If you call yourself an SU fan and haven’t heard about Tommy DeVito’s performance at the Elite11 quarterback camp, you’ve been living under a rock. The New Jersey native dazzled coaches and scouts last weekend in California with his arm strength and intelligence.
Following that performance, DeVito earned an invite to the nation’s top camp: The Opening. The quarterback has been working hard to achieve these goals since the beginning of grade school he told the Fizz in this week’s episode of Orange Fizz radio.
“It wasn’t just an overnight thing,” DeVito said. “I’ve been training since I’ve been six years old with my quarterback coach Leon Clarke…We’ve always worked for something like this and now for this accomplishment to happen, having an opportunity to go to The Opening, it’s a blessing.”
Coming into Elite11, DeVito was the 77th ranked pro-style quarterback in the nation, per 247Sports. He used that rating as motivation.
“I just had a bigger chip on my shoulder and this just pushed me more and more,” he said. “I can be a five star, a two star, it doesn’t matter to me; that doesn’t affect how you play on Friday nights. I knew that if I kept working, I was going to stand out.”
DeVito’s success means he’s now getting more attention from schools. He says he plans to stick with Syracuse no matter what though.
“Texas A&M messaged me and gave another one of my quarterback coaches a call about me and Syracuse and then he messaged me and I said I’m committed to Syracuse and thank you for your time and that was it…The way those [SU] coaches act, they’re such personable people. If I had a kid in 10 or fifteen years from now I’d want him to come to Syracuse and play under this coaching staff.”
Right now, the Orange has three players in its 2017 recruiting class. DeVito wants to change that number ASAP. He’s even trying to bring in one of the nation’s top receivers, Connecticut’s CJ Holmes.
“Our big thing is we’re trying to get the weapons around me,” he said. “There’s going to be a whole bunch of kids that are going to want to be in that offense…CJ Holmes, that’s my real target right now. I mean him and Eddie Lewis. Being able to see CJ at The Opening, that’ll be a real big part of it.”
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Posted: Connor Morrissette
