SU Football Recruiting: Amir Ealey Verbally Commits to Syracuse

The Orange strengthened the Defensive End position in a big way Sunday evening, securing a verbal commitment from Coatesville (PA) High School's Amir Ealey. Ealey is one of the biggest gets for the staff in the 2015 cycle, and chose the Orange from a pretty impressive offer list. He joins Dana Levine, Keivonnis Davis, and Brandon Ginnetti at the position, where reinforcements are vital as Trevon Trejo, Micah Robinson, and Rob Welsh are all graduating.

He visited Syracuse with his teammate, Jazzee Stocker, for official visits last weekend, and both players came out significantly impressed with what they saw. Amir was the first to pull the trigger and hopefully his commitment will push Stocker a bit closer to the Orange as well. Ealey also visited the Maryland campus this weekend, so it appears he got that feeling that most of us did when we visited Syracuse and decided there wasn't a better place for us.

Ealey chose the Orange over offers from Louisville, Maryland, North Carolina, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, Virginia, West Virginia, UCF, UConn, and Cincinnati.

Tape Breakdown

Ealey's athleticism is pretty evident, as he looks to be a very solid player at two positions. At TE, he shows nice speed, a low center of gravity, and some nice route running skills. He looks to be very hard to tackle and can go up and get a ball too. He's not quite as fast as guys like Adly Enoicy or Jamal Custis, but he's definitely quicker than guys like Josh Parris and Kendall Moore. 

However, we recruited him as a DE, so the more pertinent highlights to this review are on defense, though it's good to see the all around ability of a guy like this. Amir is quick off the snap, and his long strides and lankiness remind me somewhat of Chandler Jones when he first arrived at Syracuse. Because of his size, he definitely plays a bit higher than we'd probably like, but coaching will solve that.

I know it's only a highlight tape, but there are a few examples of him getting in his gap and holding off his man, and then making a tackle on the ball carrier. I love seeing plays like this in a game tape because it lets you know you're getting a smart, coachable player. He's doing exactly what the coach wants him to do and isn't over pursuing because he thinks he can make a superstar play. This is very encouraging and I'm looking forward to see Amir Ealey donning the Orange Blue in 2015.