This Troup football star switched from offense to defense. Now top D-1 schools want him.
Tanner Glisson knew senior Andy Boykin was a special football player. He just had to get him on the right side of the ball first.
Boykin primarily played tight end at rival LaGrange High his freshman season. When he transferred to neighboring Troup for his sophomore year, Glisson, the Tigers’ coach, saw a future for him as a defensive lineman.
But Boykin wasn’t so sure.
“(Glisson) was like, ‘Hey, I want you play defense,’” Boykin said. “I’m like, ‘defense? I really don’t know.’”
But Glisson knew what he was talking about.
The defensive end’s 2019 stats don’t show it — Boykin drew a lot of double teams, his coach said — but he played a vital role in the Tigers’ defense in Troup’s run to the 2018 GHSA 4A playoff semifinals and the first round of the playoffs the following season.
Now the 6-4, 265-pound senior knows the switch from offense to defense was the right call. He’s gotten offers from top Division I programs like West Virginia, Georgia Tech, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Alabama, Miami, Florida State and Florida. In November 2017, he announced he had committed to Auburn but announced he had decommitted from the school in August 2018.
Boykin, a three-star prospect, according to 247Sports, is one of the highest-rated unsigned players in Georgia heading into National Signing Day on Feb. 5.
Transitioning to Troup
Football has always been a part of Boykin’s life.
His second cousin, Brandon Boykin, was a cornerback at Georgia before being picked by the Philadelphia Eagles in the fourth round of the 2012 NFL draft. He was traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2015.
Boykin grew up in a household of Auburn, Alabama, Florida and Georgia fans, but did not think of himself as a football talent until middle school. He played football and basketball (which he enjoyed more at the time), and ran cross country at Gardner Newman Middle School in LaGrange. He’d consistently win the one-mile during cross-country practice.
“As time progressed, I loved basketball and I wanted to play basketball,” Boykin said. “But, once I got (to Troup), and at LaGrange, I just evolved into more of a football player.”
Boykin does not sugarcoat things. He was “soft,” he said, when he got to Troup, and the transition to defensivewas difficult and required patience. During one morning practice, he and former Troup standout and current Auburn early enrollee Kobe Hudson got into a heated argument. Glisson’s solution was to make the two carry each other on their backs and bear crawl the length of the field, “Facing the Giants” style.
“If you don’t get tough,” Glisson said that morning, according to Boykin, “I will make it personal that you get back to LaGrange.”
Boykin said he has no hard feelings toward his former school. But he took Glisson’s words to heart, worked harder and got tougher as a player.
This season, Troup used Boykin as a three-technique defensive tackle, which is typically a defense’s premier interior pass rusher that must regularly break through double teams to reach the backfield.
Boykin recorded 65 tackles, nine tackles for loss and five sacks in 2019. He also blocked four kicks and was named to the All-Region 5-4A team.
Boykin is the No. 19 strong side defensive end in the country, according to 247sports, and the No. 53 player in Georgia. He ran a 5.43 40-yard dash at The Opening Regional last March.
“His stats may not have been what they were,” Glisson said. “But there’s a reason for that. And I think, once he gets out of here and gets a clean slate, I think he’s got a chance to play on Saturdays and a chance to play on Sundays.”
The next chapter
Boykin and several other Tigers will sign their National Letter of Intents at 1 p.m. on National Signing Day. He is keeping his decision a secret and declined to tall the Ledger-Enquirer his top schools. On Saturday, he is taking an official to Arkansas. It will be his first flight on a plane.
Boykin said he and Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman have a “great relationship.” Pittman visited with Boykin, his family and Glisson last week. Boykin called Pittman a “very genuine and classy person.”
Boykin has 15 offers, according to 247 Sports, but as of Wednesday didn’t have one from Arkansas. He also mentioned the possibility of double signing with a Division I program and a junior college due to academics.
“I was told by an SEC recruiter one time, that they can go 150, 200 miles and find really good skill guys,” Glisson said. “But you can’t find 275-pound defensive linemen.
“He has something that was a God-given ability, that you just can’t teach. That everybody wants and everybody’s in the market for.”
