Package deal? Homestead’s two star D-linemen have Miami among early leaders in recruitment
Dante Anderson and Daniel Lyons, two of the top five defensive linemen in South Florida for the Class of 2022, can both vouch, better than anyone else, for the reasons the other is successful.
Anderson — a 6-foot-3, 205-pound defensive end — is a freak athlete, with uncontainable quickness off the edge. Lyons — 6-4, 270-pound defensive tackle — is graceful and strong. The real secret, though, is the way they play together.
It’s no wonder the Miami Hurricanes — and about half a dozen other teams across the country — want to make both part of their 2022 recruiting class.
“Me and him together, they’ve got to change their whole game plan. They plot their game on us,” Lyons said Sunday at an Under Armour All-America camp in Ives Estates. “Most schools, they run from him and they try to trap me. There’s plays that they have for us. A couple people have told us they have plays for us to trap us and stuff.”
The two have been teammates since they were 11, playing for the South Kendall Gators, and they haven’t stopped since. They spent two years together at Miami Southridge before transferring — again, together — to Homestead for the 2020 season. Together, they helped transform the Broncos from an afterthought — they won just two games in 2019 — into one of the Miami metropolitan area’s top teams in 2020. Homestead reached the Class 7A, Region 4 semifinals before falling to Venice, but only after winning three playoff games for the first time since 2002.
The Hurricanes have been on both since they were underclassmen and they’re still among the Hurricanes’ top targets for the 2022 recruiting cycle.
Anderson is the No. 1 weak-side defensive end in Miami-Dade County, according to the 247Sports.com composite rankings. Lyons is the county’s No. 1 defensive tackle. It’s possible they could be a package deal, although neither said it’s guaranteed.
“We want to play together at the next level, but if things don’t go as planned we’re our own men,” Lyons said. “We’re both going to do what we do. We’re both still going to be great.”
Dante Anderson’s fit at Miami
Anderson, as Lyons describes him, fits exactly the profile coach Manny Diaz likes in his defensive ends.
When Anderson and Lyons played together for South Kendall, Anderson was a skinny, speedy wide receiver and defensive back.
“He was all over the field,” Lyons said. “He played everything.”
The Hurricanes have prioritized slender, lanky athletes at defensive end, trusting their athleticism to translate as they bulk up. Gregory Rousseau is the prime example, and the star defensive end is likely to be a first-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.
Anderson said Miami is “one of the schools on me the most.”
“They talk to me every day,” Anderson said Sunday at Ives Estates Park.
Senior advisor Todd Stroud was the coach to initially make an offer to Anderson before Diaz shifted him to an off-the-field role. Anderson said he’s now building a relationship with new defensive line coach Jess Simpson, who has taken over the recruitment.
Anderson said the most important factor in his recruitment, though, will be playing time, and the Hurricanes could potentially offer plenty of it. Star defensive ends Jaelan Phillips and Quincy Roche got the vast majority of snaps last season, and both are off to the NFL now. The Hurricanes are trying to rebuild the position and will lean mostly on unproven underclassmen in 2021.
“They said I could get on the field right away,” Anderson said.
The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, Tennessee Volunteers, Oklahoma Sooners and Penn State Nittany Lions are also among the schools Anderson hears from the most, he said, and the Florida State Seminoles and Florida Gators are also involved.
Daniel Lyons’ fit at Miami
The Hurricanes like Lyons, too, and are pitching the juniors on continuing to play together in college. Georgia Tech, Florida and Penn State are making the same pitch, Lyons said, and the Ole Miss Rebels are also after the duo.
Lyons, though, points out there are some differences among the schools they’re talking with: Lyons talks with the Georgia Bulldogs and Michigan Wolverines, and Anderson with the North Carolina Tar Heels and South Carolina Gamecocks.
Lyons comes at a position of lesser need for the Hurricanes, who landed five-star defensive tackle Leonard Taylor in the Class of 2021 and have more proven underclassmen on the interior.
Still, Lyons was one of Florida’s breakout stars in 2020, with five sacks in only six games. As Anderson said, “there’s just too much” he can do with his blend of strength and quickness. Lyons was mostly an offensive lineman and defensive lineman when they were young, but he did play some tight end.
The Taylor connection could be important. Anderson and Lyons played alongside Taylor with at Southridge, when Anderson and Lyons were freshmen, and Taylor was a sophomore. Their defensive coordinator was Phillip Simpson, whose now the Broncos’ coach, and their defensive line coach was Patrick Cooney — the brother of recruiting director David Cooney.
Simpson, who was an assistant coach with the Spartans when Cooney was their offensive coordinator, still has a close relationship with Taylor, and the three blue-chip defensive linemen often work out together.
The connections all bode well for the Hurricanes, although neither is in a rush to make an oral commitment. The dead period still isn’t over, and the four-star linemen have visits they want to take.
