Verbally, neither Kerry Coombs nor any other coach on Ohio State’s staff talked much in the public sphere about cornerback Ryan Watts last fall. Then a true freshman, his name almost never came up from the coaches in interviews or press conferences throughout the first season of his collegiate career.
Their actions, however, spoke significantly louder.
Offenses took blowtorches to the Buckeyes’ pass defense from the beginning of the season until it ended with Alabama’s Mac Jones throwing for 464 yards and five touchdowns, and yet Watts sat. Once Cameron Brown ruptured his Achilles, Coombs and Matt Barnes were down to just Shaun Wade and Sevyn Banks as outside cornerbacks. That didn’t much help the cause of Watts, who played 22 snaps against Rutgers then six versus Michigan State. He didn’t get off the bench at all in the postseason outside of serving as a kickoff gunner in the Big Ten championship game.
The message was simple: Watts hadn’t earned the coaches’ trust yet. Otherwise, they would have inserted him the way they did with Lathan Ransom down the stretch.
So, head coach Ryan Day issued Watts and fellow second-year cornerback Lejond Cavazos a challenge to show why they deserve chances to contribute on defense in 2021. He knew Brown would be out for spring camp while rehabilitating his lower leg, and Banks later suffered an injury that knocked him out of camp, too, which left plenty of practice reps available for the underclassmen who didn’t get as many as they would have last year.
“To me, it’s a big spring for Lejond Cavazos and Ryan Watts,” Day said in late March. “These are two guys now who have been in the program and this is gonna be a big spring for them. They gotta really step up. They’re gonna have a great opportunity to compete, so they’re gonna have to stay healthy and perform.”
Evidently, at least one of them met that expectation.
Following the spring game, in which Watts recorded an interception, Coombs said Watts had a “great” spring. He mentioned the Texan was on the field for more than 500 reps across the 15 practices. Those reps especially mattered to a second-year Buckeye like Watts, whose first year in the program was a mess for matters completely outside of his control.
Ohio State's cornerbacks only went through seven sessions of one-on-ones against receivers the entire year, per Coombs, given the uneven and unconventionally split-up practices amid the COVID-19 pandemic. For Watts and the other backups from last year, time on the field in March and April was as much about making up for lost time and getting back to the basics as anything.
Coombs says the Buckeyes now feel “much, much more comfortable” in the options outside of the starters, including Watts.
“We have significantly more depth in the back end,” Coombs said. “It was a great experience for those kids this spring. A lot of young kids getting a lot of reps. You don't want guys to be injured, and at the same time, it afforded the opportunity to really coach some depth in the back end.”
Watts, given the lack of reps last year, needed them this spring. What still remains unclear is what his role will be this fall.
Banks is locked in as one of Ohio State's starting cornerbacks. Across from him, Brown is the presumed frontrunner. The caveat to that is that he’ll have to be fully healthy and show he’s the best option in preseason camp since he was sidelined this spring.
Therein lies Watts’ chance at winning a starting outside cornerback job. If he can use the spring reps to his advantage, get his body ready over the summer and come into the preseason ready to compete, he’ll have a shot at getting into the starting lineup – or even forcing a three-way rotation on the outside, as Coombs has done in the past.
Watts’s size at 6-foot-3 and 203 pounds makes him an intriguing prospect for the coaching staff to develop.
“He’s the tallest corner that I've ever coached,” Coombs said. “But he’s able to transition his body in short-space quickness. He’s got long speed. Because of that length, I think getting his hands on receivers at the line of scrimmage will be of paramount importance for him. And then his ability to have range of zone – sometimes when you have that big wingspan, you can get your hands on balls. So those taller guys can also do that in zone coverage.”
Coombs didn’t recruit Watts to Columbus. That was the doing of Jeff Hafley, who helped flip the top-250 recruit from Oklahoma a couple of years ago.
But Coombs has no problem benefiting from his predecessor who helped pull the oversized corner out of the Lone Star State.
“I thought it was a very good and productive spring for Ryan,” Coombs said. “I'm excited for him in the fall.”
