“Just keep competing, man,” said Walton, whose Southern accent remains strong 25 years after he left Columbus, Ga., for Columbus, Ohio, to play for coach John Cooper and the Buckeyes. “Obviously, it’s about who becomes reliable, trustworthy, making plays, not giving up plays. There’s a lot of those things that go in, and that happens over a period of time. That’s not one day. That’s gonna go over a course of training camp. That’s gonna go over course of the first part of the season. That’s an ongoing process with guys.”
In Walton’s first year as a coach at his alma mater, the Buckeyes struggled to find consistency at cornerback.
Health and youth had a big impact on that output as multiple players battled through injuries, especially early in the season.
This season, the Buckeyes will be older and more experienced, which should help provide some insurance even if the injury bug bites again.
Denzel Burke is back for his junior season, and Walton likes what he has seen from a player who has had some ups and downs since being pressed into starting duty as a true freshman in 2021.
He seems to have one starting spot mostly locked up while the other remains an open competition.
The leading contenders appeared to be Jordan Hancock, another junior who happens to hale from Georgia, and Davison Igbinosun, a transfer from Mississippi who arrived in January.
Also in the running were Lakota West grad Jyaire Brown and Ryan Turner, who are both approaching their second seasons at Ohio State, with Jermaine Mathews Jr., a true freshman from Cincinnati.
Calvin Simpson-Hunt, an incoming freshman from Waxahacie, Texas, joined the group this summer along with Lorenzo Styles Jr., a transfer from Notre Dame.
So after entering 2022 with only six scholarship players and two who had played much, if at all, Walton is looking at a much different picture this summer.
Burke has started 24 games, and Igbinosun was a freshman All-American last season when he started 10 games and played in 13.
“Denzel is locked in, he’s dialed in with it,” Walton said. “He’s one of the leaders over there in the room. So it’s a combination everything you know? The maturation process, being healthy, the second year in the system, the leadership part of it, so we’re really pleased of the way he’s been handling stuff and the way he performed this spring.”
The coach has also seen Igbinosun fit in well.
“He picked things up well,” Walton said. “He’s a diligent worker. He’s a guy that really puts time in to learn the system, and he took a lot of steps forward this spring so now we’re looking for the progression of the summer of being able to carry it over and now get it started get game ready.”
Brown played nine games, including a start against Wisconsin, and Hancock became part of the rotation late in the season after getting over a bad hamstring injury.
Styles is a wild card because he has not played defense since he was a standout at Pickerington (Ohio) Central High School, but he has two years of college football under his belt as a receiver and two more years of physical development than the usual newcomer to the program.
“He’s strong. He can run, be physical,” Walton said of Styles, the older brother of Ohio State safety Sonny Styles and son of former Ohio State linebacker Lorenzo Styles Sr. “He’s 195 pounds, so he’s got good size. He’s played the game. He’s mature, so he has the knowledge. Now he just has to go get the experience back on that side of the ball, get the technique and take time to go back through the transition of drill work and understanding the different movement skills.”
Overall, there is plenty of work to be done, but a position that went from strength to weakness in only a couple of seasons could start trending back in a more positive direction.
“... Success is never owned. It’s rented, man, and the rent is due every day,” Walton said. “So every day, you have to come with your ‘A’ game. You have to put the work in, and we have a good group of guys that is competing. So everybody has to be on point and continue to progress. Not make the same mistakes. Make sure you’re producing at a high level. That’s the expectation, and then we’ll just keep evaluating as the time goes on.”
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