True freshman box safety/nickel hybrid Simeon Caldwell has made waves in Ohio State's secondary. To the point where he'll likely be getting additional snaps and becoming a bigger part of the game plan moving forward.
Land-Grant Holy Land's Cole VanWiechen sees Caldwell's coverage of Iowa tight end DJ Vonnahme, who had six receptions for 64 yards during a 31-14 win over the Hawkeyes, as a positive sign for the Jacksonville, Florida, product.
"What stood out against Iowa was how comfortable Ohio State was asking him to handle tight end DJ Vonnahme. That’s a difficult assignment for a true freshman against a physical Big Ten tight end, and Caldwell held up," VanWiechen wrote.
Blaine Bradford was expected to be in a high-usage role like Caldwell, particularly because of how high-profile his bidding war, involving big spenders like Texas and LSU, was. If anything, Caldwell was a speculative option that's proving to be better in reality than in theory.
That's how college football goes sometimes. If your recruiting rank decided your future instead of production, they wouldn't play the games. Same deal with preseason rankings.
Caldwell was still a 4-star prospect at the end of the day. While he could eventually move into the linebacker spot, à la Sonny Styles over the past few years in Columbus or Jamian Sherwood a few years ago when he joined the New York Jets from Auburn, he's proving that he could handle rotational snaps now.
That's particularly impressive at the safety and nickel spots. While boundary corners could often get by on talent alone and play right away, safeties need to know the schemes at a much higher level to get onto the field early in their careers.
It makes you wonder what Caldwell's ceiling is.
Simeon Caldwell has the respect of his Buckeyes teammates
Buckeyes transfer safety Earl Little Jr. recently noted how Caldwell is vocal on the back end and communicates well. Little said that it took no time for Caldwell to come in and be a force for the Ohio State defense.
You can't coach that. Matt Patricia wishes he could, because this Buckeyes team would never lose a game if that were the case, given its talent level.
Caldwell has intangibles that should make him a future main player on this defense. Discovering that so early in the season is a major win for a defense that hasn't had the kind of start fans were hoping to see.
Frankly, run defense struggles against Illinois and late-game hiccups against Texas should be outweighed by the positive developments happening with guys like Caldwell and Jay Timmons. While those games saw some serious misfires, strange things sometimes happen from whistle to whistle.
As long as there is development of young talent, the machine is operating as it should. Ohio State fans probably wish there were an offensive talent breaking out like Caldwell or Timmons, but perhaps that'll come in due time as well. Caldwell still has time to figure out what he is best at.
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