Jermaine Mathews Jr. demonstrated his versatility during Ohio State’s non-conference finale vs. Ohio.
When starting nickelback Lorenzo Styles Jr. left the game with an upper-body injury, Ohio State opted to move Mathews inside from his usual role as one of Ohio State’s outside cornerbacks. Although he hadn’t previously played the nickel position in game action for the Buckeyes, Mathews made a smooth transition into his new role. The Buckeyes allowed no points on Ohio’s final five drives on their way to a 37-9 win, and Mathews finished the game with just two catches for eight yards allowed on 26 total coverage snaps, per Pro Football Focus.
While Mathews had played the vast majority of his snaps as a Buckeye outside before his move inside against the Bobcats, the third-year cornerback has spent time practicing at nickel throughout his Ohio State career. As a result, he felt prepared when Ohio State called on him to change positions.
“I've been preparing to do whatever they ask me to do all offseason, so I was ready for the moment,” Mathews said. “What Coach Day likes to say a lot is when things get hard, you're gonna revert back to your training. So I trained a lot in the nickel this offseason, got my technique better, so I was ready for the moment.”
After Ryan Day said Wednesday that Styles is “ready to go” following “a great week of practice,” the expectation is Mathews will move back to his regular role of playing outside cornerback opposite Davison Igbinosun. But Mathews will be happy to play wherever the Buckeyes have him line up.
“I don't really care where I play at. I'm just happy to be on the field, just happy to be a part of this great brotherhood,” Mathews said.
In his first year as a full-time starter in Ohio State’s secondary, Mathews is off to an excellent start. He’s allowed just five catches for 56 yards and one touchdown in 75 coverage snaps, and he came up big in Ohio State’s season opener against Texas by intercepting an Arch Manning deep ball, breaking up another pass and recording three solo tackles.
ARCH MANNING IS PICKED OFF
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) August 30, 2025
The @ohiostatefb defense comes up with another massive play pic.twitter.com/5yaBXYZrQm
Mathews is relishing his opportunity to be one of Ohio State’s top defensive backs after waiting his turn for the last two years.
“This is really why I came here, to go be on that field and just show the world what I can do,” Mathews said. “So it's been fun. It’s just a start. Got a lot of games left, a lot of football ahead, so it's just a start.”
Mathews made an immediate impact for Ohio State as a freshman, serving as Ohio State’s top backup cornerback and excelling when he had the opportunity to play. He continued in that role last season and saw regular playing time off the bench, including 137 snaps in OSU’s four-game College Football Playoff run, as Ohio State secondary coach Tim Walton viewed Mathews as a third starter behind Igbinosun and Denzel Burke.
That said, the Cincinnati native admitted Wednesday that he wasn’t always happy during his first two years at Ohio State. He described his first two years in Columbus as “tough,” citing the challenges of “being a young college student just finding your way,” and said he had to persevere through some moments where he had doubts.
“These last two years, this was a tough two years for me. And I think just keeping the right mindset and knowing that you came here for a reason, you did this for a reason, and just buying into the process,” Mathews said of how he battled through adversity in his first two years as a Buckeye. “And now you just gotta enjoy it, enjoy every second of it.”
Mathews, who wore a big smile on his face for most of Wednesday’s interview session and is known for being a constant source of energy on the field, said everything is positive now that he’s established himself as a star in Ohio State’s secondary.
“Everything's going great,” Mathews said. “I really can't even explain it.”
Depending on how Styles performs in his return to the lineup after allowing a 67-yard touchdown vs. Ohio, and how freshman Devin Sanchez continues to develop, it’s not out of the question that Mathews could play nickel on a more permanent basis, at least in lineups with five defensive backs. Sanchez took Mathews’ place in the lineup at outside cornerback against the Bobcats, and he seems to have established himself as Ohio State’s top backup CB, just as Mathews did as a freshman two years ago, though Ryan Day said second-year cornerbacks Aaron Scott Jr., Bryce West and Miles Lockhart are also options to play off the bench.
“The good news is we have some depth there … Bryce West, Aaron Scott, gives us some good flexibility there. Devin did some nice things as well when he was in there on Saturday, and the more he plays as a freshman, the more comfortable he'll get. So we do have some different options to go to,” Day said last week. “But when it comes to that (nickel) position, moving Jermaine inside is something that we've been working on here in camp, in terms of building depth.”
There is a difference between playing cornerback and nickel; Mathews says the biggest difference is the amount of space you have to cover inside, “so you gotta kind of be more intentional about your steps and your hand placement and your feet.” But Mathews has proven to his coaches and teammates that he’s a player they can trust no matter where he lines up.
“He does a great job. He's a versatile player. I think he's really grown mentally in the game,” linebacker Sonny Styles said. “I think sometimes when you're a corner, it's easy to kind of just zone out, like ‘I got this guy, I don't really care about the rest of the defense.’ But he's done a great job understanding the entire defense, ‘cause you gotta be able to understand defense when you're playing nickel. So he's done a great job with that. You see him out there making plays, you've seen him in different spots, so he's doing awesome.”
