The month of January is a busy one for recruits and coaches all across the country. It’s the last month for 2019 prospects to take their official visits before National Signing Day, and the Vols will be hosting several players over the next few weeks. This weekend, they’ll be hosting a wide receiver from Louisiana as he makes his first trip up to Knoxville.
Dywan Griffin is a wide receiver from New Orleans who plays for Landry-Walker High School. He picked up an offer from Tennessee back on December 7th, and he tweeted out on Monday that he’s officially visiting Tennessee this upcoming weekend.
Official visit week! University Of Tennessee this weekend #Volsup?
— Dywan Griffin… (@lah_wan3) January 14, 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. 631 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.
The only other official visit Griffin has taken so far was a trip over to UT-San Antonio in December.
One of the reasons Griffin has 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. And he exploded onto the scene this year. He had focused on basketball prior to his senior season and was a highly-recruited mid-major prospect in that sport.
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.
When looking at a receiver’s highlight film, you like to see them have a certain confidence and “swagger” about them. And 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 on 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.
The Vols will likely host some other players along with Griffin this weekend, and we will update as that information becomes known.
