Football Recruiting: Daivon Ellison chooses Orange

Daivon Ellison (@DaiEllison_2), a 2015 CB prospect out of Don Bosco Prep in New Jersey, verbally committed to play college football at Syracuse today. This is another win for Coach Bobby Acosta and the rest of the Syracuse staff, as it furthers the Orange resurgence in the Garden State.

Ellison joins fellow New Jersey prospects Daiquan Kelly (@KellyDaiquan) and Dontae Strickland (@tae_strick_23) in the 2015 class. Ellison was the mysterious "silent verbal" that was hinted about since June. Despite rumors he was waiting until his mother's birthday to commit on Aug. 11th, Ellison waited it out a bit longer before choosing the orange. Syracuse has made quite a comeback in the state this cycle, and looks to be establishing the foothold it held during our peak in the 80's and 90's.

Ellison visited SU back in June, and loved his trip. He’s spent the summer refining his game, and was at the Deion Sanders Prime 21 Camp in July.

Daivon chose the Orange over offers from Boston College, Rutgers, and Old Dominion.

Tape Review

(Disclaimer: While I played a bit of football back in the day, I'm not an expert on tape review so I'm not going to assign a grade or point out weaknesses. I'm just going to give an idea of what I think he does well and how he can fit in our team.)

Daivon plays at Don Bosco Prep, which is one of the best prep schools in the country, so the best part of the tape is being able to see him compete against top-notch talent. His tape shows him playing both safety and cornerback, which gives us a better breakdown of his skill set and versatility.

The first thing that sticks out about Ellison is his reactions. He reads the field extremely well at two positions, breaking on the ball as soon as it’s thrown and breaking up numerous plays. His lack of size can be nullified because of this, as he’s able to react at the proper time and meet the ball before the wide receiver.

For a cornerback, he delivers some punishing hits on opposing rushers, and his tackling technique is near perfect, as he wraps up well and hits with his shoulder. His physicality for a player of his stature is rare, and will help him a lot on the next level. His jams off the line are well done and in a few instances clearly disrupt the opposing QB’s timing.

Daivon reminds me a lot of Wayne Morgan, and I think that will be the role we’ll see him play here at Syracuse - a nickel/slot CB that can play some safety from time to time. I’m excited to see Ellison’s development over his senior year and progression into SU.