During his opening statement at Big Ten Media Days on Tuesday, Ryan Day said he thinks Denzel Burke “has a chance to be the best corner in America” this year.
Burke’s response to that comment during his interview session later that afternoon reflected the confidence Burke consistently projects in media interviews.
“He's not wrong,” Burke said.
Burke’s goal for himself goes even further than being the best cornerback in college football this year; he wants to be the best cornerback in Ohio State history.
“I want to be recognized as the best corner to ever come through here and put my name on the wall (of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center), get a tree (in Buckeye Grove for being an All-American),” Burke said. “That's my ambition.”
Burke will need to have a truly fantastic season if he’s going to be recognized as Ohio State’s greatest cornerback of all-time. After all, the Buckeyes have a history of producing elite cornerbacks such as Antoine Winfield, Shawn Springs, Malcolm Jenkins, Chris Gamble and Denzel Ward, to name a few.
But Burke has never been one to back down from a challenge, and he’s confident in his ability to be college football’s best cornerback this year because of the work he’s put in toward achieving that goal.
“I've put the work in my whole entire life,” Burke said. “I'm blessed to be able to be in this situation, to be here at Big Ten Media and representing my team. But my years at Ohio State is just a testament of all the hard work I've put in, in the dark, and what I want to do with my life and play corner.”
Burke wasn’t far off from being the best cornerback in the country last season, when he earned second-team All-American honors from the Walter Camp Football Foundation as well as first-team All-Big Ten recognition. That put Burke in position to be an early-round pick if he entered the 2024 NFL draft, but he stayed at Ohio State because he believes he can make himself a top-10 pick.
He also stayed for his senior season because of the goals the Buckeyes haven’t achieved as a team in his first three years at Ohio State: Beating Michigan, winning the Big Ten championship and winning the national championship. Leading the Buckeyes to all of those goals is the surest way Burke can establish himself as an all-time Ohio State great, and he’s entering his final year as a Buckeye with a can’t-lose mentality.
“No Gold Pants, no natty, so that was a big part of our, one of the reasons why we came back, and we're all on the same page,” Burke said. “We've got to win every single game. No ifs, ands or buts about it.”
Burke always expected to be one of college football’s elite cornerbacks from the time he arrived at Ohio State as a freshman. His drive to be that and confidence that he could led to Burke becoming an immediate starter as a freshman, putting him in position to break William White’s school record for starts by an Ohio State cornerback if he starts 12 or more games this season.
“I've always believed in myself. I've always had confidence in myself,” Burke said. “For me, it was just playing football, and I've always just took care of the little things. I've always been a pro’s pro, and I was trained at a young level and I was always given advice and wisdom at a young level on how to maneuver and how to be a pro and how to move in this business. So me just being able to be up in that moment and being a freshman playing in that game, it was just another day in the park for me.”
After earning Freshman All-American honors in 2021, Burke didn’t perform up to expectations as a sophomore in 2022. His drop-off in play came in part due to multiple injuries he suffered that year, but Burke blames himself for not putting in the same kind of work before his sophomore year as he did before his freshman year.
Burke learned his lesson from his disappointing sophomore campaign and resolved to never let that happen again.
“Honestly, just after my freshman year, I'm an 18-year-old kid, I just started all 12 games and got a little complacent,” Burke said. “I feel like I'm on top of the world, I'm doing this, I just played all these games, I balled out, and I kind of I lost that edge going into my sophomore year a little bit. And then I got hurt, and I had to deal with those difficulties, and I really didn't have no foundation going into my sophomore year. So just having to deal with that, lowest point for me in my life as a football player, but I've grown from that, and that's something I'm always going to remember.”
Burke bounced back in a big way as a junior, leading the way for Ohio State to have the No. 1 pass defense in the country with only 145.9 passing yards allowed per game. But Burke hasn’t gotten complacent this time, believing he and the rest of Ohio State’s defense can still play better than they did a year ago.
Specifically, Burke wants to force more turnovers after recording only one interception last year.
“It's my job to turn my PBUs into interceptions and hopefully take some back to the crib this year,” Burke said.
“I want to be recognized as the best corner to ever come through here.”– Denzel Burke
While Burke has always been good enough to start at Ohio State, Day says he’s seen a big difference in the player Burke is now than he was three years ago, particularly from a maturity standpoint.
“He's shown great leadership. He's made great strides as a player, but also just in his maturity,” Day said. “We were talking on the plane ride over here about how you approach preseason camp a lot different now in his point of his career than he would as a freshman. And he's much more intentional with everything he does.”
The expectations Burke has set for himself allow him little margin for error if he is to achieve all of his goals, but Burke has no fear of failure. If he continues to work the way he has to this point and plays the way he knows he is capable of, he believes he’ll achieve the results he desires.
“No pressure,” Burke said. “At the end of the day, we're still playing football, and we've got to line up and it's our players vs. your players, and really just taking care of every game and just winning the moment, taking care of the situations. And week in, week out, just playing at a high level, and everything will work out how it should be.”
