Sevyn Banks unavailable for rest of Buckeyes spring camp
COLUMBUS — The rebuild of the secondary is dealing with a temporary setback, and Ohio State has another projected starter on the shelf.
Veteran cornerback Sevyn Banks will miss the rest of spring camp after suffering an undisclosed injury, throwing yet another curveball at the Buckeyes after a season full of them in the defensive backfield.
Lettermen Row sources indicated there was a nagging knee issue for Banks a year ago, but Ohio State doesn’t publicly confirm injuries and didn’t reveal a timeline for his recovery. Either way, that didn’t keep Banks from emerging as perhaps the program’s top lockdown option late last season, fulfilling the potential that has been hinted at since he burst on the scene with a special-teams touchdown against rival Michigan as a freshman.
But with Banks currently unavailable, Cameron Brown recovering from his own injury and Shaun Wade having declared for the NFL Draft, the Buckeyes will be without their top-three cornerbacks from a year ago for the rest of spring camp as they try to upgrade a unit that finished No. 122 in the nation against the pass.
Ohio State cornerback Sevyn Banks will miss the rest of spring camp. (Birm/Lettermen Row)
“Cornerback is a unique position,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said on Monday. “You have to bring it every play, and you have to have a short memory. Those guys are all competing at it, and they’re growing, they’re getting better. They’re given a good day’s work every day.
“As long as they keep stacking those days, they’re going to continue to get better.”
The Buckeyes should get both Banks and Brown back in time for training camp, and their experience should help mitigate the loss of reps again during spring practice. The silver lining for the Buckeyes is that they could give more developmental snaps to young guys like Ryan Watts, Lejond Cavazos or Cameron Martinez — although the obvious preference for Ohio State would be to work with a full-strength group after last season’s struggles.
That’s obviously not an option now, and it never was going to be in the first place.
But Sevyn Banks is now officially on the unavailable list for Ohio State for the rest of spring and the secondary has yet another bit of adversity to handle.
