Last month, Miami (Fla.) Columbus five-star offensive tackle Julian Armella made a big cut to his list of around 40 scholarship offers when he released his top 10 schools.

As expected, Armella included Clemson among his favorites, along with Alabama, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, LSU. Miami, Michigan, Ohio State and Tennessee.

“I’m basically narrowing down my recruitment because I can’t go to all 40 schools, and I’ve got to eventually settle down and only go to one school,” Armella said to The Clemson Insider recently. “So, that’s the main reason why I decided to drop a top 10.”

There are multiple reasons why the Tigers made the cut for Armella.

“Clemson has always been one of those programs that I grew up watching as a kid, for one, and also they produce great NFL linemen straight from college and they have a great tradition and a winning program,” he said. “They’re one of the best teams in college football.”

Armella — who is 6-foot-6 and currently weighs 285 after dropping around 40 pounds over the last four months — has been keeping in touch with Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney and offensive line coach Robbie Caldwell since the Tigers gave him a scholarship offer in early June.

“I’ve been communicating a lot with coach Dabo Swinney, and we’ve just been talking about what I’ve been doing this whole offseason and how corona has hit, and I’ve been explaining to them that I’ve lost a lot of weight and I’ve been working out,” Armella said. “They’ve seen the videos, and I talk to the O-line coach, too. We have a great connection.”

Armella, whose father, Enzo, was a defensive lineman at Florida State in the early 1990s, says all the schools in his top 10 are recruiting him hard. Unsurprisingly, though, the Seminoles are one of the programs recruiting him the hardest.

“It’s a well mix, not going to lie to you. Not a lot of schools are lacking in my top 10,” Armella said. “But FSU, being FSU, we have a really good connection. We talk a lot on the phone.”

Moving forward, Armella intends to take his time in the recruiting process and eventually make his official visits before rendering a decision. He hopes to announce his college choice live on national TV as a senior in 2021.

“I think it’s really going to come down to my official visits, and I don’t really plan on rushing it because of what’s going on right now (with COVID-19 and the NCAA dead period), it’s kind of slowing everything down,” Armella said. “But I know for a fact I want to commit on ESPN senior year.”

According to Armella, distance will be one of the factors in his decision, but not because he wants to stay close to home; quite the contrary, in fact.

“I want to go away from home,” he said. “I’m in the Miami area, and it would be good to experience what college is like and not being babied by my mom, grandma, stuff like that. So, I think it’s just location, and also a great program that I can walk into and maybe start my freshman year.”

Although Armella doesn’t have a specific pecking order within his top 10, he can say with confidence that Clemson is high on the list of contenders.

“I don’t really have any particular like top two or top five,” he said. “I mean, they are one of the schools that stands out the most because of the fact that they’re just a great program, and at the end of the day, I’d be getting a great education and I’d be able to play football at one of my dream schools.”

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