Ohio State Recruiting: Urban Meyer Lands 4 Star From California

Urban Meyer gets commitment from 4 star safety Jaiden Woodbey.

Urban Meyer and his coaching staff have been working hard to convince highly ranked California high school players to make the long trip east to play for Ohio State. In the 2017 class the work paid off as 5 star offensive lineman Wyatt Davis signed with the Buckeyes. Now his high school teammate Jaiden Woodbey has as well.

Woodbey is 6-2, 205 pounds and is ranked as the No. 3 safety in the country, and the 32nd best player overall in the 2018 class. Woodbey’s commitment was certainly welcome news for coach Meyer as the safety position is an area of need for Ohio State in the 2018 recruiting class.

Although Urban Meyer has six outstanding defensive backs in the 2017 class, Isaiah Pryor was the only safety. At least one of the corners will probably be moved to the middle, but Urban is always looking for outstanding safeties and Woodbey fits the bill.

He doesn’t seemed to be concerned about the number of defensive backs in this year’s class. Here is what Woodbey had to say about the situation to landof10.com, as well as the reason he chose to play for the Buckeyes, and why so soon.

"“It was five cornerbacks, so I don’t care,” he said. “I know when I get there I’m shocking the world. (I’m) more of a Malik Hooker kind of (player).”“Ohio State has my majors,” said Woodbey, who wants to focus on business and marketing. “I can handle the weather and they have a ‘get it done no matter what’ mentality, which my parents and I both like.”“I have learned from the past that switching from school to school will give you a bad look so you have to do your research for everything,” he shared. “Honestly, I just wanted to knock it out and get the recruiting process out of the way. After signing day, I knew where I was really going to go and I don’t need recruiting to be a factor to me this season. I need to focus more on bringing Bosco a second state championship and second national championship. This recruiting process is already stressful as it is. I have been talking to my parents about this for the last two months.”"

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The 2018 recruiting class isn’t filling up as fast as ’17 as there were 10 recruits already committed in early February last year. Woodbey is only the third commit so far in the class. But the three players, QB Emory Jones, RB Brian Snead and Woodby are all ranked in the top 4 nationally at their positions.

Their combined player average is 2.56 points higher than USC who has the second highest average, and Woodbey’s committment brought Ohio State up to No. 10 in total team rankings. The nine teams in front of the Buckeyes all have at least five players in their class.

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The 2017 Ohio State recruiting class had the highest player average ever in the 247Sports Composite. Although it’s early in the recruiting cycle, the ’18 class has a higher average so far. Could it be another record-setting year of recruiting for Urban Meyer and his staff?

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