Recruits react to Ohio State-USC Cotton Bowl announcement

The Ohio State Buckeyes may have missed out on a College Football Playoff berth, but they get a pretty good postseason matchup with the USC Trojans. Back in the day, bragging rights—as well as the occasional national title—were on the line when these two storied programs met in the Rose Bowl.

While the playoff system didn’t give the ‘Grandaddy of Them All’ the Pac-12/Big Ten matchup this season, the Cotton Bowl has been called in to suffice. On Dec. 29, these teams will meet at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas to determine who this year's Cotton Bowl champion will be.

In the rankings, it’s a matchup of the No. 5 Buckeyes and No. 8 Trojans. It’s one of the better New Year’s Six bowl matchups, and is one that pits two schools with big recruiting profiles against one another. With that being said, a few high-profile recruits tweeted out their reaction to this bowl announcement.

Four-star safety Jaiden Woodbey (Fontana, CA/St. John Bosco) is an Ohio State commit that currently resides in enemy territory. Even though he’s in Cali, his tweet points to him making the trek to Arlington for the game.

After putting up sensational numbers at St. John Bosco, over 29 schools have come with offers for Woodbey to attend their respective school. At one point, the 247sports crystal ball had three schools—OSU, Oklahoma, and USC—as the likely landing spots for the safety. On Feb. 7, Woodbey made his commitment to the Buckeyes.

He’s the fourth-best player in the state of California for the 2018 class, according to the 247sports composite, and is considered the No. 2 safety and No. 29 player in the entire class.

Stacking up with the rest of Ohio State’s 2018 class, Woodbey has the sixth-highest overall grade, coming in with a .9826. (Note: we’re using 247sports’ grade.)

The No. 1 offensive lineman for the 2018 class also made a tweet about the OSU-USC announcement. Jackson Carman (Fairfield, OH/Fairfield) has over 40 offers, but it’s being predicted that he’ll end up at Ohio State when all is said and done.

On top of being the best lineman, Carman is the best player in Ohio, and is graded as the seventh-best overall player in the class.

But, recruiting is a wild and twisty road—and anything is possible.

Of the offers he has, Clemson and USC have shown interest. Could this game play a role in his final decision? Only he knows that.

If Buckeye fans felt nervous about him not committing to the Scarlet and Gray just yet, there might be a good sign from one of his retweets from Woodbey.

A Buckeye commit possibly attending a game with an Ohio product could bode well for Urban Meyer and his Bucks.