Wayne Lyons visited today

Submitted by umhero on

I see from headlines on Scout that Wayne Lyons is a visitor this weekend.  While "google-stalking" for info on the visit, I stumbled on a great article about him.  It may have been posted here in the past, but in light of his visit I thought it was worth sharing.

Highlights:

Coaches at 44 schools have offered Wayne Lyons a scholarship

His list includes offers from Alabama, Boston College, Florida, Florida State, LSU, Miami, Michigan, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Stanford, Tennessee, UCLA and Wisconsin.

For example, of all the blue-chip high school players who now post details of their recruitment on Twitter, how many also include tweets such as the one Lyons sent out last week? "High school GPA has jumped to a 5.0 on the head! Gotta keep that no. 1 spot! Holding on to the dream -- Class Valedictorian for DHS c/o 2011."

He took calculus as a 10th-grader, is his class president and helped Dillard coach Manny Martin start a mentoring program this past spring.

When it became clear in ninth grade that Lyons would be an excellent football player, Bush simply assumed he'd go to Florida, the school she had attended and the school Lyons' sister currently attends. Then the recruiting mail started pouring in, and Bush began reading up on all the universities. 

"His sophomore year, he'll get his bachelor's degree" Dillard's Martin said. "His junior year, he'll be working on his masters." 

"I want a school," he said, "where the degree is worth something."

Wants to know:

"How many African-American players have graduated with an engineering degree in the past five years? Year-by-year? Please list their names."

Reading the whole article makes me really want this kid to be a Wolverine.  What an incredible role model he could be.

I can't wait to hear about his visit.  

919 Brown

December 5th, 2010 at 1:34 AM ^

Me likey

Conclusion: This highly intelligent defensive back is the kind of player that can get the defensive unit lined up properly and excel on coverage teams. Look for him to be a team leader and a possible three-year starter.

e.go.blue

December 5th, 2010 at 1:57 AM ^

 

 

"How many African-American players have graduated with an engineering degree in the past five years? Year-by-year? Please list their names."

This guy is awesome. Come to Michigan, Wayne! You won't be disappointed!

philibuster

December 5th, 2010 at 2:44 AM ^

Top mechanical engineering schools (as ranked by National Research Council[1]): Brown, Cal Tech, Northwestern, Stanford, Princeton, Michigan, MIT, Berkeley, UCSB, Johns Hopkins, UCSD, Illinois, blah blah blah.

Of these, NW, Stanford, MI, Cal, IL have good football teams.

Of these mechanical engineering schools with good football teams, these have wings: Michigan.

Also, Space, Bitches, Space.

[1] NRC actually looks at research coming out of an institution, unlike US News and World Report, which goes on gut feelings of institution heads. NRC looks at research money, papers published, measurable quantities.

Black Socks

December 5th, 2010 at 2:56 AM ^

I would wonder how many players period graduated with an engineering degree.  That is no small feat.  Hate to see skin color always brought into this...I believe Omameh is an engineering student.

nazooq

December 5th, 2010 at 5:14 AM ^

You don't have to guess at this stuff.  There's a fantastic site called mgoblue.com that has all this info listed. 

Ezeh is a sociology major.

Omameh was in engineering but is now a sociology major which is totally understandable because being a starter on a Big Ten football team and majoring in engineering are both 40+ hour/week time commitments.

MgoblueAF

December 5th, 2010 at 3:31 AM ^

We should have our new superstar recruiter, Kellen Jones, jump on this one.  From what I've seen and read on here, Kellen Jones also wants to enroll in the Engineering school.  He may feel a lot better having a fellow recruit going through the same classes as him at the same time.  It's fairly easy to line your schedules up similarly.. 

sloving81

December 5th, 2010 at 3:38 AM ^

When you come in and get rid of some of your highest performers and have no QB contingency plan for 2008 causing you to be 3-9 despite having 5 NFL players on defense...you my friend have really F'd up.  When your second year, you run out the avg. but experienced starting QB and start a true freshman, causing you to go 1-7 in the Big Ten, you my friend have really F'd up.  When in year 3 you still have not beat one (maybe '08 wisco) good team...yet you are 34 games into your tenure...you my friend have really really F'd up. 

I'm honestly weary from trying to reason with people.  To me there are two major problems with Rodriguez and staff, the first is recruiting.  In particular, recruiting talented defensive players and recruiting your own backyard (Mich, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Chicagoland).  This staff has focused on Florida kids that the Big 3 primarily did not want.  Most elite kids out of Florida will not leave SEC land, so we are looking at good but not great players from there.  This has been the strategy of many Big Ten teams over the years, but never a top level Big Ten team.  Michigan, Ohio St., Penn St. have all established themselves as elite programs primarily drawing from their nearby regions.

 
The second major problem is that there has been terrible mismanagement of the team and program.  Many of the traditions, and much of the Michigan 'brand' has been lost.  Former players, faithful alumni, everyone has a very sour taste in their mouth and I just can't ever see getting that out without a change.  Rodriguez came in and neglected our current QB for the future, banking on a recruit to lead us at QB, he had no contingency plan, that resulted in a year of lost offense.  He fired our first D-coordinator (which he hired) who has had success before and success after he left.  He then got to hire whatever D-coordinator he wanted and the result was the worst Defense in Michigan history.  His inability to win just ONE big game in three years and a record of 6-18 in the Big Ten is inexcusable beyond any excuse (regardless of merit).
The only positive has been what people think is an explosive offense.  But the team I watched couldn't score against good teams when it matters.  In fact, the atrocious offense of 2008 actually scored more points in the 1st half of the Big Ten season than did our 2010 offense.  MSU, Iowa, PSU, Wisc, and OSU our great offense averaged less than 7 points in the 1st half, that will not keep a team with no ball control in any games.
 
The following article should warm the cockles of your heart and with a football conscious will help you realize only this will get us back to football prominence.
 

ILL_Legel

December 5th, 2010 at 10:27 AM ^

Lyons has more maturity as a high school senior than I did at the age of 30.   And certainly more than some of the people commenting around here lately. 

He is going to be successful in life and would be great to have on the team.

Michigasling

December 5th, 2010 at 11:47 AM ^

 Lyons spends much of his time at school building robots,

http://www.engin.umich.edu/newscenter/feature/robotics/

A U-M team of over 20 students won a $750,000 grant as first place finishers in the Multi Autonomous Ground-robotic International Challenge (MAGIC), a two-year competition organized by the defense departments of the United States and Australia.

I'm having trouble embedding a picture of the team found on that page, but it may answer another of his questions.  The kids may not have graduated yet, but they're certainly there.  On the team.  Along with the white kids and the robots.

Zone Left

December 5th, 2010 at 11:31 AM ^

He sounds a lot like Myron Rolle.  Bobby Bowden got him because his official visit focused heavily on academics, during which they outlined a class by class plan to meet his academic goals while playing football.  Everyone else focused on football and didn't understand that academics really came first with him.

Mich_Faithful

December 5th, 2010 at 11:40 AM ^

He does sound like a great kid to have on the team.  Seems like he could develop into a great leader on our defense. Does anyone know how the visit went for him? Tomvh?