Woods knew Brown, Gay were special
Ricky Woods has spent enough time around football players to know when he's seeing something special.
He saw it pretty quickly with AJ Brown and Willie Gay before he was even the head coach at Starkville High School a few years ago. Woods was in attendance in the spring of 2015 when Starkville was playing a jamboree at Mississippi State when he saw Brown take off on the opening play of the game and haul in a catch. Brown wore number 15 that day but when Woods took the job at Starkville during the summer, he wanted him to change to No. 1 because he thought he was good enough.
His teammate Gay was a junior when Woods took over but became the focal point of the team the next season. Both were huge pieces of the team that won the Class 6A State championship, but they're now playing in the Super Bowl on Sunday on different teams.
“You've got guys with great ability, great character and they're very intelligent,” Woods said said of Brown and Gay. “Those three things are going to lead to success. They had everything that it took and a great work ethic. I'm really not surprised.
“Starkville, the Golden Triangle and really all over the state of Mississippi is putting out some of the best players in the world. I coached in south Georgia and it was good, but it wasn't better than Mississippi. There is an abundance of talent.”
Gay will be dressed out and starting for the Kansas City Chiefs and very well could be forced to make a play against his former teammate Brown and the Philadelphia Eagles. Both players went from Starkville Daily News Players of the Year to playing for Mississippi State and Ole Miss. Now they will fight for another ring.
Along with them will be several other state of Mississippi standouts and MSU has three others in the game with Chris Jones playing for the Chiefs and Fletcher Cox and Darius Slay playing for the Eagles. All of those players played either high school or junior college football right here in the state but none of them are as decorated as the two Yellow Jackets.
Brown led the Jackets to a 14-1 record his senior year with 1,371 yards on 83 catches and 13 touchdowns. The next closest wide receiver had 29 catches as Brown was unquestionably the bell cow and a big reason for the state title win. He went on to Ole Miss to break all-time receiving records for the Rebels before
being drafted in the second round by the Tennessee Titans. He has since become one of the toughest wide receivers in the National Football League.
Gay had a huge junior year that state title season with 84 tackles, 17 tackles for loss, six sacks and four interceptions. His senior year was when he really shined, however. While the Jackets dealt with injuries, Gay was tasked with something not many players in 6A could handle. He had 83 tackles, but the Jackets needed to get to the playoffs and were struggling on offense.
Woods moved Gay to quarterback for the last two games and the instincts kicked in. Against Warren Central, Gay rushed 40 times for an incredible 319 yards and five touchdowns. He followed that up with 246 yards and 41 carries with four touchdowns in a win-or-go-home game against Clinton and Cam Akers. SHS came up short 35-28 and was left out of the playoffs, but Gay spent every bit of energy and emotion before it ended.
“We knew that he had all of that ability, but it was a great toll taken on him,” Woods said of Gay taking over at quarterback. “It was admirable of him to move to quarterback, but he gladly accepted the challenge. Willie is probably the only person that I think he could play almost all 22 positions on the field and be good at it. He was a special athlete.”
From Eupora, to Ackerman, South Panola, Starkville, Georgia and Tennessee, Woods has seen many great players over the years that have gone on to do great things. He's got an eye for talent and he's pretty good at picking out whether or not the kids are genuinely good people as well.
As far as Brown and Gay go, there might not be many better that the Hall of Fame coach has put eyes on.
“They're very, very high on the list,” Woods said. “They rank at the very top, no doubt about it. They're a great combination and their character is so high. I came in during June that first year and didn't know a player on the team or hardly any of the coaches. Those two guys showed a lot of leadership and endorsed everything that we did. Their parents really did a great job with those guys.”