Purdue Football Recruiting: Curtis Deville Jr. Commits!

Purdue adds a multi-sport athlete out of Louisiana to the wide receiver room.

Curtis Deville Jr., a 3*, 6’1”, 190 pound wide receiver out of Iowa, Louisiana, gave his verbal commitment to Purdue’s 2022 recruiting class this afternoon.

Deville chose Purdue over offers from Louisville, Florida State, and numerous G5 teams. His commitment gives Purdue a robust 13 commitments in the 2022 class, and is the Boilermakers third commit out of Louisiana. Special teams coach Marty Biagi has been putting in work on the bayou.

What He Brings to the Table

Athleticism and all that it entails. He also plays basketball and is a decorated track athlete. As a track athlete, he has a high jump of 6’2” and ran a leg in Iowa High Schools 3A State Championship 4×100 relay team.

On the football field, he’s a boundary receiver. He uses his jumping ability to his advantage, and is adept at winning “50/50” balls. Basically, line him up on an island and if the defense doesn’t provide safety help over the top, chuck it up as high as you can and see what happens.

His route running (at least what I’ve seen on limited film) is a work in progress, and he’s more run fast, jump high receiver than a technician at this point. It’s easier to teach someone to run routes than it is to teach them how to run fast and jump high, so that doesn’t bother me. He has intriguing upside but it will be interesting to see what he looks like when he lines up against similar athletes. It’s hard to evaluate when he’s far and away the best athlete on the field in 3A football (see Markell Jones). In terms of speed, he has smooth, easy speed, but doesn’t look to be an explosive, short area quickness player. That’s fine for the boundary position.

What His Commitment Means for Purdue

In theory, he’s the 1st wide receiver commit for the 2022 class. In practice, he’s the second because I think Terence Thomas ends up at wide receiver as well. I would say that this commitment should wrap up Purdue’s 2022 receiver board, but it’s a safe bet that Brohm and company take at least 1 more receiver.

One thing this commitment reinforces is that Purdue is out of the Omar Cooper competition. Cooper is a 4* wide receiver out of Lawrence North, and has a similar game to Deville. For me, Cooper is the more polished receiver, and will find his way onto the field before Deville, but I’ll give the nod to Deville, in terms of athleticism and long term upside.

Comparison

He’s similar in terms of athletic background, position, and playing style to 2021 recruit Preston Terrell. I anticipate both competing for the job at boundary wide receiver once David Bell matriculates to the NFL.

What’s Next?

Hard to say. It’s possible Purdue landed another 3 recruits while I was typing this article. The secondary could use some work, and Lorenzell Dubose, a 3* corner prospect out of Louisiana would be a nice addition. Purdue received his first official visit in early June, and Oregon State picked up a visit recently, but Oklahoma is looming over the chase for the talented corner.

Steven Sannieniola is another name to keep an eye on. Purdue received an official visit at the end of June from the 3* safety out of Maryland and it appears to be a 3 team race between Purdue, West Virginia, and Vandy.

Other than those two guys, I haven’t the foggiest idea what’s next, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see this class with 15+ commitments by the end of July.