Ohio State Football: Denzel Burke is an All-American candidate

There haven’t been a lot of good things happening on the defensive side of the ball for the Ohio State football team for the last couple of seasons. The defense has clearly been the weakest part of this program in those years. Even so, there have been some bright spots.

One of those bright spots last year was a true freshman that turned out to be a lockdown corner. That player is Denzel Burke. Burke came in as a four-star recruit and the 8th-best athlete in the country. It wasn’t totally clear whether he was going to play receiver or corner.

The Buckeyes decided to play him on defense and that turned out to be an excellent decision. Burke was fantastic as a freshman. While Burke only had one interception a year ago, he had a whopping 12 passes knocked down and 38 tackles as a freshman.

Burke was selected as Third-Team All-Big Ten by the coaches last season. I think this is a year where both the coaches and the media take more notice of him. Burke has the opportunity to not just be a higher All-Big Ten selection, but an All-American selection.

The next step for Burke is to turn some of those passes defended into interceptions. Knocking away 12 passes is a lot, but turning half of those into interceptions is a whole new level of playing corner. Creating more turnovers would get him the recognition he deserves.

Burke shuts down one side of the field when he is out there. Teams stopped throwing his way late in the season. Now, it’s time for him to take the next step as a sophomore. Ohio State football fans should expect big things from Burke this year in a revamped defensive scheme.

That scheme will have Burke on an island more often this season. Burke will be asked to play one-on-one on the outside more this year, but he has the talent to do it.