Cornerback was already one of the diciest positions for depth on Ohio State’s roster entering the 2020 season, and now, it’s gotten even shakier.
Ryan Day confirmed Tuesday that Cameron Brown will miss the rest of the season after tearing his Achilles tendon during Saturday’s game at Penn State, and he acknowledged that the Buckeyes were not well-positioned to lose one of their key veteran cornerbacks.
“It’s very costly,” Day said. “Cam came with experience this season, in a position that we couldn’t afford to lose anyone, so to lose Cam, it’s a significant hit.”
Brown didn’t start either of the Buckeyes’ first two games at cornerback, but he was clearly their top backup at the position behind starters Shaun Wade, Sevyn Banks and Marcus Williamson. Brown saw playing time both in the outside cornerback rotation and as a slot cornerback in nickel packages against Nebraska and Penn State, positioning himself as the top player off the bench in both spots.
Now, however, Ohio State is just one injury or positive COVID-19 test away from potentially having to thrust a really inexperienced player into a starting role in the secondary.
The obvious candidate to step up and start seeing some significant playing time at cornerback is Tyreke Johnson, a five-star recruit in the class of 2018 who, like Banks and Brown, is now in his third year at Ohio State. Sure enough, Day named Johnson first when asked Tuesday who the Buckeyes are counting on to step up at cornerback in Brown’s absence.
“He’s been here for a while, and he has experience. He knows the defense. He’s got a good feel for where he needs to be on the field,” Day said. “I think now that we don’t have Cam, he’s gonna have to really step up.”
That said, Johnson has yet to see significant playing time in his Ohio State career and didn’t play a single snap against Penn State, leaving it very much uncertain whether he’ll actually be up to the task if the Buckeyes need to rely on him to play a major role.
It would help them greatly if Johnson finally starts to live up to the five-star hype, though, considering that the rest of their scholarship cornerback roster currently consists of freshmen.
Day named freshman Ryan Watts, who hasn’t yet seen playing time, as another cornerback who “has to step up.” Cameron Martinez is another true freshman who could be thrust into action, and Day said the Buckeyes are hoping to get Lejond Cavazos back soon after he’s been unavailable for the first two games.
With such limited depth, Day said Williamson will have to cross-train at the outside cornerback position, even though he’s played exclusively at slot cornerback and safety in the first two games, so they have another option there. Josh Proctor, who’s played primarily as a second safety in nickel packages so far this season, did see some playing time at slot cornerback in the fourth quarter against Penn State, and so did Lathan Ransom, who was recruited as a safety but has played 11 snaps at slot corner in the first two games. Ronnie Hickman played nine snaps at slot cornerback in the Nebraska game.
Because of the lack of veteran depth, and the constant threat that looms over this season of losing players due to COVID-19 tests, defensive coordinator and secondary coach Kerry Coombs said every defensive back on the roster needs to be ready to play and needs to be able to line up at multiple spots.
“The whole next man up thing is no joke, and especially this year, I think we’ve been training our guys from June for the possibility of having to be able to play in a game suddenly,” Coombs said Tuesday. “And so in the secondary room right now, that’s what everybody, it’s all hands on deck. Everybody has to understand that their role may change slightly for this week’s game, it may change for the next five weeks’ games, and you better be prepared to play more than one position in the back end. Because there’s gonna be moving parts as we go through a season like this.”
Lathan Ransom is among the defensive backs who could be called upon to play bigger roles in Ohio State's secondary as the season progresses.
Asked specifically about multiple defensive backs, Coombs said Proctor is one of several players in the secondary who offers the versatility to play in a variety of different capacities, while Ransom is a player who he believes will “continue to have his role increase as the season goes on.” All of the freshmen were set back by a lack of normal offseason due to the pandemic, Coombs said, but he is pleased with the way they’re coming along and preparing themselves to be ready to play.
“The disappointing thing of course is not having had spring ball or really training camp with those guys, makes it a little bit more challenging for them, so their learning curve gets accelerated another notch beyond just being a freshman at Ohio State. But I love those kids, they’re working hard,” Coombs said. “As I’ve explained to all of them, they are gonna be needed during the course of the season. And so they’re preparing as if they’re going to play every day, because they are. And so we’re getting them ready.”
As concerning as the Buckeyes’ depth at cornerback might be, they also clearly have some work to do with their starters after Penn State passed for 252 yards in the second half of Saturday’s game. Wade and Banks were both beat for multiple big plays, making the secondary stand out as a glaring area of concern in a game where just about every other Ohio State unit shined.
Both Coombs and Day, though, chalked that up as much to Penn State making great plays – especially wide receiver Jahan Dotson, whose eight receptions for 144 yards and three touchdowns included multiple spectacular catches – as their cornerbacks playing poorly, and they are confident Banks, Wade and the rest of the cornerbacks will learn from their struggles in Happy Valley and improve as the season progresses.
“Overall, I thought the first two games, they played well,” Day said. “I think there’s some things maybe they’d like to have back in the last game, but overall, we’re getting solid play out of them, and I think if they just keep growing and keep working and they’re in those spots and keep covering like that, they’re gonna get some balls. They’re gonna have their fair share of shots to make interceptions and PBUs. So just keep building.”
Coombs said the cornerbacks do need to improve on covering inward-breaking routes, on which Penn State made many of its plays against them on Saturday, and he thinks they will.
The good news for the Buckeyes: Both their starters and their backups should have opportunities to get game reps and tune up their skills on Saturday against Rutgers, as Ohio State is favored to win that game by 38 points, though both Day and Coombs are trying to guard against a mindset of thinking they’re in for an easy win against the Scarlet Knights.
“We got to make sure that we’re on top of our game,” Day said. “This team would want nothing more than come in and get this game into the fourth quarter, so we gotta do a great job recognizing the challenge that they provide in all three phases, and playing as fast as we possibly can.”
