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The Texas Longhorns haven't extended many wide receiver offers in the class of 2015 after taking a large group in 2014, but Franklinton (La.) Pine's Derrick Dillon picked up his offer from the Horns on Wednesday after a weekend visit.
A consensus four-star prospect, the 5'11, 180-pounder is rated at 96 by 247Sports and is the No. 15 athlete nationally and the No. 7 player in Louisiana by the 247Sports Composite rankings, good enough for No. 196 nationally, though 247Sports has him in the top 100.
Including a Tuesday offer from Oklahoma, Dillon now has 13 to his name, including Arizona State, Florida, Florida State, Louisiana Tech, Louisiana-Lafayette, Mississippi State, Notre Dame, Southern Miss, Tennessee, Texas A&M, and UCLA.
A notable absence in that group is in-state power LSU, despite the fact that there are still Crystal Ball predictions in favor of the home-state Tigers. As a result of that lack of an offer, Texas is getting into his recruitment at a good time -- better now than waiting and letting LSU make a move first.
The Horns have also already gotten Dillon on campus, as the high school quarterback and all-around playmaker visited last weekend, which went well other than the fact that he wasn't able to meet head coach Charlie Strong because he got there late. Dillon told Rivals that Texas "would probably be high on my list" after offering.
At the Houston NFTC, Dillon wasn't able to earn an invite to the Opening, but based on the fact that he won a number of reps and rarely if ever seemed to lose any, there's a chance to could still pick one up later in the process. Here's a taste of what he did:
#Top247 playmaker Derrick Dillon at #NFTC https://t.co/CKDdGlITfc
— Jeff Howe (@JeffHowe247) April 6, 2014
On film in high school, Dillon is even more impressive with the ball in his hands. In fact, it's hard to believe that Rivals could rate him as a three-star prospect because his lateral jump cut is absolutely unbelievable and the paths that he can take through traffic are only limited by his imagination.
His size is obviously well less than ideal, but there's a reason why 247Sports so highly considers his skill set -- it's because of his explosiveness and change of direction. As a result, he projects as a dynamic slot receiver. There's a bit of a lack of experience there playing wide receiver, but it didn't hurt him at the Houston NFTC.
There's really not much more that needs to be said about Dillon as an athlete other than declaring that he's clearly a home-run threat every time he touches the football. Except perhaps to note that he recently ran a 10.72 100m, which is quite a respectable number.
If the Tigers don't offer, Dillon is supposed to be high on Florida Florida State, and Texas A&M, so it's possible it could come down to another Longhorn-Aggie battle. The good news is that the Horns have already gotten Dillon on campus and made a positive impression.