Syracuse football recruiting: 2022 DL Malachi Davis decommits from Orange, commits to Toledo

With some reasonable optimism around these parts for the Syracuse Orange football team’s 3-1 start, it would make sense that another show was bound to drop. That came swiftly on Friday, as 2022 defensive lineman Malachi Davis decommitted from Syracuse and then committed to the Toledo Rockets.

Now while it’s never great to lose a commit, there are some possible reasons for the move that don’t paint this in as negative a light as it could be on paper. With a 3-3-5 scheme, Syracuse needs fewer linemen and Davis was one of three in the 2022 recruiting class — with Belizaire Bassette and (current top commit) Q’yaeir Price still in the fold — and maybe he saw playing time at a premium in the near future. While we don’t know if this was the case, it also could’ve been an instance of SU sort of moving onto other targets. So him decommitting and then heading to Toledo could’ve been a coordinated move for all involved.

The third option could’ve been Toledo playing the long game on payback for the “blown” call at the end of the 2011 Orange win at the Dome. Alas, we’ll likely never know for sure.

Best of luck with Toledo, Malachi!