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Tomorrow night the Ohio State Buckeyes will pay in yet another prime time game. Their third on the season already, if Ohio State hasn’t been battle tested enough already through seven games, here’s yet another opportunity to prove their worth to the college football world. While playing in prime time games can take a serious physical and mental toll on the players and coaching staff, the benefits of those games are also pretty substantial. The ability to play on national television and be in the living room of some of your top targets watching the game is one of the many upsides.
Even if you thought Ohio State recruiting wasn’t at their usual peak, it’s important to give Urban Meyer the benefit of the doubt. To this point, he’s brought stellar class after stellar class to Columbus, and even though to date this 2019 class is a little low in quantity, there’s really no reason to believe Meyer and his staff won’t once again pull out all of the stops and be right there near the top of the rankings come signing day in the years to come.
2020 Florida stud receives Buckeye offer
It’s really not news, but Ohio State’s recipe for recruiting success has the ingredients of Florida native talent all over it. Time and time again Urban Meyer and his staff have gone into Florida and plucked some of their best guys. Seemingly each cycle there’s at least one Florida recruit that plays a major role on the Ohio State roster in just a short period of time of being on campus. With so many loaded high school programs, the talent is going to be top-tier each year. Taking advantage of that is only right, and yesterday, Ohio State once again went into Florida with their efforts to land yet another top Sunshine State prospect.
Avantae Williams (Deland, Florida/Deland) announced yesterday via his Twitter account that his latest offer had come from the hands of the Buckeyes.
BLESSED TO BE OFFERED BY THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/7PdIUS6H3k
— Tae Williams (@SlowDownBoy7) October 18, 2018
A wish list type of talent, Avantae has all of the accolades supporting his more than impressive ranking. A 6-foot, 175-pound safety, Williams has all of the necessary skills and traits to play at the next level. His ability to play coverage in the secondary is worthy of a top college program, but his efforts in the run game and downhill approach make him a must-have type of kid for any coaching staff.
Currently, Williams checks in as the second best safety in the 2020 class as well as the fifth best player in an always loaded state of Florida. Checking in as a top-50 prospect regardless of position for 247sports, Ohio State’s offer was clearly for a reason. Avantae holds 24 current offers from the likes of Alabama, Florida, LSU, Penn State, Ohio State and many more. However, the Buckeyes followed the trend in offering, as Penn State made their move on Williams a couple days ago.
The home state schools of Florida and Miami may have the early lead, but with another full year of prep ball left, any school can be in it to land his services. For Urban and Ohio State though, it goes back to what has worked. The ability to present previous success with Florida native prospects as well as the ability to help an elite talent develop into the ultimate dream of playing in the NFL. Fortunately, since Meyer’s tenure at Ohio State, he’s done just that—especially in the defensive backfield.
If we’re betting, bet the Buckeyes to at least be in the thick of this recruitment.