There are a handful of understood tenets in football.
Long-held principles have been around forever, such as games are won upfront, or quarterbacks have to be leaders, or wide receivers are divas, or all cornerbacks talk trash.
The Ohio State Buckeyes are proving the first of those principles true this year. Justin Fields is growing into the second. Zone 6 has disproven the third, but the Buckeye corners are living up to the fourth.
The Buckeyes’ three-headed cornerback attack of Damon Arnette, Jeff Okudah, and Shaun Wade has played exceedingly well this season and after any given pass breakup or tackle it is not unusual to see them engage in a back-and-forth with a receiver from the opposing team.
They are part of an Ohio State pass defense that is fifth in the nation in passing yards allowed per game (152.0), fifth in pass efficiency defense (95.11), and fifth in interceptions (8), and each of them is playing at an All-Big Ten level — if not beyond — so you can understand a bit of trash talking.
“That’s corners though, right?” co-defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley said back in June. “I’m used to the whole room being like that, where I’ve got to be like, ‘Okay guys, calm down today.’”
But that doesn’t mean Hafley stifles his cornerbacks.
Last weekend against Michigan State, there was a constant back and forth between the Spartan receivers and the Buckeye cornerbacks. The officials even intervened a few times, but no flags were thrown.
Even officials understand the tenets.
“You’re out there in front of the whole world now,” co-defensive coordinator Greg Mattison said. “And especially when you play as much man-to-man coverage as we do, you better be a little different out there, you better have confidence, or you just aren’t going to make it out there.”
The Ohio State coaches understand the need for some boisterous moments because cornerbacks are asked to perform a stressful job. And they’re also face-to-face with receivers who are talking the entire time as well.
“I mean, you’re out there,” Mattison said. “Just think about that for a second. You got that whole field that you are out there, one on one. And now you’re not gonna get any help, you know? So you better have a lot of confidence in yourself, and you better have personality.”
Confidence and personality have not been a problem for the Buckeye cornerbacks this season. They have done their jobs as well as any group of cornerbacks at Ohio State in recent memory — even up there with the first-round trio of Denzel Ward, Marshon Lattimore, and Gareon Conley in 2016.
To this point, the coaches have given them the room to “speak their minds,” but the room does not go on forever.
“Well, yeah. I mean, I don’t know, if you say ‘give them room,'” Mattison said. “That’s just to me the stereotype of the corners that I’ve been around. It goes back to character and discipline, which we have here. And that’s why you always go to that point, and you can’t go over it. I think our young men understand that because it’s a team.”