Buckeyes have no real need to pursue transfer portal at safety
Have a question about Ohio State recruiting? This is the place for you, five days a week. Submit your questions on Twitter or on the Lettermen Row forums. Check-in daily to see what’s on the mind of Buckeyes fans all over the country. Friday’s question is about the potential pursuit of Florida State graduate transfer, and former Buckeyes commitment, Jaiden Woodbey.
Ohio State Recruiting Question of the Day
Could you see Woodby transferring to Ohio State?
— David Hall (@614Dbuckeyefan) December 3, 2020
Is it possible Jaiden Woodbey could pick Ohio State again and actually stick with it? Sure, absolutely.
Any player in America would be interested in playing for Ohio State right now. And a dude like Woodbey, who passed up his chance to play for the Buckeyes in December of 2017, could certainly before be forgiven for wondering what if after a handful of difficult years at Florida State.
A former superstar at St. John Bosco (Bellflower, Calif.), Woodbey was committed to Ohio State for almost a year when he flipped to the Seminoles just days before signing day, leaving the Buckeyes in the lurch because of a desire to play at his “dream school” in Tallahassee.
But now Woodbey is leaving Florida State, and Ohio State is one school where it could make some sense for him to land. The others, like USC and Oklahoma, were also very involved his recruitment toward the end of his prep career — but both the Sooners and Trojans probably are more realistic than the Buckeyes at this point.
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Teradja Mitchell and Jaiden Woodbey at The Opening Finals in 2017. (Birm/Lettermen Row)
Despite this season’s secondary struggles in Columbus, the Buckeyes have a lot of returning talent at both safety and linebacker — and Woodbey could play either spot. The lack of eligibility loss, though, might make it even easier to be reluctant for a grad-transfer like Woodbey. There are worries about Marcus Hooker, reasonable ones, but Ohio State has big-time players like Ronnie Hickman and Lathan Ransom waiting in the wings at safety and potential stars in Teradja Mitchell, Dallas Gant, K’Vaughan Pope, Craig Young, Mitchell Melton, Cody Simon, Tommy Eichenberg and a whole lot of others at linebacker.
Previous relationships are important, but future relationships and development aren’t worth sacrificing at a position — or two — where there are so many guys waiting in the wings. When a program recruits at the level Ohio State does, it’s in the program’s best interest to put the guys being developed inside the program into position to make plays — not to keep forcing them to wait while looking back in time at dudes that went elsewhere four years ago.
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