Five-star defensive tackle prospect D’Angelo McCray saw his season come to an end on Friday when his Jacksonville Jackson Tigers lost to Pensacola Pine Forest in the third round of the state playoffs. McCray was starting to come into his own after a nagging season long injury but it wasn’t enough. McCray is down to three college choices and will announce his decision on Dec. 14 on ESPNU.
As announced on Gator Country’s message boards two weeks ago, McCray will announce his final college destination before a national television audience. His recruitment has been a roller coaster ride. He committed to Florida, then de-committed. Florida State was in the mix for awhile and now they’re nowhere on his radar. The Gators are back on the list and make up his list of finalists along with Illinois and Georgia Tech.
The Gators are also waiting on the decisions of two high profile Floridians in December. Miami Monsignor Pace cornerback DeMarcus Van Dyke, a friend of McCray, and Hialeah Miami-Lakes running back Armando Allen will announce their school of choice on ESPNU on December 1. Both are considering Florida very highly.
The 14th will be a big day for Florida, Illinois, and Georgia Tech whom McCray says will be the teams that he chooses from. There are things he likes about all three programs.
FLORIDA: “I always liked them but I was just going around seeing how other schools looked. I like how they are playing defense now. They used to sit back and read and now they have more of an attack style of defense.
ILLINOIS: “They haven’t won a lot of games but they played a lot of ranked teams pretty close. I think they are going to get better because they are young.”
GEORGIA TECH: “That is the team that surprised me this year. I didn’t think they were going to be that good on defense.”
With the loss to Pine Forest McCray saw his season come to an end in a season where he was steadily getting better from an early season injury. A cheap shot in the second game of the season didn’t keep him on the sidelines, but it did keep him from being as effective as he would have liked to be.
Lately McCray has really been coming around and has been a force on both sides of the ball while gaining confidence in his knee. According to McCray, Jackson Head Coach Kevin Sullivan took notice. They were starting to utilize his freaky athletic attributes to make defenses really work against him.
“They have me in a little H-back in the four wide,” McCray said. “Coach said I am looking a lot better and a lot healthier now.”
A healthy McCray will make Florida, Illinois or Georgia Tech very happy in just three weeks. He is one of those rare dominating defensive linemen that can be a big time difference maker.