Ask Eli Apple about the history of great players who've graced the Ohio State football program at cornerback and his eyes light up like a neon sign illuminating the desert's night sky.
The Ohio State cornerback wall is extensive — Chris Gamble; Antoine Winfield; Shawn Springs; Bradley Roby; and the latest addition, Apple's former defensive backfield companion, Doran Grant. He can name them all.
With all due respect to those former greats, there's one that resides above all, at least in Apple's eyes: 2008 All-American and Jim Thorpe Award Winner Malcolm Jenkins.
"My confidence is through the roof right now. I feel very good with my game, I feel good with where I’m going right now. I’ve just gotta keep working and keep grinding."– Eli Apple
"Of course it was Malcolm. When I really started liking the Buckeyes and when I came out here to camps he was the guy," Apple said Saturday. "He's from (New) Jersey just like me, so I was watching everything he did and tried to emulate him."
Jenkins hails from Piscataway, N.J., a little more than an hour northeast from Apple's hometown of Voorhees, N.J. That alone is enough to understand the redshirt sophomore's adoration for the former three-year starter and current Philadelphia Eagle, but it's how Jenkins played the game that has Apple so enthralled.
"I never really think about it like that, but if I had to compare to anybody, of course I'd like to compare to Malcolm," Apple said. "He was somebody who always brought great energy out to the field and always played hard. That's somebody I love to emulate."
Jenkins not only brought energy on the field in terms of the way he played, but how he led, as well. With Grant gone and preparing for the NFL, Apple returns as the elder statesman in the cornerback room and with a starting position all but locked up.
He isn't letting that notion cause him to rest, though, and is the guy his position coach said without hesitation to be having the best spring camp at the position.
"Eli is coming off of an illness last year in the spring and didn’t have any idea how he was going to play," Kerry Coombs said April 7. "I thought he had a very good season, but I think he’s having a much better offseason and spring than he’s ever had."
Apple did have a strong redshirt freshman campaign, beating out Gareon Conley to start opposite of Grant and tallying 53 total tackles and three interceptions in 2014. He also picked up a fumble and returned it for a score in Ohio State's 56-17 rout of Rutgers.
"My confidence is through the roof right now. I feel very good with my game, I feel good with where I’m going right now," Apple said. "I’ve just gotta keep working and keep grinding."
Coombs added: "His growth, physically, but also his growth as a leader, as a player. He’s not finished and he knows that, we talk about that all the time. He has had a really, really good spring. I’m really excited about him."
Apple is listed at 6-foot-1 and 200 pounds, with long arms and a quick first step. He's also got the confidence and swagger an elite cornerback must maintain to be successful — he'll need it in order to become the leader his coaches expect him to be this fall.
"It’s a lot different because everybody’s looking at you to be the guy. You don’t have somebody like a Doran anymore — it’s you," Apple said. "So you’ve gotta take the lead, you’ve gotta be able to coach the young guys up and get them back up to speed.”
Those young guys include Conley, Damon Webb and Marshon Lattimore, in addition to the five true freshmen defensive backs arriving to campus this summer.
It's a tall task for someone who won't even turn 20 until the first week of August. Being the next great cornerback in Buckeye lore, though, is something Apple has dreamt of ever since he first watched Ohio State play on Saturday afternoons.
"It's been a goal of mine since I was in middle school, coming to camps here," he said. "It's something I've always wanted to do, wanted to strive for and then work toward it."
He is bound to get his chances this fall as the Buckeyes attempt to defend their Big Ten and College Football Playoff National Championships. Without Grant, Apple must become that shutdown corner Ohio State's had so often in the past.
"Last year, I was more to the field and Doran was more of the guy but this year people will look at me to be the guy, look at me to take away the No. 1 threat on the other side of the field," Apple said. "That’s a challenge I want to take and something I’m looking forward to."
