UCF Football Recruiting: Decision Day for Nikai Martinez
It’s a never ending process: finding as many quality cornerbacks as UCF football can recruit. UCF would like to sign two or three cornerbacks for the class of 2022, and one of the top targets would be a local product that will announce his college plans at 3 p.m. EST.
Playing for Apopka High School on the northwest edge of Orlando, Nikai Martinez has been a central part of the Blue Darters since his freshman season. Despite playing 8A competition for one of Florida’s most tradition-rich programs, Martinez continually produced during the past three seasons.
He’s a capable player at multiple positions, but he’s most often utilized to do one task. That would be taking away the opponent’s top wide receiver. Considering the wide receiver talent level in Central Florida alone, that’s a full-time job.
Nikai Martinez, Cornerback, Apopka (Fla.) High School
Brian Smith, Inside The Knights
Having seen Martinez play numerous times, there’s one thing to consider prior to discussing his football abilities. That would be this young man’s competitive nature. He wants to win. Not just the game mind you, Martinez wants to win each repetition he takes against a top-notch wide receiver.
Whether it was seven-on-seven play while he played for one of Florida’s best seven-on-seven teams, Certified Dawgs, or during his first three seasons playing for Apopka, Martinez comes to play hard. That attitude is important as he continues through his football career and the competition continues to rise. As for skills, they are impressive.
Martinez is a long and lean prospect with natural cornerback attributes like quickness, change-of-direction skills, and burst needed to play against some of the best high school wide receivers in America. The 5’11”, 175-pound cornerback could also play wide receiver or safety, but he’s likely too valuable as a cornerback to move to another position once he reaches college. He’s still capable of scoring despite not playing on the offensive side of the football.
Nikai Martinez lined up against Ohio State commitment Kye Stokes
Martinez can return kickoffs and punts, and he’s a threat to score a touchdown anytime he intercepts as a pass. In fact, during the spring jamboree, Martinez intercepted a pass and started running it back and would have scored had the referee not blown the play dead. Martinez is a natural football player. As for his college decision, Martinez appears to be ready to make a decision between UCF, South Carolina and Florida.
Prior to narrowing his choices, Martinez earned offers from programs like Notre Dame, Florida State, Auburn, Wisconsin, Penn State and Tennessee. He took official visits to UCF (June 11) and South Carolina (June 25).
Whichever institution receives a verbal commitment from Martinez will be adding a really talented cornerback, as well as a really talented football player overall. Without question, Martinez is one of Florida’s best overall prep players. That’s saying a lot without even diving into football recruiting rankings.
As UCF continues to march forward with the class of 2022, this is a big recruiting decision for UCF. Martinez is not only a really good cornerback, but he’s a local prospect. The Knights need to reel in more local talent class by class. Martinez would be a step in the right direction to helping to make that trend go in the right direction.
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