Marcus Dumervil, like three of his fellow Aquinas seniors, is going to the SEC
Marcus Dumervil made his way to a table inside the St. Thomas Aquinas football locker room on Wednesday with more than 20 family members surrounding him.
His slow-and-steady approach to his college football recruitment was nearing its end.
In a live broadcast on ESPN2, the highly ranked senior offensive lineman spent close to five minutes thanking everyone who made his journey to this point possible by “putting me in a position to dominate week after week.”
His parents. His uncle and former NFL great Marcus Dumervil — “the greatest pass rusher in NFL history and the shortest to have 100 sacks.” The St. Thomas coaching staff, athletic director George Smith and his teammates.
After the moments of gratitude were shared, Dumervil has made his decision.
Dumervil, a four-star offensive tackle and the No. 97 overall player in the Class of 2020 according to the 247Sports composite rankings, signed his national letter of intent to play for the LSU Tigers.
Louisville, Elvis Dumervil’s alma mater, was runner-up for Dumervil’s services followed by Florida and Oklahoma.
Dumervil said he made up his mind over the weekend.
The deciding factors, according to Dumervil: “Just the winning culture and being welcomed.”
“I really felt like I was embraced,” Dumervil said, “and I can see myself being able to flourish.”
Dumervil, an Under Armour All-American and the top-ranked unsigned player from Broward County heading into the early signing period, is the fourth Aquinas player this recruiting cycle who will make his way to a Southeastern Conference school. Dumervil will join fellow offensive lineman Marlon Martinez at LSU while Marcus Rosemy and Derek Wingo are respectively heading to Georgia and Florida.
Martinez, Wingo and Rosemy submitted their letters of intent Wednesday morning and join a long line of Aquinas alumni to play in the SEC.
“It’ll be just like locker room time,” Dumervil said. “We’ll be friendly. We’ll fight. But at the end of the day, we’re still Raiders for life.”
Those three had been orally committed to their schools for months.
Dumervil, on the other hand, had no qualms letting his recruitment play out and waiting until the start of the three-day early signing period to make his decision. He wanted his focus to be on his senior year and chasing another elusive state title.
“I just tried to show him ‘It’s OK to take your time to make a quality decision,’” Paul Dumervil, Marcus’ dad, said after the ceremony. “My thing was ‘Forget committing. I don’t want you to commit anywhere. You’re going to be undecided until you’re decided. Once you’re decided, you’re signing.’”
His final year with St. Thomas Aquinas lived up to the billing. The Raiders ran the table with a perfect 14-0 record, capped with their state-record 11th FHSAA state title and first since Dumervil’s freshman year in 2016.
Aquinas outscored opponents 575-131 during their 14-game run. Dumervil anchored an offensive line that allowed Aquinas to rack up 4,932 yards of offense — 352.3 per game. This includes a staggering 3,186 rushing yards, or 227.6 yards on the ground each game.
“It wasn’t very stressful,” Dumervil said. “I took it time by time and just really focused on the season. We accomplished our goal.”
Now, Dumervil is taking the next steps to accomplishing his own goal of making it to the NFL by playing in the ever-challenging SEC. Playing football professionally has been a dream of his for a while and one that family thought could be reality as early as when he was 12 years old and playing for the Fort Lauderdale Hurricanes of the Florida Youth Football League.
“At the time, they were one of the top programs in the area — and still are,” Paul Dumervil said. “If he can make plays and compete with these guys, he’s going to be all right.”
Fast forward to Wednesday, and dad’s intuition turned out to be correct.
“He’s been special since he wanted to play football as a young kid,” Elvis Dumervil said. “He listens. He works hard. He earned himself this position.”
This story was originally published December 18, 2019 at 11:15 AM.
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