D.J. Donley, who flashed potential as a true freshman wide receiver last season at Georgia Tech, has decided to enroll at Purdue, his high school coach said Tuesday.

Charlton County coach Rich McWhorter said the 6-foot-4, 203-pound Donley, who caught eight passes for 101 yards and a touchdown last season, was concerned that he would not be able to reach his potential as a wideout in new coach Paul Johnson's run-oriented offense.

Donley has not answered calls from the Journal-Constitution to his family home or his cell phone for several days. Tech football spokesman Dean Buchan said Johnson had no comment.

"What I was kind of led to believe is D.J. had a really great experience his first semester academically; his grades came back fine," McWhorter said. "He had a really good freshman year, and he has a lot of confidence that he can play the wide receiver position, and the comment he made was he really wanted to see how good he can get.

"... He told me that he was led to believe that the style of offense was going to be a running style [at Tech]."

Purdue was 12th in the nation in passing last season, throwing for 3,993 yards. Only four teams — Texas Tech, Hawaii, New Mexico State and Boston College — attempted more passes than the Boilermakers (594).

Tech attempted 363 passes last season. Johnson's Navy squad threw 136 times.

"It's my understanding that he has signed a Big Ten tender, which would mean we're going to pay for his schooling," Purdue football spokesman Tom Schott said. "Beyond that, I think that he's going to be here sometime this summer, but I don't know much more than that."

Donley left school after about one week of the second semester in January and returned home.

"He really hasn't been answering the phone the past few days," McWhorter said. "We have two kids already up at Purdue. David Pender is a starting defensive back, and DeVarro Greaves is an outside linebacker. Plus, our running back, Ralph Bolden, signed with them this year. It was one of those things where he felt comfortable."

Donley, who will not be eligible to play at Purdue until 2009, and Bolden will give the Boilermakers four players from Charlton County High, and seven from Georgia overall.

Senior safety Brandon King is from Warner Robins (Houston County High), junior reserve safety Brandon Erwin is from Loganville (Grayson) and incoming freshman linebacker Nnamdi Ezenwa is from Acworth (North Cobb).

"Being that he had the benefit of being a freshman, he has a lot of time left," McWhorter said. "I think he thought that it was in the best interest of his development to go to a wide-open offensive scheme. If he was older, he would have stayed [at Tech]. Then, it came down to the familiarity of already knowing some players up there."

Donley is one of several players who either left Tech or chose not to sign after the coaching change. Starting quarterback Taylor Bennett has said he will transfer after he graduates in May. Scottsdale, Ariz., high school quarterback Sean Renfree and Henry County wide receiver Chris Jackson opted out of their agreements after Johnson was hired. Jacksonville wide receiver A.J. Jenkins backed out of his commitment before coach Chan Gailey was fired and Buford linebacker T.J. Pridemore changed his mind after Gailey was fired.