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DB Malcolm Jenkins (All B1G, All-American, Thorpe Award, All-Pro, 2x Super Bowl Champion)

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Football
Jenkins Taking to Role of Leader in OSU Defensive Backfield

By John Porentas

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OSU cornerback Malcolm Jenkins is just a sophomore with but one year in the OSU football program. When the Buckeyes take the field for the first time this fall, Jenkins will be one of the most experienced players in the secondary, and will definitely be OSU's most experienced corner, having logged considerable time at corner last season. That experience will make him by default a leader among the OSU corners at the ripe old age of 18 when the season begins.

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"I've kind of been forced to take the leadership role as far as the secondary because I have the most experience of everybody," said Jenkins.

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It's not a role that Jenkins shirks.​
"I've been a leader all my life," he said.​
"I just take it as a personal duty that if I'm the most experience person in the secondary I have to make every person in the secondary just as experienced as me."

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Jenkins takes his role as a leader seriously. This summer incoming freshman defensive back Chimdi Chekwa spent a week in Columbus, trying to get a leg up on becoming a Buckeye. Chekwa was at a 6:00 A.M. workout, and so was Jenkins, who had Chekwa planted firmly in front of a chalk board and was drilling the incoming young DB on the intricacies of OSU's cover-three defense. Jenkins would draw an offensive formation, then hand Chekwa the chalk and challenge him to indicate the proper place to lineup when the offense lined up in that formation, and quizzed him on his responsibilities. It left Chekwa at times bewildered, but Jenkins' enthusiasm with his tutoring seemed to make the difficult task easier and more palatable for Chekwa.

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When Jenkins isn't helping his fellow DBs get better, he is working hard at making himself a better DB.

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"This had been a very demanding summer. This is my first year doing it with classes and working out. The workouts have been as hard as I've ever worked out, but I think for me there will be very rewarding results come the season," Jenkins said.

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"I've seen myself get a lot quicker and more explosive. When we do seven-on-seven I'm a lot quicker out of my breaks. I've seen that improvement across the team too.

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"I consider myself to be fast, but I wasn't as quick as some people, but I feel myself getting more explosive than I was last year.

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"I think Coach E (OSU strength and conditioning coach Eric Lichter) has done a great job training us and getting us to believe in his workouts. I think this autumn it will pay off," Jenkins said.

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Jenkins has seen and heard the concern over the OSU secondary this season and the expectations that due to its youth the OSU secondary could be a liability. His expectations are just a little different.

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"I expect us to be great because I have high expectations for whoever is back there with me," he said.

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"I think we all have to hold down our own assignments and do what we have to do to be a great defense because Ohio State has never been known for a weak defense. I think it should be pretty good."

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OSU defensive coordinator Jim Heacock is a coach that likes big play, and on defense, that means turnovers, something the Buckeyes did not do well last season. According to Jenkins, that is one specific area in which he expects this year's defense to be better than last year's.

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"It's definitely a focus," he said.

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"I think we only had eight turnovers last year, and out of those the corners only had one interceptions, so we definitely have set a goal to get as many turnovers as possible.

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"We're doing a lot of turnover drills, and I think we did pretty well in the spring getting turnovers. We did a lot better than we did during the season. Hopefully you'll see a change in that this year."​
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Nice! Confidence, Leadership, Determination...and all as an 18 year old sophomore. I'm liking this kid more and more every second!

Great read! Very comforting to see this young corner taking the bull by the horns.

"This had been a very demanding Summer..., but I think for me there will be very rewarding results come the season." Jenkins said. "I expect us to be great..."

With an attitude and work ethic like that, I expect him to be great and the rewards will come for him this season and those following.

Keep it up Malcolm! :osu:

EDIT:

I was thinking about it late last night: I liked Ashton Youboty and Dustin Fox and I loved Chris Gamble, but don't really think of him as a pure corner when his OSU Legecy comes to mind (WR/PR/CB/Radio Announcer/Ticket Taker, etc. :wink: ), but not since the likes of Antoine Winfield & Shawn Springs have I loved a CB on our roster as one of my absolute favorite players on a particular team...and I believe MJ could ascend to that type of player in the next year and two. Here's hoping.
 
