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The Ohio State coaching staff has invaded Florida in the past couple of week's offer a lot of the state's top players in that time period.
One of the players the coaching staff offered last week was Jacksonville (FL) Trinity Christian Academy safety Ben Edwards, who's teammates with 247Composite five-star linebacker Jeffery Holland and a couple of other top high school prospects.
In addition to the offered he recently received from the Buckeyes, the 6'1, 195-pound defense back has been offered scholarships from many of the top schools across the nation, including Auburn, Kentucky, Louisville, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Penn State, Purdue, Stanford, Vanderbilt, and a couple of other schools. He was very excited to receive an offer from the Scarlet and Gray.
"That was a big offer to get. I was very excited to get it," Edwards told Land-Grant Holy Land on how he felt about receiving the offer.
Now that the Buckeyes have extended a scholarship offer to the standout safety, they have vaulted into his top group of schools.
"They are in my top schools right now. I want to look into them real hard; they're very much in my top five," Edwards said. "I'm being recruited by Coach Ash and Coach Hinton," he added.
Edwards has already made the trip to Columbus last June, with a bunch of his teammates in order to camp at Ohio State. He really enjoyed his first visit to Ohio State and would like to make it to Columbus at least once more before making his college decision.
"It was a very nice visit. I got to see all the football facilities, the stadium is big and nice, Columbus is a great town, and I got to meet Coach Meyer," he said. "I really want to get back for a visit. I'll try and get up there again this spring or summer."
Growing up in Florida, Edwards was able to watch Urban Meyer's Florida teams play almost every week and is really looking forward to getting to know the Ohio State head coach a little better.
"He's a great coach. His team are always winning games and he's building the best program possible," he continued. "Winning is big for me. I want to talk to him more since I didn't talk to him very long at the camp. When he took over the program, I was convinced they (Ohio State) were going to win a lot of games."
He was planning on making a decision early in the recruiting process, but with more offers pouring in and addition teams showing interest, he's going to push his decision timetable back.
"At first I was planning on making my decision in February," he told Land-Grant Holy Land. "But with the new offers coming in, I think I'm going to maybe wait and decide sometime after my senior season.
When he sits down to make his college decision down the road, there will be a couple of main factors that he considers when making it.
"Probably my relationships with the coaches, I really want to be comfortable with them," he said. "Then also the environment, eduction, and just a good overall football program."
Edwards is already a very good football player, but would really like to improve his man coverage.
"The strongest parts of my game are probably my football IQ, hitting, and being aggressive," he continued. "The main thing I want to improve is my man-to-man coverage."
The schools recruiting Edwards the hardest right now are Auburn, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, and Stanford as he said he talks to those three programs weekly.
When we spoke, he mentioned having a very good relationship with the Auburn coaching staff and especially Tigers' safeties coach Charlie Harbison, his primary recruiter. Right now I think they're the favorite, but the Ohio State offer is the one that seemed to lead him to change his decision timetable. If the Bucks can get him on campus agin, this could shape up to be a very interesting race. Georgia Tech, North Carolina, and Stanford are also very much in this race.
If you haven't seen the standout safety in-action, make sure you check out his highlights here.
