Class AAAAAA football blog: Recap of classification’s NFL draftees
Derrick Brown of Lanier High School was the first player from a Georgia Class AAAAAA school to be selected in the 2020 NFL Draft when he was chosen by the Carolina Panthers in the first round with the No. 7 pick.
Brown was the second former Georgia high school player taken in the draft. Former Pace Academy offensive tackle Andrew Thomas from the University of Georgia was selected at No. 4 by the New York Giants.
In all, seven players who graduated from high schools that will be in Class AAAAAA this fall were chosen in the seven rounds last week. Here is a look at those players.
*Derrick Brown, Lanier: The 6-foot-5, 326-pound defensive tackle was the SEC defensive player of the year, a consensus All-America selection and a finalist for the Outland, Nagurski and Bednarik awards at Auburn in 2019. He finished his four-year career with 170 tackles, 33.5 tackles for loss and 13 sacks in 53 games. Brown was selected as the Georgia high school all-classification player of the year at Lanier in 2015, when the Longhorns finished 11-1. Brown had 106 tackles, 42 tackles for loss and 13 sacks as a senior. He was the No. 9 player overall nationally in the 247 Sports Composite rankings for the 2016 signing class.
*A.J. Terrell, Westlake: The 6-foot-1, 195-pound cornerback was selected by the Atlanta Falcons in the first round with the No. 16 overall pick. Terrell spent three seasons at Clemson, starting all 30 games the past two years, during which the Tigers went 29-1 and reached two national championship games (winning in 2018). He finished his career with 107 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, 20 pass breakups, six interceptions and two forced fumbles in 44 games. Terrell was a first-team all-state selection in 2016, when Westlake finished 10-4 and reached the state semifinals for the only time in school history. Westlake has played in the highest classification the past 12 seasons but will drop to Class AAAAAA in 2020.
*Jabari Zuniga, Sprayberry: The 6-foot-3, 264-pound defensive end was selected by the New York Jets in the third round with the 79th overall pick. Zuniga spent five years at Florida, redshirting as a freshman, and finished his career with 118 tackles (54 solo), 34.5 tackles for loss and 18.5 sacks in 42 game appearances. After starting all 13 games in 2018, he was named preseason first-team all-SEC before his senior season but was limited to six games because of a high ankle sprain. In 2014, he was part of a Sprayberry team that finished 6-4, the Yellow Jackets' first winning season in five years and a four-win improvement over the previous season.
*Antonio Gandy-Golden, Paulding County: The 6-foot-4, 223-pound wide receiver was selected by the Washington Redskins in the fourth round with the No. 142 overall pick. Gandy-Golden played his four-year college career at Liberty, where as a senior he finished with 79 receptions for 1,396 yards, almost 1,000 more than the second-leading receiver. At Paulding County, Gandy-Golden was the team MVP and a first-team all-region pick as a senior in 2015, when he had 1,083 receiving yards. Paulding will move up one class from AAAAA this season but played in the second-highest classification during Gandy-Golden's high school career.
*DeeJay Dallas, Glynn Academy: The 5-foot-10, 217-pound running back was selected by the Seattle Seahawks in the fourth round with the No. 144 overall pick. Dallas played three seasons at the University of Miami, finishing with 1,527 yards rushing and 317 receiving in 35 career games. He ran for a team-high 693 yards on 115 carries last season. Dallas was a two-time all-state player – as an athlete as a junior and as a quarterback as a senior – and led Glynn Academy to the Class AAAAA championship game in 2015. Over his final two high school seasons, Dallas ran for 2,340 yards, passed for 1,589 yards and led the Red Terrors to a 23-5 record.
*Jake Fromm, Houston County: The 6-foot-2, 219-pound quarterback was selected by the Buffalo Bills in the fifth round with the No. 167 overall pick. Fromm finished his three-year career at Georgia with 8,224 passing yards (fourth in school history) and 78 touchdown passes (second in school history). He was 35-7 as a starter and led the Bulldogs to three consecutive SEC East championships. At Houston County, Fromm was the offensive player of the year in his classification in 2015 and 2016. He passed for 12,745 yards in his high school career, trailing only Trevor Lawrence (13,902) and Deshaun Watson (13,077) in state history.
*Blake Ferguson, Buford: The 6-foot-3, 229-pound long snapper was selected by the Miami Dolphins in the sixth round with the No. 185 overall pick. Ferguson redshirted at LSU in 2015 but then handled long-snapping duties in all 53 games over the next four seasons. He was named permanent team captain in 2018 and 2019, becoming the first long snapper in LSU history to receive that honor. At Buford, Ferguson was ranked as the No. 1 long snapper nationally by Scout and 247Sports and was a part of three state championship teams. Ferguson's brother, Reid, also was the long snapper at LSU for four seasons and now plays for the Buffalo Bills. Buford will move into Class AAAAAA for the first time this fall.
*Also noteworthy: Former Stephenson and South Carolina defensive end D.J. Wonnum was selected by the Minnesota Vikings in the fourth round with the No. 117 overall pick. Wonnum was a second-team all-SEC pick this season. In high school, he was named first-team all-region as a senior in 2015, when Stephenson won the Region 6-AAAAA championship and finished 9-2. Stephenson has played in the state's second-highest classification the past eight years but will drop to Class AAAA this fall. … Former Gainesville cornerback Chris Williamson was selected by the New York Giants in the seventh round with the No. 247 overall pick. Williamson played two seasons at Florida, sat out the 2017 season as a transfer and finished his college career at Minnesota. Gainesville was in the second-highest classification the past eight seasons but will move up to Class AAAAAAA in 2020.
