Nashville, TN (Sports Network) - Tennessee State's football program have signed two defensive backs from FBS programs, Kansas' Chris Robinson and LSU's Ronnie Vinson, Tigers coach Rod Reed announced on Thursday.

"I think both are welcomed additions to the secondary," Reed said. "We struggled a little bit there last year. We wanted to get size and speed and we did that. We look forward to see how this works out."

Robinson, a native of Sanford, Fla., had redshirted in his first season at Kansas last year before being dismissed from the team in April for violating team rules.

As a senior at Lake Mary High School, the 5-foot-9, 161-pounder ranked as one of the Top 100 players Florida. He collected 134 tackles in his career.

Vinson was thought to be transferring to Southeastern Louisiana from LSU. Instead the 5-foot-11, 185-pounder from New Orleans joined Tennessee State in the Ohio Valley Conference.

He played in a seven games as a redshirt freshman last season, mostly on special teams, and made two tackles. He was granted a redshirt in 2010 after suffering an injury three games into his true freshman season.

Vinson's older brother Charles played at Tennessee State from 2003-06.

Tennessee State opens the season with the 14th Annual John Merritt Classic on Sept. 1 versus Florida A&M.

05/31 15:04:10 ET