Attracting attention
War r iors’ LB Rivers has become target of college recruiters
By ROBERT NIEDZWIECKI
The Winchester Star
STEPHENS CITY— It’s the fourth game of the 2014 football season at Kettle Run High School in Nokesville, and Sherando outside linebacker Dylan Rivers starts to move toward the right side of the line in anticipation of the shotgun snap.
Cougars running back Quay Payton — who lines up a couple feet to the left and a couple feet back of Kettle Run quarterback Denzel Champion — sees Rivers rushing around the edge early enough to give him plenty of time to attempt a block.
But as soon as Rivers — then a 6-foot-3, 205-pound sophomore — hits the 185-pound Payton, Payton’s immediately sent flying back toward Champion. With Rivers practically on top of him at this point, Champion spins back toward the middle to avoid the rush. But Rivers keeps coming and grabs Champion, and a moment later a Warrior teammate helps Rivers finish Champion off for the sack.
The aforementioned scene is the opening play on Rivers’ highlight video on Hudl, and ther e’s no shortage of examples of Rivers’ anticipation, speed and physicality over the ensuing six minutes on not only defense, but also offense and special teams.
“ He shows well on film,” said Sherando coach Bill Hall said from the Warriors’ coaches office on Tuesday.
A lot of people agree with him.
The 6-foot-3, 225-pound rising junior has 13 scholarship offers from NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision schools, and the collegiate interest is due in large part because of coaches looking at the film that Hall has sent out to schools. Rivers did not hit the summer camp circuit hard prior to his sophomore year, only attending ones held at Virginia Tech and James Madison in 2014.
Schools from each of the NCAA’s “ B ig Five” conferences have offered scholarships to Rivers, including seven from the 12-team
See
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Scout.com since 2011 — says the attention toward Rivers is definitely justified for a player who benches 330 pounds, squats 415 and has a top 40- yard dash of 4.69 seconds.
Scout.com has Rivers ranked as a four- star recruit. Scout.com has Rivers ranked as Virginia’s top outside linebacker in the class of 2017, No. 13 among the nation’s outside linebackers, and No. 190 among all players in the class of 2017.
“ Dy lan’s someone who really catches your eye on video,” s ai d Clark, who received film directly from Hall last year. “ He’s big, strong and fast, he has a great work ethic, and he’s a high- character kid. He’s got the size and speed that coaches want, and he’ll get bigger and stronger. He hits harder than a lot of lot of college linebackers already. I’m confident he’s going to keep getting better.”
Rivers is ranked 16th among the nation’s outside linebackers by 247Sports for the class of 2017 ( four stars). Rivals. com only has Rivers at three stars, but Rivals lists him as inside linebacker, and ranks him 12th nationally for the 2017 class as a linebacker.
Rivers has definitely come a long way in a short time.
As a freshman, Rivers recorded 10 catches for 147 yards and three touchdowns as a tight end/wide receiver on offense and 11 tackles on defense on a veteran- laden team that played in the Group 4A state championship game.
With the Warriors losing their entire starting linebacker corps from that 2013 team, Sherando was counting on Rivers to play a much bigger role in 2014 in all phases of the game. He didn’t disappoint. In the season opener against Musselman (W.Va.), he rushed six times for 76 yards and a touchdown and caught two passes for 34 yards and a TD.
At linebacker, Rivers was particularly pleased with that game against Kettle Run on Sept 19. Though Rivers’ primarily role last year was to play in coverage on the weak side of the formation, Rivers made his mark when he was called to rush off the edge (of his 31 tackles last year, 19 were for loss, including four sacks) and against the Cougars Rivers had 4.5 tackles (3.5 for loss) and two sacks.
“That was definitely my peak,” Rivers said.
Rivers suffered a high- ankle sprain at the end of that game, which forced him to miss the next three contests. Rivers said he wasn’t as explosive coming off the line when he did come back against Handley on Oct. 18, but as Rivers’ Hudl video shows, he still made plenty of highlight-reel plays that demonstrate his speed and physicality over the remainder of the season.
Sherando’s bye week came the week after that Handley game, and Warriors assistant coach Mike Marsh took advantage of it by flying out to Tucson, Ariz., to see his son Michael at the University of Arizona, where he was doing an internship as an athletic trainer.
The trip also gave Marsh a chance to spread the word about Rivers, because he knew several of the coaches through coaching clinics that were held at West Virginia University. Former WVU coach Rich Rodriguez, now at Arizona, has many of his former WVU coaches on staff there, including defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel.
Marsh urged Casteel to check out Rivers. Hall sent Casteel — whom he also knew from WVU — film of Rivers, and Casteel and the Wildcats were impressed enough to become the first school to offer Rivers an athletic scholarship on Nov. 23.
“I didn’t think I was going to be of fered any time soon [ after Marsh’s trip],” Rivers said. “[Get ting so many offers], it’s definitely emotional. When I got my first offer from Arizona, my dad [Philip] and I were pretty happy about it. After that, they started coming in and coming in. It’s been a fun ride.”
