Lyons Continues to Land Offers

Dillard safety Wayne Lyons has received numerous offers over the course of his junior year including Notre Dame, Stanford, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Florida State. The list of schools to offer the 6-foot, 190-pounder continues to grow almost daily.

“I recently just got Ohio State, USC, Nebraska, UConn, Wisconsin, and think that’s all,” said Lyons who also picked up offers from Illinois and Wake Forest following the time of the interview.

The offer from the USC Trojans was a surprise to Lyons, but maybe it should not have been. It was new Trojan head coach, Lane Kiffin, which tendered the Tennessee offer to Lyons this past fall.

“I was shocked when my mom told me that,” said Lyons of the offer from the west coast power. “Lane Kiffin called the school today, called Coach (Manny) Martin. That’s who was recruiting me at Tennessee so I figure it carried on to USC.”

The other offer that seemed to catch Lyons’ attention was one from the Big Ten.

“That’s pretty good to get offered by Ohio State because they compete in the Rose Bowl like every year and like almost every other year they go to the national championship, so they are a power. Jim Tressel is supposed to be coming to the school on Thursday.”

While the Buckeyes head coach is to make a stop by Dillard High School this week, the head man for the FSU Seminoles is scheduled to make a stop by the Ft. Lauderdale campus as well.

“The only offer I have from the Florida schools is Florida State. They are supposed to be coming back down here. Coach (Jimbo) Fisher, he’s coming this week also.”

Notre Dame was one of the first schools to send an offer to Lyons. That was under the old Irish regime headed by then coach Charlie Weis. Since former Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly has taken over the reins in South Bend, the question becomes, has Lyons talked to the new Notre Dame staff?

“No, I haven’t talked to any of the new coaching staff yet,” said Lyons.

The lack of communication from a program will play heavy on the decision the Dillard defensive backs makes. A decision that will not occur until Lyons is able to take official visits.

“I’m just looking at all the different offers and the amount of interest a school shows in me,” explained Lyons. “I’m going to wait until my senior year when I talk all of my visits, and after I get a real good feel for all of the schools before deciding.”

Recently Lyons travelled to San Antonio, Texas to take part in the U.S. Army Junior Combine. Lyons came away from the event earning Defensive MVP, and accepting an invitation to play in the 2011 U.S. Army All-American Game.

“I think that’s the biggest honor of my recruiting, playing in the Army Bowl. One of my goals was to play in one of the big bowl games. It’s a chance to play against some of the greatest players in the whole country, and I’ll get to showcase my talent to the world on national TV.”