In case anyone forgot, there’s a five-star underclassman not named Devin Sanchez in Ohio State’s cornerback room.
Since arriving on campus, Sanchez has gotten a lot of attention, deservedly so. The Texan is as fluid and dynamic an athlete as they come with an incredible technical refinement of his game relative to his age that should allow him to see early playing time.
But it would be a mistake to forget about sophomore Aaron Scott Jr.
“He's been doing well this spring,” cornerbacks coach Tim Walton said of Scott in April. “He's been competing. He's been applying the game. His functional intelligence has been up. He has a passion for it. He plays with great effort. And things are coming along for him, and he's playing with confidence. So all those things build, and then can we sustain it? Can we keep going?”
With a year of development under his belt, the highly-touted Scott has a shot to earn game reps if he takes the right steps this offseason.
“I've been doing good, I feel very physical,” Scott said in April. “I feel like my ultimate got way better. I'm just more attuned to what's going on and understanding how the game goes.”
Ohio State won an intense recruiting battle with Michigan and many others to snag Scott’s services during the 2024 recruiting cycle, and with good reason. The five-star recruit was the No. 36 overall prospect and No. 6 cornerback in the 247Sports composite rankings, possessing an excellent athletic profile as a track and basketball star.
Scott came into his freshman year believing he could earn an immediate role, but then the reality of college football hit him as it hits most freshmen. He took it in stride and took the opportunity to learn from the starting outside cornerbacks ahead of him.
“I got to learn from the guys like IGB and Denzel (Burke),” Scott said. “I'm thinking I'm going to come in and play, but I feel like waiting and watching them made me learn a lot. ... So I got to grow. Just seeing how other guys handled themselves, I feel like that made me want to be more mature too.”
Scott did climb the depth chart a bit to surpass then-redshirt freshman Calvin Simpson-Hunt in Ohio State’s 2024 cornerback pecking order, partially prompting Simpson-Hunt’s transfer to Baylor. Scott played 74 snaps, the sixth-most of the Buckeyes’ CBs, and made two tackles with one pass breakup during OSU’s title-winning campaign.
The primary development for Scott since that time, he said, has been in his understanding of the game. He felt himself reading and reacting to things better this spring than in the whole of his freshman year.
“Everything is slower,” Scott said. “Everything is slower than my freshman year. My high school defense, all we ran was man, so all this was new to me, especially with Coach Knowles’ defense. This year, everything has slowed down.”
Walton has seen the same improvements from Scott on the understanding front. The other thing he’s noticed, which is necessary for all his corners, is that Scott’s competitive fire is burning with a touch more fuel.
“We got to compete here, we're not shy of talking about it,” Walton said. “This is musical chairs. You got to compete and he's doing it, he's embracing it and you can see it. You can see it in his play and he has confidence and he's doing a nice job.”
It probably also helps the competition factor to be lined up across from the nation’s best core of wide receivers practice-in and practice-out.
“Jeremiah, Carnell, Brandon, all of them,” Scott said. “In the game, I definitely do feel like it's easier, because I feel like we've got the best receivers in the country.”
With Burke and starting nickel Jordan Hancock off to the NFL draft, Scott will have a shot to see the field. Igbinosun and Jermaine Mathews Jr. are near-locks to start at two cornerback spots, but Lorenzo Styles Jr. is still working to secure nickel full-time. If he slips and Scott or Sanchez takes a leap, one of them could push Mathews inside to start at outside corner. Beyond that, rotational and spell duties are definitely on the table for Scott.
“He's been competing. He's been applying the game. His functional intelligence has been up.”– Tim Walton on Aaron Scott Jr.'s performance in spring practice
Scott felt he matured a lot in his freshman year. Now he’ll work to apply those lessons and make an impact as a sophomore.
“Trying to be the first guy to come in,” Scott said. “Trying to come in before the older guys get in here. That's hard because they're going to be here early. Really just sticking with them and going along the ride with them and trying to beat them at the things they're doing earlier than me.”
