Late in the 2010s, Ohio State’s secondary was consistently one of the strong points of its team.
During the 2019 season, it was future first-round draft pick Jeff Okudah who made the proclamation that he didn’t want the Buckeyes program to be known as DBU. Instead, he wanted Ohio State’s secondary to be called “BIA,” which stands for Best In America.
That year, the Buckeyes were the No. 1 team in the country in passing yards allowed through 14 games, giving up just 156.0 yards per game through the air.
But immediately after that season, that number plummeted. In just eight games in 2020, Ohio State was 122nd in the country with 304.0 passing yards allowed. In 2021, the Buckeyes were 97th with 246.2 yards through the air given up.
There was a major improvement made the year after during the 2022 season (26th, 200.5 yards), but it was during the 2023 season when Ole Miss transfer cornerback Davison Igbinosun began at Ohio State that head coach Ryan Day felt that the cornerback room fully got back to the idea of being “BIA.”
“Davison Igbinosun really changed the culture of our secondary when he got here from Ole Miss and has continued to do that,” Day said. “(He’s a) gritty, competitive dude who just brings it every day. He’s had a major impact on our program.”
With Denzel Burke in his junior year and Igbinosun coming off of a Freshman All-America year with the Rebels, the Buckeyes were back to No. 1 in the country in passing yards allowed, giving up just 145.9 yards per game.
The sophomore transfer started the full year in his first season at OSU, and finished 13 games with 59 tackles and five passes defended, all while he was providing the Buckeyes with an energy surge throughout the year.
Day thinks the improvement from the secondary that year is no mystery, giving Igbinosun’s approach a lot of credit in how it got the rest of the team going as well.
“The way he goes about his business every day. The way he competes every day in practice. We talk a lot about how important practice is and that you’re going to sink to your level of training,” Day said. “He brings it every single day, and he’s going against really good receivers every single day in practice. He doesn’t back down to anybody, and you can see that in his approach. Every time there’s a competition, he’s the first guy in line. You want a secondary that’s built that way.”
Burke and then freshman cornerback Jermaine Mathews Jr. also took on a vocal role in practices, letting receivers know when they were getting beat by the defense.
That provided a lot of motivation during practices for the wide receivers as well to try to prove that they were able to compete with the room that was trying to get back to being called the best in America.
A freshman during the 2023 season, wide receiver Brandon Inniss said as much.
“A couple of years ago when IGB came in, they said he brought that DB room back to life with the trash talking and stuff like that,” Inniss told BSB. “I’m a big trash talker (too), so I feel like when I started it my freshman and sophomore year, it got more guys comfortable doing it.”
The trend of Ohio State’s secondary being one of the best in the country has continued since Igbinosun arrived on campus. During the 2024 national championship season, the Buckeyes were third in the country with 167.0 yards allowed in 16 games despite a hiccup in October in the 32-31 loss to Oregon.
Now this year, the Buckeyes are back to being No. 1 again, giving up an outstanding 129.1 yards per game through the air, which is a full 12 yards ahead of the second place Nebraska Cornhuskers defensive unit.
The Buckeyes hope to continue that dominance into the postseason beginning in the Cotton Bowl on Wednesday at 7:30 pm EST. Miami has the 29th-best passing offense in the country, with 262.5 yards per game, with veteran quarterback Carson Beck leading the way.
