Devin Sanchez’s confidence from spring practice has continued into the summer.
During his interview session with Ohio State reporters this spring, Sanchez said he was much more confident entering his sophomore season than he was as a freshman and set goals for himself of winning the Jim Thorpe Award and earning All-American honors. On Wednesday at the Memorial Tournament, Sanchez doubled down on that confident expectation-setting.
“I feel great. I feel like I can be one of the best corners in the nation. I'm gonna be one of the best corners in the nation,” Sanchez said in an interview with Eleven Warriors and cleveland.com. “So I feel like guys should really watch out for me, because I'm not freshman Devin no more. I feel like I'm back to myself like I was in high school, so it's a lot that's coming this year.”
Sanchez arrived at Ohio State with massive expectations as the No. 1-ranked cornerback in the 2025 class. He wasn’t dominant as Ohio State’s No. 3 cornerback as a freshman. But he finished the season strong, allowing just four catches for 33 yards on 51 coverage snaps in Ohio State’s final four games of the year per Pro Football Focus, and he believes the experience he gained as a freshman – playing 323 snaps in total – was invaluable in preparing him to be a full-time starter as a sophomore.
“I'm probably one of the only freshmen that played however many games we played. So I learned a lot throughout the season, had a lot of ups and downs,” Sanchez said. “But I like to use the Miami game as an example. I feel like that game I came out of my shell, even though the outcome was not what we wanted. But I learned a lot about myself. I learned that if I slow down in the college game, you know, I can really be an impact (player) on this field.”
Sanchez is only putting more pressure on himself to perform by stating his expectation to be one of college football’s best cornerbacks in 2026, but Sanchez is no stranger to pressure. As a five-star recruit, Sanchez was always expected to be the best player on the field during his career at Houston’s North Shore High School. In three varsity seasons, he led the Mustangs to two state championship game appearances and another run to the state semifinals. So Sanchez is running toward high expectations rather than shying away from them.
“That's what I'm used to. I'm used to being the guy that the defense called on, the team called on when it gets into that fourth quarter and you need that one stop,” Sanchez said. “I'm used to being that guy that your coach goes up to you and tells you like, ‘Hey, you got to win this play right here.’ It's going to be 3rd-and-8, you got to win that down right there. So that's what I'm used to. I feel like I'm back in that role right now.”
“I'm gonna be one of the best corners in the nation. So I feel like guys should really watch out for me, because I'm not freshman Devin no more.”– Devin Sanchez on his confidence entering 2026
Sanchez said spring practices felt much easier for him this year than they did a year ago. But Sanchez says he’s working just as hard this summer to continue improving over the next three months leading up to the season.
“I'm staying competitive,” Sanchez said. “My thing right now is urgency in the summer. Just pick it up, just go harder and harder. Because I'm not playing 100 snaps this year. I'm going to be in every snap of the game. So it's just picking up the urgency because they're going to be coming at me.”
Even though he’s only a sophomore, Sanchez is also working on stepping up as a leader this year, knowing that other players will look up to him now that he’s a starter.
“Obviously the seniors are the leader. They run the team. They're the voice of the team. But being a sophomore and being a starter, you have to lead at some point. I got to be that leader on the defense,” Sanchez said. “Especially if my coaches are counting on me to go out here and lock down somebody's X receiver, I got to be able to lead, I got to have that voice.
“It could be a quiet voice. It could just be leading on the field with your play. You can lead in so many different ways on this team that everybody has to step up and do it, even the freshmen.”
Sanchez won’t have to lead Ohio State’s cornerback unit on his own. Jermaine Mathews Jr. returns as a starter from last season, and Sanchez says he and Mathews make each other better constantly.
“We’re 6 and 7; you know the meme, 67,” Sanchez said, moving his arms up and down, in reference to his and Mathews’ jersey numbers, “but we feed a lot off each other. I talk to him every day, a lot of ups and downs, you got to have those hard conversations with guys like that. So if you can have a hard conversation with a guy, that's how you know you really trust him. So he trusts me, I trust him. He's the older dude, he's the vet in the room, but I'm considered a vet now too. So we lean on each other. Like today at workouts, I told him, ‘We got a lot on our plate this year. Guys are coming to us.’ So, we got a lot of hard games this year, and we're ready for it.”
Sanchez has also been impressed by what he’s seen from transfer cornerbacks Dominick Kelly and Cam Calhoun, transfer safety/nickel Earl Little Jr. and freshman cornerback Jay Timmons this offseason.
“Dom Kelly’s stepping up a lot. He’s got a big role this year too. Cam Calhoun, Jay Timmons for sure. Even Earl Little. A lot of guys in the secondary right now (are stepping up),” Sanchez said. “But to get ready for those games where we got to win in the fourth quarter, it starts right now in the summer.”
Sanchez, who was at the Memorial Tournament on Wednesday alongside Mathews and six of his other Ohio State teammates to participate in a clinic with current and former Nationwide Children’s Hospital patients, said the Buckeyes are building chemistry both on and off the field this summer as Ohio State’s returning players and newcomers have gotten to know each other.
Devin Sanchez, Julian Sayin and several of their Ohio State football teammates hanging out with the Golden Cubs at the Memorial Tournament this morning. pic.twitter.com/JHwXlXvIBC
— Dan Hope (@Dan_Hope) June 3, 2026
“Doing stuff like this, getting together, team chemistry, building things, just little things. Just go jump in the pool with your teammates, man. Like little things like that build team chemistry,” Sanchez said. “So I think that’s what we need.”
