Prep Watch: Dillon Romain

Dillon Romain will spend a prep season at Blair Academy this fall and while colleges may have overlooked him last season, we highly doubt they’ll be able to miss him after he plays a full prep schedule at running back, safety and as a return specialist.

One prospect that we feel was overlooked last season was Don Bosco Prep running back Dillon Romain. College coaches obviously know how to spot talent and several had Romain on their boards, but he did not end up with offers until signing day had already past. One reason may be that colleges see Romain as a safety prospect and as a senior, he was unable to play defense because he was the workhorse at running back. Hopefully for him, his time at Blair Academy this season shows those recruiters what they need to see. For now, let’s take a look at some facts and some opinions on Romain.

Physically, Romain passes the eyeball test. He is a solid 5-foot-11 and fluctuates between 200 and 210 pounds. According to extremely reliable sources, his 40-yard dash is a median 4.46 and more importantly, he runs a 4.25 short shuttle, showing his agility and quickness. He works with a professional trainer and currently box squats 550 pounds with a max bench press of 350 pounds.

As far as on the field accomplishments, Romain was the Gatorade Player of the Year for New Jersey during his senior year and helped lead his high school teams to three straight state championships. As a senior, he carried the football 206 times for 1436 yards and 25 touchdowns. Let’s take a look at a few stat lines from that season against nationally renowned teams.

Vs. St. Xavier (Ohio) – 14 carries for 104 yards

Vs. De La Salle (Cal) – 24 carries for 152 yards and a touchdown. Not only is De La Salle a legendary program, but they only lost twice last year, in the state championship and against Romain’s Don Bosco squad.

Vs. St. Joe’s Regional(Montvale) – 22 carries for 136 yards and four touchdowns. Ok, St. Joe’s isn’t a national powerhouse, however until they faced Romain, they had not allowed a rushing touchdown all season. Two other running backs they faced prior to Romain were Tennessee commitment Nyshier Oliver and Notre Dame commitment Theo Riddick, who has already made a big name for himself early in South Bend.

Romain could bulk up and play fullback in college, play running back or move back to safety. This year he will attend Blair Academy where he will certainly get a chance to shine and show his talents as a post-grad. Two years ago Blair had a talented running back in Ed Imeokparia who ended up a safety at Florida State. Imeokparia lit up combines and had blistering speed, so Romain may not stack up there, but he is as good a running back as Imeokparia was and also played against better competition in Group IV. The point is, both are/were very talented players and Blair should open doors for Romain as they did for Imeokparia.

Romain was offered scholarships by a few I-AA programs this year, but decided to attend Blair Academy rather than jump into a situation he wasn’t 100-percent comfortable in. He is very interested in attending Pittsburgh after prep school and in our opinion schools like Villanova, Delaware or Richmond could be places were he would shine. He has FBS level talent, the question is just which position he’ll play there. Safety is the most likely spot, however due to injuries in the Don Bosco Prep backfield he couldn’t give colleges a taste of his defensive skills as a senior.

By the time Blair’s season is over we expect Romain to have several offers to choose from and as mentioned previously, are surprised he had to hit the prep ranks first.