Ohio's cornerbacks have a brand new piece to their uniforms this year.
It's not cleats, different facemasks or even anything football related.
When a cornerback lines up for drills during practice, he lines up with bright red boxing gloves on his hands. Not football gloves, but boxing gloves.
"They suck," Kylan Nelson quipped.
Brought in by new cornerbacks coach De’Angelo Smith, the gloves are designed to help with technique. The results have been positive thus far, but not without some growing pains.
“It’s literally like an oven mitt," Nelson said. "The idea is great, to teach you to use your feet and your legs in your technique, but you realize how lacking that is when you have those gloves on, you just slide off. You might as well just cut your hands off.”
It's been an adjustment period for all of the corners, especially the starters who get the most reps with those forsaken gloves on their hands.
“Then you’ve got to watch yourself too, you can’t really grab," Mayne Williams said. "When you’ve got the boxing gloves off, you tend to grab even more when they’re off because you’re not used to having them off.”
The gloves have accounted for more than a few dropped interceptions for the Bobcats, now in their fourth week of Spring Practice. But the unit's growing pains, with or without the gloves, might be coming to an end.
The secondary had just one senior starter (Toran Davis) last season and mixed-and-matched starters all season long.
Nelson started as a redshirt sophomore, as did redshirt freshman Javon Hagan, but the unit had to change things up throughout the season. Hagan was named Freshman All-MAC Player of the Year last season.
“Our only problem last year was injuries, to be honest with you," Nelson said. "A lot of guys were playing 80, 85 percent. We were still holding our own.”
The starting unit looks clearer this spring; the starting safeties are Nelson and Hagan, neither of whom will be a senior. Williams, a redshirt freshman, when not dealing with a neck injury, has been a starting cornerback. He is sliding down from the safety spot, a position he played last season.
Bradd Ellis and Grant Cunningham will get significant playing time as well, with the other cornerback spot seemingly open for competition.
But the unit is still relatively young, with just Ellis as the only rising-senior getting starting reps.
“Bringing the young guys along, but I feel like they’re doing pretty good with everything," Williams said. "They’re learning their calls, learning their assignments and keying technique and whatnot, it’s really just getting them on board and getting them rolling.”
For the still-young unit, it's a matter of simply bettering yourself where you can.
“Working on my technique, bettering my craft and making more plays," Hagan said. "Knowing the playbook like the back of my hand, just trying to make as many plays as I can for the team.”
The unit has high hopes for the fall, as one could expect so early on in the offseason. With Tarell Basham and Blair Brown having graduated, along with 3/4 of the defensive line, the secondary's importance will take on a bigger role.
The run defense likely won't be ranked sixth in the nation again next season. So the secondary will have to rely on each other to keep the defense at an elite level.
"We all know each other’s capabilities, we know how each other can play. Just having more playmaking ability spread across the field is a lot better for us to increase our rank in terms of pass defense,” Nelson said.
With the season still months away, there's still time for jostling on the depth chart, injuries to take place and someone to step up into a starting role. To Williams, though, the talent isn't an issue.
“We’ve got dudes that can make big-time plays," he said. "Main thing is just staying healthy. Every program in the country is battling the same thing, they feel like they got the dudes, I know for a fact that we’ve got 'em."
While it can't be expected that the secondary that was 103rd in passing yards allowed last season will take a jump forward to a championship level, a certain level of progress should be expected.
Ohio tied for 34th in interceptions last season with 13. It's a given that the number should increase with a more experienced, deeper position group.
After all, they won't have the boxing gloves on anymore.
