mother’s house for dinner near College Drive.

At some point, they noticed Thomas’ 15-year-old brother, Jordan, with a PlayStation 3 and a set of drums. Their addiction to “Rock Band” began.

Nowadays, the lineup goes something like this: Joseph on lead guitar; Williams on the bass; young Jordan Thomas on the drums (“he’ll just kill it on the drums,” big brother Austin says); and Austin Thomas crooning along at the mike.