Ohio State Football: Can Davison Igbinosun save the secondary?

The Ohio State football team has struggled in the secondary for three seasons now. It’s become a deeply troubling trend ever since Jeff Halfley left the program. Jim Knowles got the unit to show some sort of progress last season, but they still folded in the biggest moments of the biggest games.

In the offseason, Davison Igbinosun transferred into the program from Ole Miss. While he was at Ole Miss, he was a Freshman All-American at the cornerback position despite not recording an interception. He did have five passes defended though.

Can he come in and save the Ohio State football team’s secondary? It was a secondary that was plagued by big plays once again. Three big plays cost them against TTUN and a huge pass play by Georgia helped the Bulldogs come back to beat the Buckeyes.

Even if Igbinosun doesn’t have flashy interceptions or force fumbles, he can still help this secondary a lot. He won’t make the really stupid plays. He won’t fall down trying to cover a tight end down the field or miss an assignment. Quite frankly, he’ll just be solid.

Now is that enough to fix the entire secondary? Maybe not. But it at least gives the Buckeyes help on one side of the field. They won’t have to worry about a huge play given up. Denzel Burke struggled with that last season after playing really well as a freshman.

Burke should get better now that he’s healthy but now the Buckeyes don’t have to rely on him to be the number one corner. Igbinosun has that title now. I expect the secondary to improve from a season ago just by his addition alone, not to mention the addition of Ja’Had Carter from Syracuse.

I don’t think this is going to be an elite secondary by any stretch of the imagination. But I do think they will give up fewer big plays. That’s an improvement that might be enough to put them over the hump.