There’s only a week and a half left until National Signing Day for the 2019 class, and the Vols only have a few spots left in their class. One of their more underrated targets is planning on signing on February 6th, and he just included Tennessee among his finalists.
Dywan Griffin is a wide receiver prospect out of New Orleans, Louisiana. He released his list of finalists via Twitter, and the Vols made the cut along with Memphis, UTSA, and Louisiana Tech.
F I N A L 4!!✍? pic.twitter.com/Q0xQJmaAU0
— Dywan Griffin… (@lah_wan3) January 27, 2019
The 6-foot-2, 185-pound receiver is one of the more intriguing prospects left on Tennessee’s board. He isn’t highly-rated, but he’s viewed as a potential sleeper prospect in this cycle because of his athleticism, play-making ability, and his big frame.
Griffin, who is the younger brother to former Texas A&M receiver Speedy Noil, isn’t rated at all by the 247Sports Composite rankings, but the regular 247Sports rankings have him rated as a three-star and the No. 671 overall player in the country. Since Tennessee offered him on December 7th, he’s added offers from Memphis, Louisiana-Monroe, Louisiana, Southern Miss, and New Mexico. Before UT offered him, he had just three other FBS offers.
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The talented athlete took an official visit to Knoxville earlier this month, and he’s also officially visited UTSA, one of the other schools in his final four.
One of the reasons Griffin stayed under the radar for so long is because his senior year at Landry-Walker marked the first time he played football since eighth grade. He exploded onto the scene this past season. Griffin had focused on basketball prior to his senior season and was a highly-recruited mid-major prospect in that sport. But he gave football a try again, and he had major success there.
As far as measureables go, Griffin has reportedly been timed running a 4.46-second 40-yard dash and has a 37-inch vertical. He’s also been recorded bench pressing 275 pounds and squatting 385 pounds.
Though Griffin played receiver in high school, it’s thought he could be looked at as a potential defensive back in college. But he has a lot of skill as an offensive play-maker.
When looking at a receiver’s highlight film, you like to see them have a certain confidence and “swagger” about them. Griffin certainly has that. He carries himself like you expect a top shelf receiver to do, and his confidence pays off on the field. He has some great breakaway speed, and he uses that along with his elusiveness to fool defenders and breeze past them for big gains and touchdowns. He’s a viable deep threat and is a weapon on special teams too. He’ll need to tighten up his route running in college, but he already has solid instincts there. He does a great job of high-pointing passes and makes difficult receptions look easy.
As a senior, Griffin caught 42 passes for 931 yards and 11 touchdowns, giving him a 22.2 yard per reception average. He also returned two punts for a touchdown and returned a kick-off for a score, and he picked off two passes on defense for Landry-Walker. His lone season of high school football earned him a spot on the 1st team all-district 8-5A team.
But Griffin wasn’t doing all this against a bunch of nobodies at the high school level.
Griffin’s team competes in one of the tougher districts in the talent-rich New Orleans area, and he was able to tally his stats against the likes of three-star cornerback and Florida signee Chester Kimbrough, borderline four-star cornerback and Arkansas signee Greg Brooks, and three-star cornerback and SMU signee Donald Clay.
If Tennessee wants to add another wide receiver to their 2019 class to go along with four-star signee Ramel Keyton and three-star signee Jerrod Means, then Griffin could very well be that third pass catcher. The Vols are easily his most prestigious offer, and playing for Tee Martin as his receivers coach surely has an appeal as well.
