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Given an opportunity, Dion Lewis quickly emerges from the pack

FOXBORO — College football recruiting can present all types of challenges, and the one facing Dave Wannstedt when he was at Pittsburgh was fairly steep.

With LeSean McCoy likely to leave for the pros after his sophomore season, Wannstedt and his staff were in search of a player who could get on campus as an early enrollee to replace one of the top backs in the game.

“So all these guys were bringing in these backs and we were watching tape,” said Wannstedt, now a broadcast analyst for Fox, “and (assistant coach) Jeff Hafley came in and he said, ‘Coach, I want to be up front with you.