Posted: Dec 07, 2016

Donahue All-American; Browning/Wuthrich To Bowls

All 33 NFL teams have first-team All-American defensive end and ex-Comet Dylan Donahue of the University of West Georgia on their radar prior to the April 27-29 draft. -- Courtesy photo

SAN MARCOS (12-07-2016) -- Three former Palomar players are in the news as college football heads into the bowl season and, for one of the three, conjecture leading up to the 2017 NFL draft.

West Georgia University defensive end Dylan Donahue, the Southern Conference Defensive Player of the Year as a sophomore for the Comets in 2015, has been selected to the American Football Coaches Association Division II All-American first team following his senior season for West Georgia University.

Meanwhile, two other former Comets are headed to bowl games. Tight end Sam Browning and Eastern Michigan University (7-5) are on their way to the Popeyes Bahamas Bowl vs. Old Dominion on Dec. 23 at Nassau, Bahamas, while punter Codey Wuthrich and Indiana University are headed to the Foster Farms Bowl vs. Utah on Dec. 28 at the San Francisco 49ers' Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara. Both of the bowl games will be aired on ESPN.

Donahue, who came to Palomar from West Billings, Montana, has drawn every NFL team to Carrollton, Georgia during his senior season. The Gulf South Conference Defensive Player of the year who was fourth in nationwide ballotig for the Gene Upshaw Division II Lineman of the Year award, recorded 13.5 sacks during the 2016 season and 25.5 for his West Georgia career.

In four college seasons, two at Palomar and two at West Georgia, Donahue has totaled 44.5 sacks. At Palomar, he had 67 tackles and 8.5 sacks as a freshman in 2013 and 64 tackles and 10.5 sacks the following season as a sophomore. He was a solid Division I FBS recruit out of Palomar but fell one unit short of qualifying.

Browning, originally from Escondido High School, has caught 35 passes for 445 yards and three touchdowns over two seasons at Eastern Michigan. His top games resulted in six receptions for 87 yards as a junior in a 44-22 loss to LSU at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and four catches for 43 yards in a 48-41 win over Ball State as a sophomore. He drew a scholarship offer out of Colorado after his sophomore season with the Comets but didn't qualify and had to spend an extra year at Palomar.

Wuthridge, from La Costa Canyon High, was the backup punter for Indiana (6-6) in the Big Ten Conference this season as a junior but is considered a candidate for the Hoosiers' starting punter job for 2017 after head coach Kevin Wilson abruptly resigned at the end of the regular season and associate head coach Tom Allen was named permanent head coach on Dec. 1.

It was Allen who brought Wuthridge in as a preferred walk-on during the summer with an opportunity to win the starting job and a scholarship. And this time Woodrich, who views the coaching change as a positive for his chances of becoming the starting punter. In addition, this time he will have spring practice under his belt when the Hoosiers report to fall camp.