Florida State, Ohio State on top for four-star defensive back
LAKELAND, Fla. -- It’s not an official list trimming or some kind of set-in-stone top two. A class-of-2019 prospect, Brendan Gant knows his recruitment is too young for such things. What he has, however, is a pair of schools that currently occupy a shared top spot on his list.
Is the situation’s wording splitting hairs? Indeed. Could his favorite schools change? Sure. For now, however, the four-star defensive back has taken a special kind of shine to a pair of college football’s perennial powers.
“Right now, it’s down to Florida State and Ohio State just because they do the best job staying connected,” Gant said on Sunday. “They show me love.”
Next up for Gant is the process of planning summer visits. He has a date circled for his next trip. That, it seems, was the simple part. Plotting the destination, however, is proving tricky.
“Right now, I’m looking at July 21,” Gant said. “I don’t know if I’m going to go to Ohio State, Florida or Florida State. I’m going to one of those, though. If my team does the Florida camp, I’ll go there. If they don’t, I’ll go to one of the other two.”
Gant is yet to visit Ohio State, but has toured FSU in the past. He doesn’t say whether or not the trip has given the Seminoles a slight edge, but it certainly hasn’t hurt their cause.
“I love it there,” Gant said. “I love everything about it. I love how it’s designed. A couple coaches and a couple players showed me around up there.”
For now, it’s the Ohio State recruiting pitch that keeps Gant interested in the Buckeyes. He intends to visit before the end of summer but, even sight unseen, his interest is piqued.
“They tell it like it is to me,” Gant said of the Buckeyes’ coaching staff. “They tell me the only recruit NFL players. If you go to Ohio State, you better be strong and you better be fast and physical.”
Gant, who attends Lakeland’s Kathleen High School, says he has no timetable for a commitment but refused to rule out making a decision before his junior season.