Another Warriors assistant coach with a connection helped with Rivers’ second offer, which came from WVU. Cory Carlson played for former Penn State assistant coach Tom Bradley, who spent the 2014 season at WVU and is now the defensive coordinator at UCLA. After Carlson told Bradley WVU needed to look at him, the Mountaineers did, and offered immediately (Dec. 1). Three days after that, Hall sent film to ODU, and the Monarchs offered within an hour of watching Rivers’ film.
Ever since, Hall said the focus has been contacting schools that Rivers could see himself going to as opposed to contacting schools just to see if they’re interested.
“ The goal is not to get 50 offers,” Hall said. “I can very easily send film out to Montana, all the other schools out west, and I can get an offer for him. But what’s that going to accomplish if he would never even go out there? The offers that he has are from schools that are of interest to him.
“Once you get the highlight film done, it’s not hard to send it out to people, but you don’t want to waste the time of the coaches, and you don’t want to waste Dylan’s time. Once they see him and once they offer, there’s a whole recruiting process that takes up his time.”
As evidenced by his upcoming fifth trip to State College, Pa., this weekend, Penn State is definitely one of those schools that Rivers can envision going to.
Hall said when he and Rivers went to the Ohio State game on Oct. 25, the Nittany Lions actually ha dn ’ t watched him on film yet. Rivers got to go to that game based on Sherando telling Penn State it had a Division I player who was interested in going to school there. (In addition to having former Nittany Lion Carlson on staff, Sherando has produced several Division I players over the years under Hall, including former Virginia and South Alabama quarterback Ross Metheny.) “The atmosphere at Penn State is insane,” Rivers said. “I love it. I love how the loud the fans get. It’s amazing there.”
During a visit to Penn State on Jan. 31, the Nittany Lions became the first school to offer Rivers in person ( and the fourth to offer overall). Virginia offered Rivers on a recruiting a trip on Feb. 7, and Virginia Tech offered Rivers on Feb. 28.
Rivers said there’s a lot to like about those three schools, as well as his two other top choices in Duke ( who offered May 19) and Clemson ( whose June 4 offer is Rivers’ most recent one).
“At Penn State, all the coaches showed a lot of love. [Linebackers] coach [Brent] Pry stayed with me my entire junior day,” said Rivers (junior days are unofficial visits). “I really appreciated that, because it showed how much he liked me. At Virginia Tech, all the coaches show a lot of love too. [Defensive coordinator Bud] Foster worked out with me one-on-one last month, and it was nice to see how I would fit in his scheme if I do commit there. He’s been one of the best defensive coordinators in the country for I don’t know how many years.
“At Virginia, I like the academic part of it. I like that the degree will carry a lot of weight after college football. Clemson’s a big- time school, and [ linebackers] coach [ Brent] Venables is very nice to talk to. And I like Duke for academics.”
Hall said Rivers couldn’t be handling the recruiting process any better, which was particularly busy during the FBS evaluation period that ran from April 15 to May 31.
In addition to the fact that Hall was receiving calls ever y day checking up on Rivers ( colleges can’t call Rivers directly), Hall said the schools at the top of Rivers’ list each came by Sherando twice, the maximum number of visits allowed. ( Coaches do encourage Rivers to call them though, and Rivers has been calling them once every two or three weeks.) Rivers — who would like to give his verbal commitment before the 2016 Sherando season begins — said he hasn’t let any of the attention get to his head.
“ I’m thankful and very grateful,” he said.
That’s showing up in the work he’s putting in this summer to be the best he can be for Sherando. For three our four days each week, Rivers’ routine has consisted of lifting from 8-9 a.m., running from 910 a. m., one- on- one receiver- defender drills with players like former Warriors Josh Ojo and Rhett Morris at 11: 45, then once that’s over two hours and 30 minutes in the gym.
“I definitely want to be a leader out there,” said Rivers, who will be playing on the strong side of the formation for Sherando on defense this season.
Wherever Rivers is on the field this fall, Hall has no doubt he will be a leader.
Rivers is no slouch on offense — Tennessee is actually recruiting Rivers as a tight end. (In addition to making punishing blocks last year, Rivers caught 21 passes for 184 yards and four TDs as a tight end and wide receiver in 2014, and ran 29 times for 175 yards and a TD while operating primarily out of the Wildcat.) Rivers is also someone who has been used in all facets of special teams, including punting and returning kicks.
“We’re just going to put him in the best place to make plays,” Hall said. “We’re going to try and put him in the best situations for him to be successful and us to be successful. I think he can have a dramatic impact in all three phases — spe cial teams won’t be an area where he rests. We’ll just have to make sure we get him some blows at the right times and in the right situations.”
— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at r niedzwiecki@winchester star.com Follow on Twitter @WinStarSports1
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Dylan’s someone who really catches your eye on video. He’s big, strong and fast, he has a great work ethic, and he’s a high-character kid. He’s got the size and speed that coaches want, and he’ll get bigger and stronger. He hits harder than a lot of lot of college linebackers already. I’m confident he’s going to keep getting better.
— Michael Clark
regional recruiting coordinator on Dylan Rivers
Sherando’s Dylan Rivers is also a threat to catch and carry the ball on offense. He caught 21 passes for 184 yards and four touchdowns and rushed for 175 yards and a score last fall. On defense, Rivers had 31 tackles, including 19 for losses, and four sacks.
JEFF TAYLOR/ The Winchester Star
