Lyons Gets #1 Ranking, Offers

To say Ft. Lauderdale Dillard 2011 defensive prospect Wayne Lyons had a good spring semester on and off the football field may be a bit of an understatement. The 5-foot-11, 190-pounder received a number of verbal offers, but also jumped to number one in his class at Dillard following this semester’s grades.

“I take my grades very serious I work hard,” said Lyons. “I probably spend more time on my grades than I do on football because that’s the first priority. I always study very hard and try to do my best.”

While many prospects wait to take the SAT until late in their junior year, Lyons just finished taking it for the second time as his sophomore year ended in hopes of improving his already qualifying score.

Lyons matches his classroom production on the football field as well. Plenty of coaches stopped by Dillard this spring and came away impressed with Lyons, who will move to free safety this fall after playing an outside linebacker position in 2008.

“I got 11 (verbal offers) right now that I can think of, Tennessee, Auburn, Notre Dame, Stanford, Toledo, Purdue, Pitt, West Virginia, Northwestern, Western Michigan, and Vanderbilt,” said Lyons.

Lyons is also getting interest from Florida and Miami. Lyons’s sister just enrolled at Florida and moved to Gainesville this weekend. Does this family tie to Florida give the Gators an edge?

“I like Florida, but my choices are open,” explained Lyons. “I’m not stuck on one school. I’m going to take an unofficial to Miami on Tuesday since its local, take a look at the facilities, see what they are looking like, and meet the coaches.”

Along with the trip to Coral Gables to see Miami, Lyons will also be making a trip to the Midwest.

“I will be going to the Notre Dame camp this summer. That’s the only one (camp) I know of right now. They got a great history there, that’s what caught my attention. They are a great academic school plus they are good at football. They got the best of both worlds.”

Since Lyons excels so much in the classroom, there is a chance he may enroll early at whatever school he chooses.

“That was a choice I was thinking about, graduating in January so I could play spring ball in college, but I was just trying to get opinions from the coaches whether they approve of that or not.”

This summer Lyons is working on lowering his forty time, which was clocked in the 4.5’s this off-season. His goal is to get in the 4.4’s.