Tim Walton Challenging Denzel Burke Every Day

Senior cornerback Denzel Burke is going to be part of a very rare fraternity of four-year starters at Ohio State. Even rarer, he began his timeline by starting as a true freshman.

With 35 career starts under his belt, few players in any secondary this season will have as much quality experience as Burke. But he’s not resting on any laurels, especially with so many goals yet to be attained. He is pushing himself and his teammates, while also being pushed right back.

Fall camp has been a battle with the receivers and defensive backs. With so much talent on hand, nobody is going to win every rep. And some days are better than others.

For instance, according to Burke, it took until the seventh practice of fall camp for quarterback Will Howard to throw an interception. The interception came when Burke jumped an out route and made a play on the ball. It’s something he and his secondary teammates have been focused on more this year.

“You know, the PBUs they’re cool, but at the end of the day, you’ve got to turn that ball over,” Burke said. “We’re doing everything in our power to come out and compete every single day and turn that ball over and just go get the ball, man.”

The Buckeyes are expected to be more aggressive on defense this year, and that aggression starts with the coaching. Burke welcomes the push from cornerbacks coach Tim Walton.

“Yeah, Coach Walt, he’s just continuing to coach me really hard,” Burke said. “Making sure I take in little details and making sure I’m doing everything possible to be the first corner off the board this year. He’s been coaching me hard and just making sure I take care of everything.”

Coaching an experienced player like Burke requires some different methods than coaching a second-year player who is working his way up the depth chart. The basics are all the same, but when you’re teaching a graduate course, you can go well on the basics. That’s where Walton is with Denzel Burke right now.

“We look at the leadership and we look for him to see game-like situations and see how he adjusts in practice,” Walton said last week. “So I hold him to a high standard on making right adjustments and making right decisions, even if we haven’t really installed it or hit it yet.

“You’ve gotta play the game now because you know the basics. So you gotta play the game every practice on the little details, situations, splits, backfield sets, formations. And I give him challenges every day to ask him questions and tell me what he saw in these things to make sure that even if we didn’t hit this, if this shows up, you gotta think like this on certain scenarios.”