With Ohio State set to take on Utah Saturday in this year’s Rose Bowl, Ohio State has been taking the practice field in Southern California in preparation of what is sure to be a historic matchup.
One of the benefits of Ohio State heading west for the bowl season is they get a chance to bring the Ohio State brand to a star studded state in hopes to show recruits why they should come to Columbus. In Monday’s practice a few of St. John Bosco’s rising prospects got a chance to go watch the Buckeyes practice in person for the first time.
The Silver Bulletin had a chance to catch up with 2024 four-star safety prospect, Peyton Woodyard.
“Coach Terry from Bosco told us we could go watch the Ohio State practice,” said Woodyard. “A group of us players went out there and got to see the practice and the intensity of it. It was just a good experience to see their work ethic and how they work out there.”
Woodyard is a St. John Bosco product who is thought to be one of the premier Safeties for the 2024 class. The rankings would reflect that, as 247Sports currently lists him as the No. 2 overall safety in 2024. The Buckeyes offered Woodyard back in June this year. This would not be the first time the Buckeyes started eyeing a Bosco product early in the recruiting process.
In the 2020 cycle Ohio State landed Kourt Williams, who is expected to make a big jump on next years depth chart.
Williams success has definitely caught the eye of Woodyard as he mentioned to The Silver Bulletin, “It was jus great to be able to see players from Bosco like Kourt Williams out there just doing his thing, with even having a good shot to start next year. Coming from the same program I’m from, and seeing a guy like him be successful, it shows me if I was to go (to Ohio State) I could be successful like him.”
Now it is still on the earlier side of Woodyard’s recruitment as he just finished his sophomore season, but Woodyard explained that a visit to Ohio State with his family is already among some of his future plans.
“I definitely want to get up to Columbus during the summer to show my parents. I’ve went up there with my dad before and we had a great experience, it was a red carpet treatment out there, it was nothing but love.” Woodyard said.
Ohio State is a program who is looking to build on its pipeline to California and the chance to land a “can’t miss” product like Woodyard means the staff will be on this one for the next few years to come.
Carson MacRae comes to The Silver Bulletin with a vast football background. As a former player himself, Carson brought his expertise of the game to the recruitng analysis side, where he worked as a Recruitng Writer and Analyst at Rivals.com apart of Ohio State’s “BuckeyeGrove” network. After leaving Rivals, Carson joined forces with The Silver Bulletin as the Chief Recruiting Writer for the quickly growing Ohio State network. Carson is also proud member of Prep Redzone where he is as a National High School Football Scout providing in depth analysis on the top players around the country.