Ohio State Football: Secondary relying on young talents

Young players throughout the Ohio State football secondary were big factors in the Buckeyes’ season-opening victory versus Minnesota. Both Sevyn Banks and Cameron Brown, the projected starters at cornerback, did not play Thursday. Josh Proctor also went down with an injury in the second half.

With so many injuries already plaguing the Ohio State secondary, players needed to step up. We saw some players step up against Minnesota. The Buckeyes’ defense did not have a great game at all, surrendering 408 total yards. Even with a rough overall performance, there’s a lot to build off of.

Young, emerging talents in the Ohio State football team’s secondary were prevalent against Minnesota

For the most part, there was a ton of freshmen and sophomores playing in the secondary. Latham Ransom, the sophomore cover safety, stepped into his first starting role. Denzel Burke and Ryan Watts got the majority of snaps at corner, covering for Banks and Brown. Bryson Shaw, the sophomore free safety, rotated with Proctor. Lejond Cavazos, a redshirt freshman, saw substantial time at cornerback.

Contrary to what most thought, the corner play by both Burke and Watts was not that bad considering their youth. Minnesota consistently picked on Burke all night long, as the game went on he settled in. Burke had some consistently tight coverage in the second half. For a true freshman thrown into the spotlight like that, he did rather well.

Watts was consistently put on and off the field throughout the first half. This could be an entire story in itself, but some of the defensive game plan against Minnesota was odd. The entire defensive personnel was changing every single series in the first half for the most part. Rotating your defensive line and some linebackers can work, but consistently rotating corners and safeties, essentially your whole secondary, is rarely done.

Part of playing cornerback is a mental game, they need a lot of confidence there. How are corners going to build their confidence when they are consistently pulled off the field? Especially when all the cornerbacks that did play were so young, part of their development is building confidence in their cover abilities. Overall, how often the defensive personnel was being changed throughout the game was frustrating at times.

Getting back on track, when Watts was finally consistently on the field in the second half he was solid. Watts had one unnecessary pass interference downfield that showed his youth, but no one is perfect. Perhaps Watts’ best moment was on a very impressive open-field tackle on a 3rd and 10 in the second half.

The tandem of Burke and Watts is exciting for the future, and the secondary depth got better after testing these young talents. Burke may have even earned substantial snaps for the rest of the year, if Banks or Brown can’t go against Oregon look for Burke to start.

If Proctor ends up with a long-term injury, the most important area where someone needs to step up is free safety. The guy to do that will likely be Bryson Shaw. Marcus Hooker did not really play at all Thursday night, making Shaw the clear second-string free safety. Shaw has some athleticism and can lay down some bruising hits. He may go through some growing pains if he’s put into the starting role, but the potential is there for Shaw.

While there’s going to be some struggles here and there for young players in the secondary, the game against Minnesota was encouraging. The future of the Buckeye secondary could be bright with young talents like Burke and Watts leading the way.