Elijah Roberts wins state title with Columbus. Next stop for the 4-star DE: Coral Gables
Elijah Roberts never would have forgotten the near sack he had in the first half of Columbus’ Class 8A championship bid against Apopka. He couldn’t quite wrap up the Blue Darters’ quarterback and a broken play turned into a 29-yard touchdown pass.
Instead, he’ll never forget being a part of one of the craziest state-championship comebacks in Florida history.
“I love my team,” the star defensive end said Friday after a miraculous 21-20 win in Daytona Beach.
The Explorers got the ball back at their own 47-yard line with 4:37 left, trailing 20-7 at Daytona Stadium. They scored once with 2:35, forced a three-and-out and then scored again with eight seconds remaining. Columbus decided to go for two and the win, and converted to claim its first state title.
Roberts finished with five tackles in the win, setting the edge to help stifle the Blue Darters’ single-wing attack in the second half. Next up for Roberts, who is a four-star defensive end in the 247Sports.com composite rankings: a trip down to Coral Gables for a visit with the Miami Hurricanes ahead of the early signing period, which begins Wednesday.
“I’m not sure what time. It depends what time we get back,” said Roberts, who has been committed to Miami since June. “I’ll be there tomorrow.”
While it’s not an official visit, Roberts will be there as part of the Hurricanes’ massive official visit weekend. Nearly every committed prospect is spending the weekend in South Florida for official visits before they all sign next week. Roberts isn’t enrolling early, so he’ll take his official visit next year, but he still plans to sign his National Letter of Intent with the hometown team Wednesday.
“Of course,” Roberts said. “I’m excited.”
Roberts is one of a handful of players in Miami’s Class of 2020 to back away from an earlier pledge to the Hurricanes and eventually wind up back in the class. The 6-foot-3, 267-pound defensive lineman originally committed to Miami in 2018, but decommitted before the end of the year. The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, Florida Gators and Penn State Nittany Lions all tried to lure Roberts out of Miami before the senior decided he wanted to stay home. He orally committed in the summer and never wavered from his pledge.
Now he gets to bring championship experience to the Hurricanes.
“It’s exciting, so I know that next time I’ll be putting on pads it’ll be at UM,” Roberts said. “I just can’t wait. I’m hoping we get a championship there, too.”
