Denzel Burke heard the criticism he received for his play in 2022. He’s using that as motivation to prove he can be an elite cornerback in 2023.
“It's a personal year for me,” Burke said last week. “I want to prove all the doubters wrong. And I want to go out there and do what I know I can do. And just put a lot of great stuff on tape and play hard for my team.”
Viewed as a potential All-American candidate entering last season, Burke didn’t perform up to that standard. After giving up just 5.375 yards per target as a true freshman in 2021, Burke allowed 8.513 yards per target in 2022, per Pro Football Focus, and his play was widely regarded as a disappointment one year after his breakout freshman season made him a revelation.
One factor that impacted Burke’s play last season was his health, as he battled numerous injuries over the course of the season. Burke suffered a shoulder injury in preseason camp, then underwent surgery for a hand injury in September. He said last week he also dealt with ankle and finger injuries, and all of those injuries had an effect on his confidence.
“When I'm out, I'm not able to set my foundation, be able to do my technique and then going out there and playing, I haven't really set my foundation,” Burke said. “So a lot of things are off, and then I gotta think about some of my injuries, I gotta go find a way to play with my injuries.”
Ohio State secondary coach Tim Walton believes the combination of injuries and playing in a new defensive scheme created challenges for Burke a year ago. He said Burke had to learn how to play through those injuries, though, given that injuries are a common occurrence in football.
“It was a whole different scheme. It was a whole different responsibility, different pressure on those guys than there was before. So there was a lot of factors going in. He had multiple things that set him back injury-wise,” Walton said last week. “What we try to do is we don’t make excuses about it. We gotta go play through it because guess what, that’s just part of the game, man. That's what happens when you play this sport. You’re gonna have nicks, you’re gonna have bruises, you’re gonna have injuries. But we got to be tough-minded, we gotta fight through it. And he did a good job of fighting through it. And now we gotta fight through it during the spring, and we gotta try to grow and make sure we’re better every day.”
The narrative that Burke was a liability for Ohio State’s secondary last season is one that might have been overstated, particularly after the first month of the season. While he undeniably struggled in his first four games of the year, in which he gave up 10 catches for 231 yards and two touchdowns on just 17 targets, he was better for the remainder of the season, allowing only 12 catches for 101 yards and one touchdown on 22 targets in his final seven game appearances of the year, per PFF.
Burke was proud of his improvement over the course of the season after his rough start to the year.
“I felt like I finished really strong my second half of the season, and I just wanted to finish off strong and then have some momentum going into this year,” Burke said. “And that's what I did.”
That said, Burke wants to take his game to another level as a junior this year. One way he wants to do that is by making more plays on the ball after Ohio State’s cornerbacks combined for zero interceptions in 2022.
“Yeah, that's honestly, that's unacceptable,” Burke said regarding the cornerbacks’ lack of interceptions last year.
Burke wants Ohio State’s secondary to re-establish itself as an elite unit after three straight years of struggles for the pass defense, and as the Buckeyes’ only returning starter at cornerback, how he plays will go a long way toward determining whether that happens.
“We just want to show that BIA (Best in America) is back,” Burke said. “And we're not leaving nothing to chance this year.”
“It's a personal year for me. I want to prove all the doubters wrong.”– Denzel Burke
After a year for Burke and the entire secondary that didn’t live up to expectations, his Ohio State teammates and coaches have seen him approach this offseason with a different level of hunger.
“Competing way harder than usual. He’s in here at 5 a.m. watching film like before anybody is here, so that's what kind of separates him and makes him a great player,” fellow junior cornerback Jordan Hancock said. “He's definitely moving like a pro. Maybe he didn't do that last year. I feel like he kind of did last year, but he's taking it to a whole different level this year, and I feel like he's gonna go back on the map this year.”
Walton said Burke has been “dialed in” and “focused every snap” during spring practices.
“He's having an excellent spring so far,” Walton said. “So glad with his progression, glad with his process. We just have to keep it going.”
