Game Has Slowed Down For Sophomore Cornerback Aaron Scott

Last season was the first time since 2020 that a true freshman didn’t start at least one game at cornerback for the Buckeyes. That was good news for the Ohio State defense but bad news for Aaron Scott, who was a true freshman in 2024.

Though to call it bad news wouldn’t be entirely accurate because Scott was able to watch and learn from veteran starters Denzel Burke and Davison Igbinosun — both of whom have been starters since they were true freshmen.

Scott played in seven games last year and posted two tackles and one pass breakup. He played the fourth-largest number of snaps among the cornerbacks for the Buckeyes last year, moving past redshirt freshman Calvin Simpson-Hunt on the depth chart.

Still, Scott only played in two of the Buckeyes’ final 11 games last year. It was a much different freshman season than he was expecting, with a much larger learning curve.

“It was, definitely,” Scott said this spring. “I got to learn from guys like IGB and Denzel. I’m thinking I’m going to come in and play, but I feel like waiting and watching them let me learn a lot.”

What did he learn?

“Really how they approached the game,” he said. “Taking time, watching more film. They helped me slow things down. They helped me break things down and know what to expect when the receiver was coming.”

Aaron Scott has taken what he learned last year and applied it to his play this year. His freshman season was a learning experience, and now he’s putting everything he learned into his fight for playing time this season.

Scott’s greatest strides over his first year have involved his understanding of the game. He spent time growing comfortable with the concepts of the defense and knowing what the offense is trying to get done from play to play.

“I feel like I’ve been doing good,” he said this spring. “I am very physical. I feel like my ball command got way better. I’m more attuned to what’s going on and understanding how the game goes.”

Denzel Burke is gone. Davison Igbinosun is now a senior and he will pair with junior Jermaine Mathews as the Buckeyes’ starting cornerbacks. But there is still plenty of room for a player like Aaron Scott to earn playing time — just as Mathews did last year despite the presence of a pair of returning starters.

And now Scott is more equipped to make that happen than he was a year ago, which is good news for the Buckeyes.

“Yeah, definitely. Everything is slower,” Scott said. “Everything is slower than my freshman year. My high school defense, all we ran was man. So all this was new to me. And this year, everything has slowed down.”

Scott earned a good number of reps with both the ones and twos this spring for the Buckeyes, and no cornerbacks in the nation have worked against the kind of in-practice competition that Ohio State can provide.

If Aaron Scott shows that he deserves to play, cornerbacks coach Tim Walton will play him. The work that he put in this spring was the kind of start that the Buckeyes were expecting.

The rest will be up to Scott.

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