Only Elkanah Dillon Days Until USF Football Season

#85 Elkanah Dillon
Sophomore, 6'5", 245 lbs.

That's Pronounced... El-CANE-uh. Or you can just call him by his nickname, Kano.

2015 Stats: As USF's third tight end behind seniors Sean Price and Marlon Pope, Dillon played in 10 games and caught nine passes for 208 yards and two touchdowns. The majority of his yards came in the season opener against Florida A&M, when he set the USF record for most receiving yards in a game by a tight end with 126 on four catches, including a 62-yard touchdown from Steven Bench. His other touchdown came on a fantastic catch against Memphis. (I'm sorry, but Mack Brown is part of this video.)

Position on Depth Chart: Dillon goes into fall as the starting tight end.

How He Came to USF: Elkanah played at Vanguard High School in Ocala. Even though he had never played football before his sophomore year, Dillon developed into a good pass-catching tight end, racking up 45 catches for 596 yards and six touchdowns his senior year. He had offers from Kentucky and Wisconsin and interest from Florida, but ultimately joined the Bulls' 2014 recruiting class.

Recruiting Rankings: 247 and Scout gave Dillon three stars. Rivals gave him two, and ESPN did not give him a star rating.

Projected Playing Time: He'll get plenty of action this year. It's been interesting how tight ends have not gotten quite as big of a role as many people thought they would when Taggart came in three years ago. Players like Coby Fleener and Jack Doyle were often the first or second read in the old Stanford offense that Taggart was running up to his arrival in Tampa. In USF's current offense, the tight end typically sneaks out on play action passes and runs free up the seams for huge gains. Dillon showed surprising smoothness for someone his size when he got to play that role last year. That should continue this year. Most importantly, he'll need to be fast enough to get to the linebackers and get them blocked to help spring runners into the open field.

Follow Him On... Twitter at @CityBoyKano and Instagram at the same handle (private account). He cleans up really nice, by the way.

That's what it's all about ❤️ ...kilt the scene pic.twitter.com/rSFg6CTFMt

— Elkanah Dillon (@CityBoyKano) May 9, 2016