Taylor flips to Ohio State
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Commitment No. 22 for the 2014 recruiting class is in for Urban Meyer and Ohio State as the Buckeyes have landed a pledge from Columbus (Ohio) Bishop Ready offensive lineman Brady Taylor. The 6-foot-5, 280-pound prospect made an official visit to Ohio State this weekend and has informed BuckeyeGrove.com that he has decided to switch his pledge to the Buckeyes from Virginia Tech.
"Just growing up here, it's just a dream come true," said Taylor. "A lot of kids growing up they want to be astronauts or teachers or whatever they want to be and I've always wanted to be an Ohio State Buckeye. When you get the opportunity to do it you can't pass it up. I'm just going to follow my dreams and not look back and I'm excited."
Taylor originally chose the Hokies over Kentucky over the summer and had remained solid during the fall despite offers from the likes of Michigan State, Penn State, and Wisconsin and interest from Ohio State. The Buckeyes offered Taylor last week, however, and that made the local product re-think his decision. The departure of former Virginia Tech offensive line coach Jeff Grimes was also a contributing factor to his switch.
"(Grimes' departure) definitely had a huge impact," Taylor explained. "He was pretty much my only recruiter during his time there and I built a really strong relationship with him. Not knowing who the coach was going to be and trying to build a relationship possibly a week before Signing Day was something that I wasn't sure I wanted to do. In my heart I just wanted to be a Buckeye."
While Taylor was able to resist several other Big Ten programs that entered the mix over the last few months, the urge to play for his home town school was too great.
"It's just a perfect fit for me," he said. "Being close to home my family can come watch me play and I can go watch my younger brother and younger sister play their sports. With college, even being 20 minutes away from home I can still make it like I'm five hours from home if I want to. It's really just perfect and just the tradition that Ohio State is all about is everything that I ever wanted."
With his pledge, Taylor becomes the fifth offensive lineman in Ohio State's 2014 recruiting class joining four-star prospects Kyle Trout, Jamarco Jones, Marcelys Jones, and Demetrius Knox. Taylor is also the ninth commitment from the state of Ohio for the Buckeyes this cycle.
As a senior, Taylor was a first team All-State selection and helped lead Bishop Ready all the way to the OHSAA Division VI state semi-finals. Taylor is rated a three-star prospect by Rivals.com.
Taylor wrapped up his official visit to Ohio State on Sunday morning but returned to campus on Monday morning to get a few questions answered by Meyer.
"Just with the scholarships being at 82 and not 85, I just wanted to make sure they had space and everything with me putting them one over," Taylor said. "Coach Meyer assured me that I would be perfectly fine on Signing Day and that I'd be ready to go."
One of the strengths of Taylor's game is his athleticism and the Buckeyes have a plan to put that to use.
"They're starting me out at left tackle," Taylor said. "We met for probably an hour and a half the other day. The plan is to probably redshirt next year to help me gain some weight and learn the offense next year. As a redshirt freshman the plan is to be competing for a job but it's going to be tough. Everybody is good at this level so it's going to be a grind and I'm ready to go."
With Taylor's pledge, Ohio State has wrapped up its recruiting along the offensive line.
"They're done with offensive line recruiting," Taylor said. "I'm the last one."
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