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Dispatch

OHIO STATE NOTEBOOK
Jenkins delivers key defensive stop

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Tim May
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH




AUSTIN, Texas ? On what might have been the most decisive defensive play made by an Ohio State player other than linebacker James Laurinaitis last night, cornerback Malcolm Jenkins stood tall.
Make that, he leaped high. With the Longhorns trailing by 10 points early in the fourth quarter and needing a big play to get back into it, redshirt freshman quarterback Colt McCoy tried to go to the same player who beat the Buckeyes last year, Limas Sweed.
But McCoy?s lob toward the right corner of the goal line was knocked about by Jenkins, and Sweed couldn?t make the grab.
"They kind of did a signal, and when they threw it I just tried to make a play on the ball," Jenkins said.
Three plays later, Texas missed a field goal attempt and Ohio State was on its way to a 24-7 win.
And the real McCoy debut under pressure ? the win over out-manned North Texas the week before didn?t really count ? ended the way the OSU defense had hoped. The Buckeyes did give up 172 yards rushing, including 94 to Selvin Young, but they didn?t break, except for once.
"Texas is a great offense; they are going to make some plays," Jenkins said. "But I think we did a good job not breaking and holding them to seven points."
They also were successful at putting the game into McCoy?s hands, then watching him stick to primarily a horizontal passing game to avoid tricky coverages.
"We just wanted to try to rattle him, disguise our coverages, get him to make some mistakes," Jenkins said. "And I think our D- line got a lot of pressure on him, made him do a couple of mistakes early and it kind of got him in a hole."
Man - to - man on Ginn ?

When Ohio State?s Ted Ginn Jr. walked to the line with 22 seconds left in the first half, he saw he was going to have man-to-man coverage from Texas defender Aaron Ross. Quarterback Troy Smith saw it, too, and promptly launched a 29-yard rainbow to an open Ginn to give the Buckeyes a 14-7 lead, capping a five-play, 66-yard drive that took a mere 1:39.
"I know we?ve got to make a play, and I just wanted to be that guy to make a play," Ginn said of his thoughts. "I came out, saw the coverage, made the play. That?s all."
The big boomer

Texas had a reputation for blocking punts; safety Michael Griffin has the school record with six blocks and he?s still playing. It was into that breach that OSU?s A.J. Trapasso stepped last night and ripped off six kicks for a 50.8-yard average.
The way he did it, Trapasso said, was by not thinking about Griffin and his rushing buddies.
"I try to focus on what I need to do, because coach (Luke) Fickell and the rest of the special teams coaches really stress ?It?s not what they do. It?s what we do,? " Trapasso said. "I try not to look at those guys (coming in). That?s when you hit bad punts, when you take your eye off the ball."
Keeping cool underneath

It was 85 degrees at game time, and humid, but players on neither team seemed bothered by the heat. There was good reason. For the most part, they were keeping cool, due to a new undergarment brought in by Nike that allows cool air to be blown in the shoulder pads and helmet.
"We had some hookups, these shirts, they blew cold air through, and it was great; it was wonderful," OSU safety Brandon Mitchell said. "It made a huge difference."
Texas had debuted the undershirts the week before in its win here over North Texas. But Ohio State got in on it last night because both teams are sponsored in part by Nike.
Night fright no more

Going into last night, OSU had lost its past four regular-season road night games, dating to the last win on Oct. 5, 2002, at Northwestern. During preseason camp, Tressel had the Buckeyes practice twice under the lights, once in Ohio Stadium and once at Capital University.
"We always critique what else can we do to prepare, and why not practice some at night?" Tressel said. "So will that be the magic touch? I don?t know. Will it be irrelevant? I don?t know. But you put a whole plan together and hope you pull the right numbers."
Texas trip any time

Last night was the Buckeyes? fourth-ever trip to Texas, and they?re now 4-0. That includes wins of 35-7 over Southern Methodist in 1977; 28-12 over Texas A &M in the 1987 Cotton Bowl; and 33-7 over Oklahoma State in the 2004 Alamo Bowl.
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Malcolm Jenkins thoroughly impressed me last night, especially when considering the lack of pressure on Colt McCoy at times. He absolutely shutdown Limas Sweed who I believe only caught a couple of balls. I also noticed him laying some pretty nice hits.
 
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His pass breakup in the endzone was absolutely spectacular.

Not only was it clutch, it was PERFECTLY executed. He showed off his prowess for the game as well as his athletic ability in that jump ball.

Limas had that ball dead to rights; It was perfectly thrown.

Malcolm is the f'ing MAN.

But that PI he had was very strange. What happened on that play? Did he really just lay into Limas?
 
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