Junior cornerback Jermaine Mathews Jr. and the rest of Ohio State’s secondary didn’t have much go wrong for them during the 2025 season. As an essential part of what was, statistically speaking, the No. 1 defense in the country, the Buckeyes’ secondary more than held up its end of the bargain. Ohio State easily ranked No. 1 nationally, only conceding 129.5 passing yards per game. Although it wasn’t necessarily the secondary’s fault, Ohio State fell short of its second straight national championship.
The Buckeyes’ sour finish is partially why Mathews decided to return for his fourth season at Ohio State, despite having a chance to enter the NFL draft.
“It was like 50-50,” Mathews said when asked how close he was to entering the draft. “I think I didn’t end the season the way I wanted to end it last year, so I think I felt there was some unfinished business.”
After arguably being the strength of the team in the regular season, the secondary wasn’t quite as strong in the postseason.
Mathews, himself, gave up a couple of lengthy completions in Ohio State’s 13-10 loss to eventual national champion Indiana in the Big Ten Championship. Then-Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza threw for 222 yards in that game, with his lone touchdown pass going to Elijah Sarratt, who was covered by Mathews on the play.
Mathews said some of those plays have stuck with him over the offseason.
“A couple of the plays I want back, but that’s just the business of playing corner,” Mathews said. “I really faced my first type of adversity toward the end of the season last year since I really been here. So (I’m) just really coping with that and keep going every day.”
Mathews said he aims to improve his physicality in the running game this year and also wants to get better at pressing. He said he has lofty goals for himself and the team, but wants to focus on the little things in the spring.
“I definitely have a lot of personal goals, team goals for this year, but I think it’s more of just focusing on the little things, some of the small things that I can control. There are a lot of things that just go on in this business you really can’t control. So I think just controlling all the little things I can control, it’s going to help me in the long run.”
