Four-star returns from Tennessee

Four-star athlete prospect Dietrich Riley (6-1, 200, 4.47) from La Canada (Calif.) St. Francis headed to SEC country for an official visit to Tennessee this past weekend and talked to Rivals.com about his visit and how his season is going.

"I had a blast," Riley said. "I had a chance to be with some top recruits. I was there with Jeff Luc and Matt Elam, who I am good friends with.

"It was a great atmosphere," Riley said. "There were 102,000 fans there and I was kind of disappointed and kind of bummed that the Vols lost, but I got a chance to listen to Coach Lane Kiffin talk after the game. His post game speech and he was just saying how they just have to believe in themselves they're a championship team and just mark that they're going to win next week. I just loved the attitude and the confidence that Coach Kiffin had in the team that he knows that they're going to win next week and they are going to practice so hard this week.

"Tennessee is going to get after it and I believe that they can up with a win next week," Riley said. "Other than that I got a chance to hang out with a lot of the players.

"Eric Berry, Janzen Jackson and the cornerback Art Evans, those were the guys that I had a chance to hang out with," Riley said. "And I felt really comfortable being around the whole team.

"I got a chance to be in a (team) meeting, the special teams walk-thru and was I got to eat lunch with them," Riley said. "So it was a great day."

"Knoxville is kind of small," Riley said. "I'm not used to being in a small area, but the fans were great. They showed such a huge amount of support. Everyone there are Tennessee fans.

"Even on the airplane coming back home everyone was like you were at the game and talking to me," Riley said. "It was pretty amazing."

As excited as Riley was about his visit, he did not commit.

"I wasn't tempted to commit because I know I have four other visits ready to go," Riley said. "It's going to be hard to make a commitment right now."

Riley has visits committed to Notre Dame (10-16), Florida, and USC (12-13). At this time he hasn't decided on his last visit yet.

The schools in the running for the last visit are UCLA, Washington, Oklahoma, Michigan and Cal.

"I seriously don't know how I am going to decided on my last visit," Riley said. "If I don't take an official visit to any of those schools, I will try to do unofficial visits so I can at least still show them some interest."

It appears that Riley is going to be a very busy young man this winter and his decision won't be any time too soon. Riley says that most likely he won't have a decision until January or February.

On the season, Riley is living up to his reputation as one of the Golden State's best players and he's getting the job done on both sides of the ball.

"We're doing well," Riley said about his team so far this season. "We're 4-0. We're coming off a great win this past Friday against Rio Mesa.

"They had a running back (Jamaal Perkins) who was coming off 300 yard plus game," Riley said. "So we knew we had to swarm and we did. We held him to under 40 yards.

"That just shows you that are D is getting after it, we're not taking any slack" Riley said. "We're playing with attitude on offense and defense. We're doing well."

On the season Riley only has 28 carries, but he has rushed for over 300 yards. He has also scored five rushing and three receiving touchdowns. Riley is becoming a genuine receiving threat he has over 250 receiving yards to with his three touchdown receptions.

Defensively, Riley has one pick, but he feels he should have had two more last Friday, but he dropped a couple interception opportunities. They weren't easy picks that were like punt returns, but he jumped routes and in his excitement he dropped the ball.

Riley earned a spot on the Rivals.com Rivals100 for the class 2010 ranking as the nation's No. 94 prospect at any position. He was also selected to the Rivals.com California Preseason Top 100 team landing as the Golden State's No. 15 prospect at any position.