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DT/DE, 6'4, 275, 4.8, 340 BP
Perry, FL
Nickname: Hulk
Birthday: 1-10-80
High School: Taylor County
HS Mascot: Bulldogs
HS Coach: Shaw Maddox
HS Position: DE/TE
HS Number: 85
AL Number: 85
Official Visits: Alabama
Second Choice: Southern Miss
Host During Alabama Visit: Chris Samuels
Committed: 1-7-99
Academic Status: Not Qualified
Stats
HS Junior Season
Tackles
HS Senior Season
Tackles
Honors
- Two-time All-Conference
- Two-time All-State
- Team Defensive MVP
SBR Scouting Report
Good combination of size, quickness, and speed. Teams spent most of the games running away from him. Very active when challenged. Could get a look at strong-side end but will most likely be a 290-pound tackle someday. Projects as a defensive tackle.
[Observation: senior game film.]
Stories
The Cottrell Connection
All of sudden the letters from FSU stopped coming. Garry McNealy couldn't figure it out.
"Coach Cottrell had been recruiting me since my ninth grade year," McNealy says. "I couldn't understand why I wasn't hearing from him anymore. I thought that FSU decided to not recruit me."
Soon afterwards, McNealy noticed that he had a new suitor.
"I started getting all these letters from Alabama," McNealy says. "I'd looked at them, but I didn't pay them that much attention."
He didn't notice the signature on the Alabama letters.
"All that time, I never knew that Coach Cottrell had gone to Alabama," McNealy says.
When he heard he news…
"I didn't believe it until I pulled out the letters from Alabama," McNealy says. "Sure enough, they were from Coach Cottrell."
McNealy |
McNealy started paying attention to Alabama.
"It immediately put them in the running," McNealy says.
Eventually, Cottrell won out.
"My mom would've probably liked for me to stay closer to home," McNealy says. "But Coach Cottrell was the only coach that recruited me all the way through. I felt like he wanted me more than the other coaches. That's the main reason that I chose Alabama."
Big Hit #1
Live Oak Sewanee figured that the best way to dent the Taylor County defense was to run at sophomore left defensive end Garry McNealy.
Early in the game Sewannee found out that they had figured wrong.
Sewanee tried to run a sweep in McNealy's direction. But before the running back could turn the corner, McNealy peeled off the blocker and had the running back in his sights.
"My helmet hit him under the chin pretty good," McNealy says. "But I didn't know that it was a solid blow."
That blow sent the running back's helmet flying off.
"My teammates were going wild," McNealy says. "That set the tone for the rest of the game."
Big Hit #2
Green Cove Springs learned the hard way about what happens when you run a sweep to Garry McNealy's side.
"They didn't block me right," McNealy says. "And I got the running back in the backfield."
But Springs lost more than just a few yards on the play.
"The running back didn't get up," McNealy says. "The hit knocked him out for the rest of the season."
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