Gareon Conley Rising to the Occasion in First Season as a Starter

I’ll admit it. Coming into this season, one of the concerns I had was whether or not Gareon Conley would be able to step up and play at a high level in 2015. Traditionally, new starters at cornerback have gotten picked on—Eli Apple last year, Doran Grant the year before, and so on.

Through two games, it looks like those worries were unfounded. Conley has been arguably the best secondary player through Ohio State’s first two games. Conley played in all 15 games a year ago but sometimes struggled both in coverage and with tackling, although that’s not unusual for a freshman. This season (so far), neither of those areas has been the least bit concerning.

Conley started the season with a fine performance at Virginia Tech, tying the team high with eight tackles, including half a sack. He made two first down-saving stops in space by himself on crucial third downs, thwarting Hokies’ drives. His tackling issues of last season seem to have evaporated.

This past weekend against Hawai’i, the 6-foot, 195-pound Massillon Washington product made only one tackle, but that’s mainly due to a lack of complete passes on his side of the field and the Rainbow Warriors running up the middle rather than on the edge.

Conley made his first career interception in the game by smothering senior wide receiver Quinton Pedroza with tight coverage and beating his man to the spot. He also broke up two other passes, including a deflection that became a Vonn Bell interception.

“Our secondary is playing at a very, very high level,” Urban Meyer said during his press conference yesterday. “Eli Apple, graded champion. Gareon Conley, both those corners are playing great.

“Gareon Conley was the other co-special teams player of the week, and he's involved in three phases, and that's in addition, obviously, to playing every snap on defense.”

Various people were predicting that Marshon Lattimore or Damon Webb might be able to wrest the starting position away from Conley, but it appears after two games that the G-man might become a fixture and perhaps the next great defensive back to play at Ohio State.

Apple and Grant made a very good pair last season, but you typically don’t replace a guy like Doran without some growing pains. Grant was, after all, a first-team All-B1G cornerback, as selected by the coaches, as well as a second-team all-conference “defensive back,” as chosen by the media. Those types of players don’t grow on trees.

But maybe they grow them in Massillon.

Two games is a very small sample size, but Buckeye fans have to be encouraged by the start Gareon Conley has had to the season. He’s been confident, technically sound, and…well, great.

“We all saw it coming,” said Meyer of Conley’s emergence. “He was just a little undersized when he first got here. He's a guy, it's interesting, I made a point to our team probably about a thousand times, but every guy I called up that's playing well does things right on and off the field, academically. Gareon Conley is just -- "Hey, how's it going?" "It's going great, coach." It's a credit to the people who raised him.”

He certainly isn’t playing undersized so far in 2015.