Kerry Coombs is not a guy to sugarcoat anything. If you're good, you're good. If you're not, you're not. The man calls it as he sees it, one of the main reasons Urban Meyer loves having him at Ohio State.
The Buckeyes lost an All-Big Ten cornerback, Doran Grant, to graduation and the NFL following a national championship season in 2014. Any roster attrition challenges the depth of a college football team, something Coombs knows all too well. He's not shy about speaking to what Grant meant to the Buckeye cornerback room.
"Doran was a great leader in our room," Coombs said Tuesday. "He was a mature guy who had plenty of experience and the other guys looked up to him."
"It’s different when you’re on the field. When I coach them, I give them lots of things, but when a guy who has been there in that stance and made those plays tells them something, it carries a lot of weight. Eli has that."– Kerry Coombs on Eli Apple
Grant's now trying to make his mark in Pittsburgh, a fourth round NFL Draft pick of the Steelers. The Buckeyes do return one starting cornerback from a year ago in Eli Apple, someone Coombs said he's already seen act as he should from a leadership standpoint even though he's a redshirt sophomore.
"Eli has stepped in and filled that role very, very well," Coombs said. "It’s different when you’re on the field. When I coach them, I give them lots of things, but when a guy who has been there in that stance and made those plays tells them something, it carries a lot of weight. Eli has that."
At first, Apple was a bit shy with the media, a soft-spoken but highly touted recruit and eventual early enrollee of Ohio State's 2013 recruiting class. He was pressed into a starting role last season following Bradley Roby's departure to the NFL, and though the depth chart listed he and Gareon Conley as co-starters all last season, everyone knew it was his job.
"He had some health issues that held him back that I don’t think we identified right away," Coombs said. "Once we got past that, he’s been phenomenal."
Even more so now, he's been more vocal and perhaps more important, more confident.
"I’m just being more vocal, just trying to take the young guys and put them under my wing and try to teach them technique stuff," Apple said Tuesday, the lone defensive back made available to the media after practice. "Just teach them stuff that I went through my first year, little things, so just being more vocal this year."
Apple is aware he's needed to step in and help fill the void left by Grant not only as the team's No. 1 cornerback, but the guy who keeps things in line even when they go bad on the borders of Ohio State's defense.
"I'm a lot more confident in my abilities, I'm a lot more of a big type of guy on the defense. It's definitely changed," Apple said of his role. "I've gotta be more vocal. I gotta be a leader and all that stuff."
He's must be really good, too. Grant's 63 tackles and five interceptions from a year ago are a huge loss. But Apple's position coach couldn't be more convinced he can pick up the slack.
"I think Eli has gotten very, very good at the line of scrimmage. I think his game has improved there," Coombs said. "If you play corner at Ohio State, play press man 100 snaps a game or whatever it is, you’ve gotta be a dude. He’s worked really hard at that part of his game. His tackling is very, very good right now so he’s really improved at that. He’s bigger and stronger and faster so I’m excited to watch him play."
And Apple is ready to show why that's the case.
"The loss of Doran is huge. You lose a leader, you lose a guy that had great experience," Apple said. "He was a great locker room guy, a veteran, so it’s up to us as a secondary to find somebody that can replace him. Gareon, to me, and Damon Webb and a bunch of other guys can fill that position."
