Football
Buckeye Defensive Backfield Taking Shape - Corners Stepping Forward
By John Porentas
The NBA has come to the OSU football team.
OSU defensive backs coach Tim Beckman was asked who is currently in the first group of defensive backs, and Beckman rattled off a list of three familiar names, and the name of an NBA player.
"Right now Yao (Ming) and Malcolm (Jenkins) have been playing at the corner positions and then Jamario (O'Neal) has stepped in and played well and Nick Patterson. Those are the four. If we go nickel, Anderson Russell is the one who jumped in and had a great scrimmage. There are seven days left and there are people in the wings who want to step in and be starters too, so the competition has made us better as a secondary," said Beckman.
The Buckeyes will not actually be putting a corner on the field next fall that stands over seven feet tall. "Yao" is actually Antonio Smith, affectionately known to his teammates and coaches as Yao. Without exception, they all refer to him by that name.
"They call me Yao," explained Smith.
Antonio "Yao Ming" Smith
"Every year we have a basketball tournament. I guess coach Mel Tucker, when he was here, we had the basketball tournament and I kind of showed these guys up a little bit, so they nicknamed me Yao Ming," said a slightly embarrassed Smith.
Smith is listed at 5-9 on the OSU roster, about a foot-and-a-half shorter than Yao Ming, but OSU's Yao has pulled off perhaps the biggest surprise of the spring. In the space of one month he has gone from a non-scholarship walkon player to a full scholarship player who is currently the leading candidate for a starting corner position.
Smith is a surprise to most observers, but with hindsight, maybe that surprise is actually a bit misplaced. He has stood out as one of OSU's gunners on special teams, always getting down field to pressure return men. OSU defensive coordinator Jim Heacock has said this spring that he is looking for playmakers for his defense this fall, and Smith definitely proved he falls into that category on special teams. Maybe outside observers didn't notice, but apparently the OSU coaching staff did.
"Yao was always one of those guys we stuck in there and he'd run down on kickoffs and punts and make plays," said Beckman.
"The credibility that he gave himself through special teams is always a big part. We always say to those defensive backs, if you're not on a special team then we've probably got a problem, because you're the type of athlete that can play on every special team," Beckman said.
The gunner position on special teams is usually reserved for the fastest players on the team. Smith was chosen for that spot last season on a team laden with fast players. That says plenty about his speed. As to his athleticism, you need only to look at his nickname. In a basketball tournament populated by elite athletes, he was the one that earned the nickname Yao. Laugh if you will, but we think it says something. Then there are the intangibles.
Yao is a fifth-year mechanical engineering student with 3.0+ GPA. That tells you pretty much all you need to know about his intelligence level. The young man is very bright. He also has a great attitude. Though he languished for four years as a special teams player, he never pouted. He simply kept his nose to the grindstone.
"Regardless whether anybody hears about me or not, I have a personal goal. That's to get better everyday," Smith said.
Smith has practice at the corner position for most of his Buckeye career, but last season practiced as a safety, an experience he feels is now of great value to him as a corner.
"I feel that that helped me a lot, playing safety. It's a little more responsibility. You have to learn all the defensive backs positions, so I feel like playing safety a little bit I can see how my job as a corner how I have to help those guys out to help the whole defense out," said Smith.
Smith has earned a shot by his play and persistence. His current status as a number one corner is anything but a token given to a fifth-year senior, it is a bona-fide opportunity to be the number one guy. Beckman explained why that is the case.
"Because of our belief in him as defensive back coaches and as a defensive staff," Beckman said.
"He's earned it. He had as good a scrimmage as we had back there at the corner position, so somebody has to take it from him. That's the way college football is," Beckman said.
Malcolm Jenkins
Smith is currently penciled in at one corner, and sophomore Malcolm Jenkins, who earned playing time last year as a true freshman and several starts when injuries made that necessary, at the other corner. There are also a host of other players in the wings vying to be in the two-deep and hoping to make a challenge for a starting position should Jenkins or Yao slip up.
"I would say right now between Andre (Amos) and Donald Washington," said Beckman of the players who are competing for the status as the "next" corner on the depth chart.
"Donald Washington has had a great spring too, and Mike Roberts has done a good job," he said.
The OSU secondary will have many new names this fall, and according to one veteran, will also have a bit of a different emphasis. This defense is hoping to be a big-play defense and has looked like one in the early going.
"The biggest thing that surprised me is the amount of turnovers we've been getting," said Mitchell.
"It's well-documented that we weren't very good at turnovers last year. I think we were 114 in the nation in turnover margin. That's been the emphasis in the spring and that's basically how we won the jersey scrimmage is getting a lot of turnovers," Mitchell said.
Safeties coach Paul Haynes explained what the OSU coaching staff is looking for in this year's secondary.
"Production; make plays," said Haynes.
"As a defensive back we're in the business of pass breakups and interceptions. No one every got drafted as a DB making a thousand tackles."
