Tommy DeVito has had one incredible summer that has made the future look incredibly bright for Syracuse Orange football. He is now beginning preseason workouts with his high school team (Don Bosco Prep) in New Jersey. On Thursday, DeVito took some time to talk with Stephen Bailey of Syracuse.com.
First, Bailey asked him about his success at the Elite 11 camp. DeVito responded saying "I just knew my playbook. That was probably the biggest thing, and trusted in the Elite 11 coaches and what their system is. As far as the timing and that kind of thing, the belief in the offense, and that's what I did. I just knew all the plays, knew them in and out, knew where the receivers were going to be. That really helped me perform well."
DeVito then talked about the technical changes that he made to his game from working with the coaches at the camp.
"Aside from the throwing part of it, probably the leadership role. We definitely learned that a lot more than LA. Just getting little bits and pieces that we can bring back to our high schools. As far as the throwing part, just being more relaxed when you're throwing. That's about it."
Bailey then shifted gears to talking about DeVito's experience with New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz.
"(Cruz) came in contact with my offensive coordinator coach (Mike) Teel, who I guess he's friends with. And then (Teel) asked me 'Would you like to throw with Victor Cruz' So I said, 'Of Course. What kind of question is that?' I met him at William Patterson field, threw to him and another guy (Justin Talley) and it was fun."
The conversation then turned to Syracuse and DeVito talked about what kind of contact he and the Syracuse coaches have had recently.
"I speak with Coach Lewis every day. We talk about football, we talk about everything, barbecue. We were talking about cooking and already made a bet that if I throw a certain amount of touchdown passes, he'll cook me dinner. Just fun stuff like that, but mainly about recruiting. We're trying to have the same mindset for recruiting players. Like our last receiver, we agreed on the one player that we chose (Russell Thompson-Bishop), We're just agreeing on the players that we think can better the program - not only as an athlete, but as a person."
DeVito was also asked about whether other schools have reached out to him and his response was "No. I think they all got the message."
If you would like to see the entire interview with DeVito, you can click here.