Five-star St. Thomas Aquinas tackle Julian Armella wants to see Miami win in 2021
Julian Armella, a five-star prospect and No. 1 tackle in the Rivals.com rankings for the Class of 2022, is getting ready to narrow down his choices and most of his schools under consideration are typical for an elite prospect in 2021.
The St. Thomas Aquinas senior’s list starts with the last four teams to play for a national championship — the Clemson Tigers, Alabama Crimson Tide, LSU Tigers and Ohio State Buckeyes — and then goes to the regional schools. The Florida Gators — who, like those other four, have cracked the top five in the last two years — are definitely a factor, too.
Rounding out the group are the Miami Hurricanes and Florida State Seminoles. There are obvious reasons why — Armella is from South Florida and his father played at Florida State — but he needs those two to give him a real reason to consider them.
“I’m really looking forward to seeing how they do this year,” Armella said Saturday after helping the Raiders beat Baltimore’s St. Frances Academy, 38-22, in Fort Lauderdale. “That’s going to be a big eye-opener for them. I think Miami has a lot of good guys. Same thing with FSU — they’re doing great with their recruiting class, so I’m looking forward to seeing what they do.”
The next step for Armella is putting out his top four — he plans to announce it “in the next couple weeks,” he said — and the Hurricanes and Seminoles are both under consideration for one of the final spots.
Although he said it’s still “unreleased,” Armella did tip his hand about two of the four. He has a pair of official visits on his mind for the fall: Armella wants to visit Florida and Alabama at some point this season.
Armella, who already officially visited LSU in June, is also mulling trips to Miami, Florida State, Clemson and Ohio State.
“I’m going to drop my top four soon,” said Armella, who’s the No. 126 overall prospect in the 247Sports.com composite rankings for the 2022 recruiting class.
Armella also made a trip to Coral Gables in June, heading down to campus for the Hurricanes’ “First Day Out” cookout on the day the 15-month dead period lifted. Armella, who played at Columbus last season after spending his first two years at St. Thomas Aquinas, gave the hometown team one of the first shots to make an in-person impression in his recruitment.
The 6-foot-6, 300-pound offensive lineman, however, hasn’t been back to Miami since. He also visited Florida State on the first day of June — the Seminoles held a midnight event as soon as the dead period ended — and took his official visit to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, but otherwise he laid low throughout most of the spring and summer.
“I haven’t had time,” Armella said. “I’ve been at St. Thomas Aquinas, working.”
It means Armella will likely wait until the winter to make a commitment. He won’t be able to graduate early because of school rules, so he plans to either commit at the All-American Bowl or during one of the signing days on ESPN.
It will give the Hurricanes a chance to rise in Armella’s estimation — if they can deliver on Saturdays.
After Miami missed out on four-star tackle Jacob Hood on Monday, Armella is one of the Hurricanes’ best remaining chances at a blue-chip tackle in the 2022 recruiting cycles.
“I’ve been talking to all of these schools,” Armella said. “Right now since it’s a dead period, it’s about communication and stuff like that. It’s just developing these relationships, seeing how the season goes this year, seeing wins, losses and all of that.”
This story was originally published August 31, 2021 at 3:06 PM.
