4 star Lyons is the complete package

By Jesse McCormack

Photo from Scout.com

In one of my previous articles, I spoke on how Bobby Hart was not your average teenager. Well, fellow Floridian Wayne Lyons is not your average football recruit. In fact, nothing about him is average.

While most recruits can hardly find any free time to hang with their friends, a lot of times you’ll find Wayne Lyons mentoring a young middle school group, or writing an entry for his own blog, or just studying for a math test.

Lyons, who boasts an impressive 4.8 GPA and is dual-enrolled at a local college, says that managing school work and athletics has just come naturally to him.

“It’s not really hard because I’ve been doing it all my life.” He said. “During the school hours I put all my energy into school work and after school that’s when I put all my energy into football and track and that sort of stuff. I just have to balance my schedule but its not too stressful for me.”

When he’s not partaking in community service or studying, Lyons likes to do what he refers to as “normal teenager stuff”.

“I like to go bowling, I like to hangout with friends, go to movies, just normal teenager stuff.” Lyons remarked. “I like up tempo fast (music), get your head boppin’ and get you in the mood to play every time you listen to. Stuff like that.”

As for football, Lyons is almost as impressive on the gridiron as he is in the classroom. Though his Dillard team stumbled to a disappointing 3-7 record last year, Lyons himself finished with 21 tackles for loss, 4 fumbles recoveries, 87 tackles, and a touchdown on defense. Even with these impressive numbers, Lyons still sees room for improvement.

“I can improve on my off coverage skills and getting my head around faster.” He said. “I feel I’m pretty strong in my coverage and my speed and tackling, I just think I have that pretty down so I need to work on some other stuff.”

As far as recruiting goes, the safety prospect already boasts an incredible 26 offers, and is bound to get more.

“I have 26 that have officially offered. Some of the top offers are Stanford, Tennessee, Notre Dame, USC, Ohio State, Nebraska, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Michigan, Michigan State, and Florida State.” Lyons listed (as he was nearly out of breath). “I think LSU is close to offering. I talked to Coach (Billy) Gonzales today. he was extremely excited that I got his number.”

Though Lyons is being recruited by just about every top program in the country, he admits one relationship he has with a small school coach sticks out above the rest.

“I have a really good relationship with Coach (Willie) Taggert, the Western Kentucky head coach.” Lyons said. “He was the recruiter for me at Stanford before he got the job at Western Kentucky.”

Lyons says he is looking for “good academic background along with early playing time” in a school.

What schools are lucky enough to snag an early visit from Lyons?

“I'm trying to go to some junior days.” He said. “I’m going to Florida State’s Junior Day (February 20th) with my linebacker Conard Johnson. I'm not sure about camps because I’m going to be in 7 on 7 tournaments, so I’m not sure how many camps I can go to.”

Earlier this year, Lyons attended the US Army All American Combine. Not only did he showcase his talents for all in attendance, he took home one of the combine’s MVPs and also an invitation back to play in the 2011 Army All American game when he is a senior.

“It was a great experience because I got to opportunity to go against some of the best players in the country and compare and match myself against some of them and see how I do.” He said.

Lyons is currently 6’1, weighs in at 185 and runs a 4.48 forty. He comes in at #20 in TR’s 2011 Florida State Watch list.

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