Three BIGGEST Concerns for the Buckeye Cornerbacks

Ohio State’s cornerback room has a chance to be one of the strengths of the 2026 Buckeye defense — but are there still legitimate concerns?

Tony Gerdeman and Tom Orr discuss the biggest questions facing the Ohio State cornerbacks, including whether expectations are too high for Jermaine Matthews, Devin Sanchez, and Dominick Kelly; how the Buckeyes replace Davison Igbinosun’s physicality; and whether every cornerback room is bound to have a few rough moments over the course of a season.

They also discuss what the spring revealed about Devin Sanchez, how daily battles with Jeremiah Smith could help prepare the corners, why Dominick Kelly’s experience at Georgia matters, and how past great Ohio State corners have still had difficult matchups.

00:00 — Intro
00:11 — Tom asks what Tony is panicking about today
00:25 — Setting up the cornerback concerns
01:06 — Concern No. 1: Are expectations too high?
02:23 — Why the cornerback projection is fair, but not reckless
05:36 — Veteran depth and the value of insurance at corner
06:23 — Concern No. 2: Replacing Davison Igbinosun’s physicality
08:31 — Why practicing against Jeremiah Smith matters
09:53 — A challenging schedule for Ohio State’s cornerbacks
10:47 — Concern No. 3: Avoiding random bad games and big plays
12:07 — Why even great corners give up plays
13:28 — Final thoughts on the concern level
14:29 — BuckeyeInsiders.com and wrap-up

How concerned are you about Ohio State’s cornerbacks this season? Drop your thoughts in the comments.

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Speaker 1: No West Away the Down.

Speaker 2: Hello everybody, Welcome to d buck Eye Weekly Podcast. I'm

Tony Gerdaman here as always with time or Tom. How's

it going well, Tony?

Speaker 3: It is another one of our new favorite kind of shows,

the ones where I have to talk you off the

ledge off of just over something ridiculous, absolutely absurd. Tony,

what are you panicking about today?

Speaker 2: I'm not panicking. I have concerns, just general concerns. The

concerns today involve the Ohio state cornerbacks, of which we

have spoken very very highly of since I don't know February,

talking about the possibilities and so yes, I do have

concerns and we will discuss them, and they are legitimate,

and I think you being dismissive dismissive of them says

more about you than it says about me. And what

does it say about you? Go ahead and leave your

comments and YouTube and on email and anything like that

on public facing walls, the corehouse wherever you want to

leave those comments about Tom or please do so. We

appreciate that. And of course, if you do leave it

via spray paint somewhere on a train or whatever, take

a picture, send it in We love to post those.

Tom My first concern here about the cornerbacks at Ohio

State is my overconfidence and how good they're going to be. Now,

is this a real concern? Like, I'm I'm so expecting

all three of them to be very, very good. And

when I say all three of them, I mean Jermaine Matthews,

Devin Sanchez, and Dominic Kelly to be really really good.

I expect them all to play. As I'm like, these

guys are gonna be so good, I'm thinking, well, you know,

calm down, because you're talking about Jermaine Matthews who has

was targeted at times last year. Successfully, Indiana got him,

other teams got him a little bit. Devin Sanchez, true

freshman last year, went through growing pains, and whenever we

talked about him, we have to talk about the growing

pains that he went through last year. He was targeted

as soon as he came in. Quarterbacks went after him.

Dominic Kelly all of what three tackles and ten games

last year in a reserved roll. So there's a limb

that we're out on here, and I'm wondering should we

be more closer to the trunk.

Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think this is fair because there's a

lot of projection that goes into the Sanchez thing, the

Kelly thing. You know, you're not you're not asking guys

to go from nothing to immediate thrown in a day

one starter, because you've seen Jermaine Matthews out there for

several years and is he absolutely perfect. No, he gave

up that long pass at the end of the Big

Ten Championship game, for example, But he's been pretty darn consistent,

and a lot of people gave up long completions to

Charlie Becker at the end of last football season. That

does not put him an exclusive company by any means.

But you have Devin Sanchez, who normally you'd be saying, well,

he was a true freshman last year. Now he's finally

going to be really out there this year and we'll

finally get to see does ken he live up to

the hype. It feels like we've kind of crossed that

bridge to a certain extent already, just because it's how

early he was out there last year. And no, it

wasn't perfect, absolutely not. It was not perfect. He wouldn't

he would not tell you it was perfect. He looked

like a freshman at times. Last year. Well, guess what

to paraphrase you what he Hayes line. The best thing

about freshman is they and they end up being sophomores.

And now he's a sophomore, and he's a sophomore with

a lot more experience than other sophomores. And Dominic Kelly,

you mentioned the stats, not a lot of playing time

last year. He played seventy snaps or something like that

for Georgia. But he played seventy snaps for Georgia as

a true freshman. That is Kirby Smart telling you something.

