{"id":87318,"date":"2025-08-16T13:35:04","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T13:35:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/87318\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T13:35:04","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T13:35:04","slug":"buckeye-breakdown-cornerbacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/87318\/","title":{"rendered":"Buckeye Breakdown: Cornerbacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTo be an Ohio State Buckeye cornerback is to join a fraternity of legends. The program is one of the few that can debate \u201cDBU,\u201d boasting several first-round NFL Draft picks. Last year, Ohio State\u2019s secondary allowed the fewest passing touchdowns and the third-fewest passing yards in the country. In the regular season, the Buckeyes gave up more than 201 yards only once. They held opponents under 100 yards three times. \u00a0Denzel Burke<\/a> and Jordan Hancock<\/a> left for the NFL, leaving just one starter. Ohio State has recruited and developed the cornerback position well. There is reason for optimism heading into 2025. The Buckeye cornerbacks call themselves B.I.A. (Best in America) for a reason.<\/p>\n

2025 Buckeye Breakdown: The Cornerbacks
\nThe Veteran
\nThe lone returning starter is Davison Igbinosun<\/a>. Last year, Igbinosun was a wild card. At his best, he looked like a first-round pick. At his worst, he was a flag magnet. Igbinosun is one of the stickier corners in the country. He can hang with just about anyone. When he wasn\u2019t being flagged for holding or pass interference, the former Ole Miss Rebel was as lock-down as any.<\/p>\n

The issue was those penalties. Igbinosun led the country with 16, including a dozen for pass interference. Thankfully, he is well aware of his faults. \u201cI want to improve on the penalties,\u201d Igbinosun told ESPN when explaining his decision to stay at Ohio State. \u201cI had too many, I want to clean that up.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was considered a fringe third-round pick if he declared. He returned to develop into a first-round talent. If he can cut those penalties in half, he could be a first-rounder.<\/p>\n

The Next Men Up
\nAt this point, it looks like Jermaine Mathews Jr.<\/a> and Lorenzo Styles Jr.<\/a> are headed for starting roles. This has been a long time coming for Mathews. Over the last two seasons, he\u2019s earned considerable snaps. Last year, he had the third-most among Buckeye corners, only behind Burke and Igbinosun. After not seeing the field in the loss to Oregon, Mathews began to factor into the rotation. That likely contributed to the defense\u2019s improvement.<\/p>\n

The third-year corner has lofty expectations for 2025. He\u2019s been lining up outside opposite Igbinosun. With another offseason of technique refinement, it\u2019s time for the former top player from Ohio in the 2023 class to break out.<\/p>\n

The bigger question is at the slot\/nickel corner. Early projections have Styles leading. The elder brother of Sonny Styles<\/a>, Lorenzo Jr., has waited his turn ever since transferring from Notre Dame. He has been used sparingly over the last two seasons, yet still earned 161 snaps last year across 16 games. Styles has worked in the slot for two seasons now. Stepping up should be easy for the fifth-year corner.<\/p>\n

However, there is some serious talent down the depth chart knocking on the door to supplant him.<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo Credit: Samantha Madar\/USA Today Network via Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The Talented Second Years<\/p>\n

The 2024 recruiting class netted two of the nation\u2019s top cornerbacks. Aaron Scott Jr. and Bryce West were the best and fifth-best overall recruits from Ohio. Both came to Ohio State expecting early playing time. Last year, Scott earned 74 snaps over seven games. West logged 29 defensive snaps and played special teams in seven games. He appeared in only four regular-season games, preserving his redshirt.<\/p>\n

Scott registered just two tackles and one pass breakup last year. He\u2019s been taking snaps with both of the first two teams on defense\u2014that is, practicing with both the starters and the second-string units. The game is slowing down for him. It appears he will be pushing for more playing time in 2025.<\/p>\n

West is in the same boat, with less field time. Projected depth charts slot the redshirt freshman behind Styles as the slot\/nickel corner. As a recruit, West showed he could play man coverage and brought needed physicality for nickel corner.<\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s West or Scott, there\u2019s a great opportunity for one of the youngsters to have a true breakout campaign in 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cJeremiah Smith of the Defense\u201d
\nNow, we have the wild card. Devin Sanchez was the fifth-best recruit in the nation, regardless of position, in the 2025 class. He was the crown jewel of the defensive haul and was described as \u201cthe Jeremiah Smith<\/a> of the defense\u201d by On3\u2019s Pete Nakos. That\u2019s some lofty praise, considering how transcendent Smith was for the Buckeyes in the national championship season.<\/p>\n

Already, Sanchez is being lauded for his advanced technical skills to go with his elite top-end speed. In high school, the six-foot-two corner ran a 10.69 100-meter dash as a junior and is able to keep up with even the speediest of receivers down the field.<\/p>\n

In no time at all, the true freshman has impressed coaches. It would not be a surprise if he is featured prominently<\/a> in the rotation this year.<\/p>\n

Main Photo: Adam Cairns\/Columbus Dispatch \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To be an Ohio State Buckeye cornerback is to join a fraternity of legends. The program is one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[60061,60062,1607,60063,60064,399,60065,398,396,397,1776,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-87318","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-aaron-scott-jr","9":"tag-bryce-west","10":"tag-college-football","11":"tag-denzel-burke","12":"tag-devin-sanchez","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-jordan-hancock","15":"tag-ncaa","16":"tag-ncaa-football","17":"tag-ncaafootball","18":"tag-ohio-state-buckeyes","19":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}