Devin Sanchez (6) said going against Jeremiah Smith in practice every day has made him better. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Devin Sanchez played a lot and learned a lot as a freshman, and now the five-star from Texas is focused on being the best in the country as a sophomore.
Columbus, OH – Devin Sanchez carefully calculates the competing concepts of confidence and comfort that accompany playing cornerback.
He thrives on lots of the former.
“I’m just very confident that I can go out here and play with anybody in the country,” he said Thursday after Ohio State’s first day of practice.
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But he doesn’t want the latter to creep in.
“If I’m comfortable, then this is not the place for me,” he said.
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes the OHSAA and Ohio State sports for Press Pros Magazine.com. Follow on X @jw_gilbert
Buckeyes secondary coach and co-defensive coordinator Tim Walton recruited Sanchez out of Houston, Texas, to be the Buckeyes’ next great cornerback. But he never promised Sanchez comfort, only an opportunity.
Sanchez arrived at Ohio State as a true freshman in 2025 as a five-star cornerback full of confidence. A high self-assessment is natural when 247Sports rates you the nation’s No. 1 corner and No. 5 player overall. If Sanchez lives up to those ratings, he will be a first-round NFL draft pick. Maybe even in the top 10.
Opportunity arrived last season earlier than for most freshmen. Sanchez backed up his recruiting profile by playing a total of 409 snaps in the secondary and on special teams. He might have played his best with two tackles on 51 snaps in the playoff loss to Miami.
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“Last year was very hard,” he said.
This year Sanchez will replace two-year starter Davison Igbinosun, the leader in the secondary room. Sanchez said he feels more comfortable as a second-year player, but he doesn’t want comfort to become a thing he relies on. Sanchez has Walton to keep him from becoming complacent, from assuming he can’t be replaced.
“He’s been on me hard, really hard, where sometimes it’s uncomfortable,” Sanchez said. “Coach Walt is being that hard coach on me. He’s not afraid of being that coach that I need, and I respect it. If I make a mistake, he’s going to get on me, and I got to go out there and fix it.”
Devin Sanchez played some of his best football in the playoff loss to Miami, recording two tackles in 51 snaps.
Ohio State players often say going against each other is like going against the best and prepares them every game. Those practice moments of failure are never comfortable. But they embrace the iron sharpens iron theory.
For Sanchez, the iron-on-iron moments come when he covers All-American wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, the consensus best pass catcher in the nation.
“Going out there guarding JJ for every practice, matching up with him every time, that’s uncomfortable,” Sanchez said.
But … it doesn’t dent his confidence.
“I feel like you got to be a real stud,” he said, “to go out there and do that.”
Sanchez said he and Smith enjoy the daily competition and that Smith’s full-tilt practice habits have been the most important factor in his development. The back and forth, he says, gives him confidence that he can cover anyone.
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Sanchez needs that confidence. Because even though he played a lot as a freshman, he says his season was only OK, not what he wanted. His personal goal is to be an All-American.
“I feel like I can do that, especially with the spring I had, going against JJ every day, and then this camp I’m going to have,” he said. “It’s just going out there competing and knowing that there’s no corner in the country better than me.”
Devin Sanchez (left) and Jermaine Matthews show their frustration during the final seconds of last year’s playoff loss to Miami in the Cotton Bowl.
Head coach Ryan Day reserves those type of statements for proven talents like Smith. But last week at Big Ten Media Days he praised Sanchez for having a good spring.
“We’re going to need him to step up in a big way – it’s a completely different role,” Day said. “You’re going from a guy like IGB, who was the guy who drove that room and had a lot of production, played a lot of football, to now somebody that has a tremendous amount of talent, but hasn’t played a lot of football. We’ve seen it in him. We know that he can do it. We’re looking for consistency and somebody that can produce at a high level. But he certainly has the chance to do that.”
Sanchez, right along with seven other new defensive starters, will have plenty of opportunities to prove himself against one of the nation’s most difficult schedules.
Opportunity No. 1 comes in Week 2 at Texas against Cam Coleman, a transfer from Auburn where he caught 56 passes last season. Down the road comes Oregon with a strong trio and Indiana with Charlie Becker, to name a few.
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No matter how uncomfortable those assignments may feel, Sanchez is confident and fearless.
“I feel like these guys are really counting on me, I’m counting on myself, my family’s counting on me, and then this whole fan base is counting on me,” he said. “It’s a big task. There’s a lot that comes with it, and it’s for a guy like me that’s not scared of it.”
How did Sanchez get to this point full of confidence?
A lot like he’s seeing in this year’s versio
Devin Sanchez (6) was front and center next to Julian Sayin for “Carmen Ohio” at the end of the 2026 Spring Game.
n of himself. Jay Timmons, a five-star cornerback who flipped his commitment from Florida State to the Buckeyes, might be the freshman who sees the most time on defense.
Timmons’ preseason buzz has created projections that he will get a chance to be a significant help as the slot cornerback, the position Lorenzo Styles Jr. played last year.
“Just how he is as a person in the weight room, he’s a great guy, he competes, he doesn’t care about being a freshman,” Sanchez said. “He talks smack to us … most freshmen don’t really talk smack, but he talks smack to the older guys.”
The way Sanchez sees the season progressing against a loaded schedule, he is happy to see Timmons pushing to follow in his freshman footsteps.
“He’s going to compete and not be scared to play,” Sanchez said. “We’re obviously going to need him week two [Texas]. We go play Indiana, we’re going to need him. We play Oregon, we’re going to need him.”
Sanchez is confident he’s right. But that doesn’t mean he’s looking for room to feel comfortable.
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