It is Kirby Smart telling you this is a guy

who we think is going to be a pretty good player,

and then he ends up hitting the portal and boy,

Georgia folks were not real happy about that. That's another

pretty good marker for you. So but you're not asking

him to step right into the starting lineup right now either.

If the top two guys are healthy, dominic Kelly's probably

your third corner. And if Dominic Kelly is your third corner,

that's fine. And then you've got other guys behind him too.

Where Jay Timmins, You know, we look at Jay Timmins,

we are sort of assuming he's going to be in

the slot and kind of be behind Earl Little. Could

he play outside? Sure he could. Jordan Thomas had some

good moments in the spring and other true freshman but

if he's if Jordan Thomas is your fourth outside corner,

you're not relying on him to step in and be

a starter this year. You can sort of move him

along and see what he can bring you and get,

you know, get whatever you get out of him without

having to throw him in there just because you're desperate.

And that you also part of the reason that if

Jordan Thomas isn't ready, you got Cam Calhoun too, who's

a veteran and he's someone who has not been a

you know, superstar player at any of the places he's

been before. He was at Michigan and then Utah and

then Alabama and was not a real standout in any

of those places. But he's just a little bit of

an insurance where, Okay, if Dominic Kelly isn't ready for

some reason, or if you have a couple injuries, you

don't have to throw in Jordan Thomas just yet. You

can play Cam Calhoun. There's a lot of insurance. There's

a lot of you're not asking guys to do way

more than they can do right now, it seems like.

So I'm with you on the fact that it feels

like you look at the production last year and go, well,

you're projecting a lot, and we are, but you're not

projecting as much as you probably would be in a

typical year.

Speaker 2: Yeah. And I think even you mentioned Kim Calhoun, if

he's your number four as a senior who has been

at three places and played a bunch at Utah as

a retro freshman after leaving Michigan, that to me is

something that coaches are happy about having your fourth quarter

being somebody who's seen a bunch and as a senior

and as a veteran, as opposed to the four star freshman.

You're like, you know, like eventually maybe a four star

freshman or a five star freshman is going to pass.

And by that's kind of the process that you want.

You want the young guys overtaking the veterans rather than

there being no veterans to be to overtake. And obviously

has some veterans and redshirt freshman Jordan Woods at some

point has to do something and I'm not expecting I'm

not expecting that this year necessarily, Like I don't look

at the the what we need to see from the

corners and factor Jordan Woods being a high level impact

player and that I think there's time for him, whether

it's at corner or safety down the road. So that's

the first concern, Tom. The second concern is replacing Davis

Nigmnosen's physicality, and that's something that I had that was

one of the concerns we probably talked out about before springball.

It's still a concern now, but I think it's less

of a concern after watching Devin Sanchez play. And when

I talk about physicality, I'm not just talking about pass coverage.

I'm also talking about stopping the run. And it's not

just Devin Sanchez. Jermaie Matthews gets involved. He is not

a timid defender. I'm going to assume Dom Kelly is

the same way. We'll find that out. I didn't see

anything in the spring that made me think maybe we

need to dial back, because sometimes sometimes even when it's

just thud, you can watch guys back away like I'm

not even going to get involved, as opposed to the

guys who are like, hey, I'm not allowed to tackle,

but I still want to hit that sort of thing.

And I don't remember coming away thinking, well, there's some

physicality issues there. And based on watching Devin Sanchez and

Jeremiah Smith go at it like constantly, that to me

gives me the most information about replacing IGB and the penalties.

And it's not about the penalties. It's just about being

physical with receiver, whether it's before the route, you know,

like during the route, whether it's when the ball is

getting there and playing the hands, or it's about being

the boundary cornerback and being there to stop the run

to your side, like until you see it for sure,

it's a concern. It's not as big of a concern

for me as it.

Speaker 3: Was though, well, and you see these guys going up

against Jeremiah Smith in practice every day, and if you

can go up against Jeremiah Smith in practice every day,

and you know, in the case of Devin Sanchez, it

felt like there were plenty of times when Devin Sanchez

basically fought him to a draw, like, yeah, sometimes Jeremiah

Smith is going to win, and sometimes Devin Sanchez is

going to win. And when you're going up against Jeremiah Smith,

that's it. That's the pinnacle. That is Sometimes Jeremiah Smith

doesn't win, is like, wow, that is incredible because they

have some good wide receivers on this schedule this fall.

Texas just brought in a really, really talented transfer from Auburn.

But you've got you know, Indiana's on the schedule this year,

Iowa's on the schedule this year, Tony. You know that

they like to light it up through the air, but

you do have talented wide receivers that you're going to

be going up against all season long. If you can

do it against Jeremiah Smith, you're going to at least

be able to sort of fight these other guys, probably

to a draw you would expect, But you're right. I mean,

you have seen Ohio State corners who are willing to

stick their nose in there in the run fit, and

you have seen Ohio State corners who are a little

bit more reticent to do that. And I think this

is a year where they're going to have guys who

are willing to be a little bit more physical in

run defense and you know, be willing to go up

against big, strong receivers who are going to try and

be you know, moving moving them off their spot and

being willing to stand their ground.

