PJ Dean dons the Georgia cap signalling his commitment to play football for the bulldogs. — Photo by wiliamson_photography.

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By Jay Spivey

For the Clemmons Courier

It came down to the final seconds, but PJ Dean of West Forsyth ultimately made the decision to commit to play football at Georgia. 

Dean, a 6-foot-4, 255-pound offensive and defensive lineman, who was listed as a four-star recruit by 247sports.com, sat down Monday afternoon at the Anderson Performing Arts Center and announced that he had chosen Georgia over South Carolina. Ohio State was also in his top three schools.

Dean will be following in the footsteps of his half-brother, Jared Wilson, who played at West Forsyth and Georgia, and was just drafted by the New England Patriots in the third round of the NFL Draft.

“It was really just a battle to the end, to be honest,” said Dean, who is a rising senior for the Titans. “It came down to like the last hour. Before I got there I didn’t even know to be honest. I kind of made my decision when I stepped on, like when I sat down. I just started speaking, and that’s kind of when I made my decision.”

According to 247sports.com, Dean ranks as the No. 7 defensive lineman in the country in the 2026 class, and according to On3, he’s ranked the No. 5 defensive lineman nationally and the No. 78 recruit overall.

“Both schools were doing what they had to do and they were just doing more than anything,” Dean said. “I just had to do what I felt was best for me.”

He added that before the announcement, he was leaning toward Georgia but the decision wasn’t made until he said it. Dean said that he informed all three schools of his decision once he announced it on Monday.

“I was still contemplating, ‘Georgia and South Carolina. Either one.’ I still didn’t know until I really said, ‘Alright, I’m going to go to Georgia.’”

It became a wrestling match in his head as to which SEC school to choose.

“It’s kind of just something that I had to do,” he said. 

Coach Kevin Wallace of West Forsyth was there Monday for Dean’s announcement.

“He didn’t tell me the last two weeks exactly who he wanted,” Wallace said. “But I knew he flipped back and forth. It was a tough decision. I know there was a lot of pressure put on him. But he told me 10 minutes before he announced that he finally knew what he was going to do.”

Wallace had one piece of advice for Dean.

“They (college coaches) reach out, but nothing,” Wallace said. “To me, it’s just doing what’s best for the kid. If he’s got questions on something I can help or can answer, I think in this age people get too distracted on money and NIL and all that stuff. That’s all I tried to tell him throughout the process was, ‘You’re going to make money, so take that out of it. Figure out what place you see yourself at.

“My biggest advice was, ‘When you wake up in the morning, when your head’s the clearest, where do you see yourself at?’ And I told him from the get-go, months ago, I said, ‘You’re going to know.'”

Even though both Georgia and South Carolina play in the SEC, Dean still had to weigh his options.

“I just had to think about the competition,” Dean said. “Just the whole aspect of Georgia. Who wouldn’t want to play for Georgia and Coach Kirby Smart, who is a defensive coach? You’ve got to think about things like that — the history there. You just really can’t beat it.”

Even with the talent Dean has, choosing a college has a wait-and-see, performative aspect to it.

“(Georgia) viewed me as a priority,” he said. “With a place like that, as a priority, who wouldn’t want to go?”

Needless to say, Dean reached out to Wilson, who played offensive line at Georgia, for advice.

“He was the one who really talked to me about each school,” Dean said. “He wasn’t really biased or nothing like that, but he was like, ‘The competition at Georgia, it’s the best of the best.’ Like (Georgia defensive-line) Coach (Tray) Scott and things like that. 

“I’m going to be a better football player. I’m going to get what I want once I go there.”

Dean, because of Wilson, had already established a relationship with the coaching staff at Georgia.

“It didn’t really help out a lot because I wasn’t really talking to them like that,” Dean said. “I was talking to them, but they weren’t really recruiting me (while he was with Wilson), so I was just cool with them. I was just Jared’s little brother. It took off once they offered me.”

Wallace noticed the bond that Dean and the coaching staff at Georgia had established.

“Both (Georgia and South Carolina) have recruited him well,” Wallace said. “He has a longer relationship with the guys in Georgia because of Jared and Coach Smart and (offensive-line) Coach (Stacy) Searels.”

That’s not to say the Bulldogs had an advantage over the Gamecocks before Dean made the announcement on Monday to commit to the Bulldogs.

“I know South Carolina’s recruited him from day one. They recruited him hard from day one.” Wallace said. “I mean all of them were great to handle. He was really torn. I was basically those two, and he was literally torn down to the last second essentially. I think he just felt better. It’s his decision, so I haven’t fully sat down with him.”

The bond with Dean and the coaching staff at Georgia intensified when Dean took his visit to Athens, Ga. from June 6 through 8.

“It was amazing,” he said. “It was much more in-depth. I knew Georgia from the back of my hand because my brother’s been there a lot. So, I kind of already knew most of the things. But just to be with the players and stuff like that and seeing stuff from their standpoint.”

Another issue was whether Dean was going to play offensive or defensive line in college

One thing Dean wants to do is maintain his weight this season for the Titans. Last season, he dropped as low as 240 pounds. 

“Honestly, when I lost all of this weight, when I got down to 260, I didn’t feel like that was good enough to play on the defensive side of the ball,” Dean said. “And they was like, ‘We need some players.’ It was like hey, they’ve seen my film, they’ve seen my camp. They see I can do it.”

As a freshman, Dean said he weighed 320 pounds. But he steadily dropped weight since then. He’s now at 255 and wants to play this season for West Forsyth at 270.

“He’s, genetically, very, very gifted,” Wallace said. “So, I think that’s giving him the opportunities. I wouldn’t be shocked if he gets into college and they put weight on him. I think his frame could do. I think that’s what gave him the versatility.”

Another issue with modern college athletics is NIL money. Dean had some help with that from a familiar face.

“My mom won’t let me know my NIL offers, so this decision is purely off of me going to a school,” Dean said. “So, I did not know what any school has offered me so far, money-wise. 

“My (mom) went through it with my older brother, and my older brother is a more civilized version of me.”

Much of the conversation about NIL was kept hush-hush with the coaching staff at West Forsyth.

“I know (his mom) didn’t tell him the exact numbers,” Wallace said. “She gave him hints on stuff that — ballparks and stuff like that. I think at the end of it he kind of knew a little of it. I knew she handled a lot of it, which is good because that doesn’t need to be a deciding factor for him.”

According to ncsasports.org, Dean can sign his Letter of Intent to play at Georgia from Dec. 4 through 6.

“It wears on anybody, especially when it goes on for three years,” Wallace said of the recruiting process. “So, it’ll be good. He won’t have the pressure of coaches coming in and worrying about other stuff. And hopefully he can just sit back, play well, enjoy his senior year, and hopefully get some accolades and do some great things for us and have a great senior season.”

That senior season is slated to kick off Aug. 22 when West Forsyth travels to play at Davie County in a nonconference game. Dean plans to report to Athens in early January as an early enrollee.

“With the weight lifted off me I can just focus on just the team at West my senior year,” Dean said. “Really just have the most fun possible with my last high school season.”