Ohio Football recruits Deontai Williams and Javon Hagan bring brotherhood to Athens.
Eggs crack and glass shatters, but a bond rarely breaks.
For Deontai Williams, an unbroken bond is the main reason he will be suiting up in the Ohio green and white, instead of Georgia’s red and black. Williams, a safety out of Jacksonville, Florida, who was named a four-star and top-300 recruit by ESPN, was previously committed to play his next four years for Georgia before he flipped his commitment to Ohio.
The only two things that the programs at Georgia and Ohio have in common is that they both play in a city called Athens. After Williams sent in his letter of intent, a few joked on Twitter that he had faxed his letter to the wrong Athens.
It was a true shock to those in the recruiting world when Williams put pen to paper for the Bobcats. Not only did he have an offer to play at Georgia, but Williams had offers from five other Southeastern Conference schools as well as offers that stretched as far west as UCLA.
Ohio, however, had one advantage none of those teams had: his high school teammate, safety Javon Hagan, who had been verbally committed to the Bobcats since August.
Hagan was also highly sought after, holding offers from the likes of Ole Miss, Utah, Cincinnati, and Wake Forest.
“He has a teammate, Javon, obviously, (who) is a part of our recruiting class,” coach Frank Solich said. “They are very good friends.”
If you turn on Williams’ highlight tape, it immediately flashes. His 6-foot-1 frame combined with his speed turns him into an explosive athlete who has the ability to constantly disrupt plays. His hits on ball carriers will show you why schools all around the country wanted the safety to commit to their program.
But how did Ohio land such a sought-after player? Well, luck, for starters.
“Deontai was over at Javon’s home when we were there on a home visit and we had a chance to visit with him directly,” Solich said. “From that conversation and our conversations on the phone, we saw there was an opportunity there to recruit him, and we did. We feel he’s going to be a great addition to the program.”
At Trinity Christian Academy in Jacksonville, Williams and Hagan led their team to consecutive state championships in 2013 and 2014. Playing side-by-side in the secondary, the two gained a trust for where each other was going to be on the field. This is something that the two hope will transfer early on in their careers with Ohio.
“It feels good,” Hagan said in a direct message, on the opportunity of playing with his close friend. “We have a bond that can’t be broken.”
The coach who ended up signing the prized recruit was happy to land a player of Williams’s caliber, but Solich plans to get Williams up to speed as soon as he arrives in Athens.
“There’s some work that has to get done in terms of fulfilling the needs, but he’s on track to do that,” Solich said.
That work that Solich is alluding to is making sure that Williams is able to qualify academically, but a player of his talents was well worth the risk for the potential return involved.
Their hope is that Williams and Hagan will spearhead the Bobcat secondary of the future. Not only did Ohio bring in the two safeties, but it also signed two cornerbacks, Maxwell Howell and Jeff Christian. Howell and Christian joined Williams and Hagan in turning away power-conference teams like Minnesota, Indiana and Purdue in favor of signing with Ohio.
With four defensive backs having finished their college careers this past season, Solich and his staff thought this year was a good time to bring in their potential replacements.
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“When you are talking about those and you look down the road, we are losing three corners next year,” tight ends coach and recruiting/special teams coordinator Brian Haines said. “So, we are fulfilling our needs now and planning ahead and accomplishing that. They are tough, physical football players and they like to play the game.”
Both Ohio starting cornerbacks, redshirt juniors Devin Bass and Ian Wells, made an immediate impact early on in their Bobcats career. Bass and Wells each have over 25 starts in their first three seasons with Ohio.
The era with Bass and Wells manning the secondary is set to expire in one year. Ohio will then look to turn this class led by Williams and Hagan to take over the reins.
It’s an opportunity the two have signed up for. From winning two state championships to signing their letters of intent, Williams and Hagan have a chance to prove to the entire Mid-American Conference that they will have the chance to become the most unbreakable secondary in the league.
@Kovarandrew
ak840511@ohio.edu