Speaker 2: Yeah, so I've begun writing. Can't preview positional previews at

buckeynsiders dot com. You can go there now and read them.

The first one I did was on the corners, and

in talking about some of those matchup games, you're not

it's more than just Charlie Becker. We know Indiana landed

Nick marsh from Michigan State who's very talented. Oregon has

three five star receivers that they've signed over the course

of the last few years or brought in via the

transfer portal. USC is going to have playmakers. There's and

you mentioned access with Cam Coleman, Ryan Wingo. They've got

other guys. So this is going to be a very

busy year for these corners. And again, I think my

concerns are lessened after seeing the Spring, and I think

that's kind of the goal of Spring basically is to

alleviate some of those concerns and find some of those answers.

What the Spring can't tell me is about my third concern,

and that's just random bad games from individuals, whether that's

twenty twenty four Denzel Burke against Oregon whether that's Jermaine

Matthews last year against Indiana, and it's not bad games,

bad moments, bad scheme, bad step, like not all bad

is on the player, but avoiding those because they can

be costly. And Charlie Becker, I think what went for

like six and one twenty against the Buckeyes last year,

And that's not all on Jermaine matt but some of

these big plays can be the difference between winning and losing.

And generally when a receiver has gone off like that

against a player, it has not gone well. And that's

not just picking on Denzel Burke. That's not just picking

on Jermae Matthews. We can go back to Nate Clements

and Ron Johnson, can go back to Antoine Winfield and

Plaxico Buris, like all of these guys. Sean Springs is

tied to ty Streets forever. So this is not These

are the greatest of all time in Ohio State, and

sometimes bad things just happen. So I think the fact

that it probably shouldn't be a concern, It should just

be an understanding that it's gonna happen.

Speaker 3: Yeah, And that's exactly right, because you're you're listing these off,

and I'm in my head going, Okay, well, I'll have

to mention Nate Clem, all right, he got Nate Clements.

I'll have to mention mentioned Shawn Springs. Okay, he got

Sewn Springs. How about Chris Gamble against Wisconsin in two

thousand and three. I mean, Lee Evans, you just and

you just kind of go on, and these are guys

who were great corners at Ohio State. You're just You're

not going to win one hundred percent of your matchups.

It's just not gonna happen. And when you give up

a play, a lot of times it can be a

really big play, and you know that's just sort of

the nature of the position. So, yes, this is this

is certainly a fair thing to be concerned about. But

this is something that you would be concerned about with

literally every team, literally every season. There's not I cannot

think of a season where I've looked at a team's

corners and go, well, no one's completing the pass on

them this season Like that, that doesn't happen. You're gonna throw.

Teams are going to throw for at least I don't know,

six touchdowns against Ohio State in the regular season, probably

substantially more than that, but at least six, like it's

gonna happen. You could be really great and only give up.

You know, I don't remember how many passing touchdowns they

give them in the regular season last year. It wasn't

that many. But even then, phenomenal, phenomenal defense, you're gonna

get scored on. Sometimes that's just that is just sort

of the nature of the of the position, in the

nature of the game.

Speaker 2: Five touchdown passes allowed in the regular season last year,

two in the postseason, one each to Indiana and Miami.

Speaker 3: And it wasn't good enough, Tony.

Speaker 2: If they had allowed zero or negative one, perhaps maybe

maybe return an interception for a touchdown every now and again.

Would I hurt you? Would I kill you if you

did that? So there you go my three concerns. Again,

we've been very, very high on the corners, so finding

some concerns, and I think these are all legit, legitimate.

But I also think maybe Tom, I'm I'm coming in,

I'm I'm backed off, I'm okay. I think things are

going to be okay right now. But we'll see how

that first day at fall camp goes. If Jeremiah Smith

catches a pass, probably have to do a live show

about it and say, oh boy, the sky, the sky,

she's a fallen So let us know what you guys

think on YouTube. Am I am I wrong? Am I crazy?

Am I just a whiny baby? Let me know?

Speaker 3: Yes, and yes, thanks for asking. That'll do it.

Speaker 2: From here, And of course that'll do it from here.

But you can't continue to find us at Buckeye Insiders

dot com. I'm not gonna sell it all the time,

but can find us. We'd love to see there. That

will do it for weird. Thank you all for tuning in,

and we will talk to you guys.

Speaker 3: Let it.

Speaker 1: No time, what use westing through away the no one

tell me I wish you devil, then nothing to me.

If you can tell me that tomor it's all right.

We can steal current le tonight