Peach State LB draws SEC, ACC

Junior to Watch: Gerald McRath

School: Powder Springs (Ga.) McEachern High School

Position: Outside Linebacker

Size and speed: McRath is 6-foot-2 ½, 218 pounds and runs the 40-yard dash in 4.6 seconds.

Statistics: As a junior, he recorded 130 tackles and eight sacks.

Honors: Was selected all-region at linebacker as a junior.

Favorite Schools: Georgia, Georgia Tech, Clemson, South Carolina.

Skinny: “I’m really excited about this kid,” said McEachern coach Jim Dorsey. “He’s got a ton of potential to be a great football player. For starters, he’s almost 6-foot-3 and weighs about 210 pounds. He wrestles down at 190, but he puts on about 20 pounds for football. He’s real long-armed, looks even bigger than he is.

“We played him at safety his sophomore year, but he just kept growing and maturing. We moved him up to linebacker last season, and he just made all kinds of plays. He had somewhere between 130 and 140 tackles and seven or eight sacks. He’s a good blitzing linebacker. He had a bunch of quarterback hurries, knockdowns and pass break-ups.”

In addition to his football success, McRath advanced to the final four of the state wrestling championship in his weight class and ran on the McEachern 4x100 relay team in the state track and field meet.

“We’re just talking about a great athlete,” Dorsey said. “I wish I had about 10 more like him.”

Said Dorsey: “I need a wheel barrel to carry around all the mail he and (running back) C.J. Barrows are getting. We’ve had letters from everybody in the SEC and ACC so far. I expect there to be a lot more once we start our spring practice and have some people come by here.”