Dwyer, Meadows added to Georgia High School Football Hall ballot

The first 100 nominees for the inaugural class of the Georgia High School Football Hall of Fame was released this week, and it includes four former Cobb County stars.

New to the list are former McEachern offensive lineman Adam Meadows and former Kell running back Jonathan Dwyer.

Last month, a pair of standout quarterbacks — Marietta’s Eric Zeier and Lassiter’s Hutson Mason — were part of the initial list of 32 nominees announced as a sample of how the whole ballot would look.

Players from seven different time periods are included on the ballot — the pre-1950s, 1950s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and 2000s, as well as players from the segregated Black schools that made up the Georgia Interscholastic Association (1948-69).

There are expected to be at least two inductees from each decade in the inaugural class. In addition, the nine players who have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame will automatically be included in the first class — Calvin Johnson (Sandy Creek), Champ Bailey (Charlton County), Ray Guy (Thomson), Fran Tarkenton (Athens), Mel Blount (Lyons Industrial), Shannon Sharpe (Glennville), Richard Dent (Murphy-Atlanta), Rayfield Wright (Fairmont-Griffin) and Jim Parker (Ballard-Hudson).

Meadows was a first-team all-state selection for McEachern in 1991 before heading to the Georgia, where he played on the offensive line from 1993-96. He was a second-round draft pick of the Indianapolis Colts in 1997 and went on to play eight seasons in the NFL with the Colts and Denver Broncos.

Dwyer earned first-team all-state honors for Kell in 2006, then starred at Georgia Tech, where he was the 2008 Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year after running for 1,328 yards and 12 touchdowns.

Dwyer was drafted in the sixth round of the 2010 NFL draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers and played five years in the league with the Steelers and Arizona Cardinals, running for 1,022 yards and three touchdowns.

Zeier played at Marietta for two seasons. He was an all-state honorable mention in 1989 before becoming the all-classification Player of the Year and a Parade All-American in 1990.

Zeier went on to Georgia, where he finished his college career in 1994 as a first-team All-American and the Southeastern Conference’s all-time leading passer with 11,153 yards and 67 touchdowns.

A third-round pick of the Cleveland Browns in 1995, Zeier spent six years in the NFL with the Browns, Baltimore Ravens and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He finished his professional career with 3,520 yards and 16 touchdowns.

Mason helped usher in the trend of up-tempo offenses into Cobb County.

In 2008, his first year as a starter at Lassiter, Mason threw for 3,705 yards — missing the state passing record by 5 yards — and was named the Class AAAAA Offensive Player of the Year. The following year, he obliterated the state mark, throwing for 4,650 yards, 54 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.

Mason was named the 2009 all-classification Player of the Year, a Parade All-American and the Georgia Gatorade Player of the Year.

At Georgia, Mason was 11-4 as a starter. He also set the Bulldogs’ single-season mark for pass completion percentage at 67.9%.

In addition to their playing careers in Cobb County and at Georgia, Zeier and Mason share a current common link in broadcasting — Zeier as the color commentator for Georgia’s radio network, and Mason working as a host for 680 the Fan and as a color commentator for ESPN.

Other players who are on the inaugural ballot include George Maloof (Marist), Bill Curry (College Park) and Pat Dye (Richmond Academy) from the early years, Emerson Boozer (Laney) and Otis Sistrunk (Spencer) from the GIA, Herschel Walker (Johnson County) and George Rogers (Duluth) from the 1970s, Garrison Hearst (Lincoln County), Charlie Ward (Central-Thomasville) and Pat Swilling (Stephens County) from the 1980s, Takeo Spikes (Washington County), Jeff Saturday (Shamrock) and Hines Ward (Forest Park) from the 1990s and Eric Berry (Creekside), Jeff Francoeur (Parkview) and Rennie Curran (Brookwood) in the 2000s.

The inaugural class will be inducted Oct. 22 at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta.