Once Devon Torrence began concentrating on strictly being a cornerback, he began to make strides that have made him a key player on the top-ranked Buckeyes' defense.
View full sizeDevon Torrence returns an interception against Indiana.Madison, Wis. -- Ohio State senior Devon Torrence remembers sitting in a meeting room and Jim Tressel popping his head in the door.
"Can you be the next Chris Gamble?" Tressel would ask.
"I hope so," Torrence would say. Tressel remembers it a bit differently, with the conversation starting from the other direction.
"A lot of the times he was suggesting it," Tressel said. "Our response always was let's get good at one thing, and then we'll talk about expanding that. . . . We wanted him to get good at something, and he's moving toward being very good at something."
Torrence is more ready than ever to help the No. 1 Buckeyes (6-0, 2-0 Big Ten) against No. 18 Wisconsin (5-1, 1-1 Big Ten) tonight because he gave up on everything else. He played baseball in the Houston Astros farm system for two summers before giving that up before his junior year. He came to Ohio State as a receiver and fiddled around at two positions before starting to focus on cornerback as a sophomore. And before his senior season began, he finally abandoned in the preseason his dreams of serving as a return man for the Buckeyes.
"I kind of really just said forget it, I'm a true corner," Torrence said this week. 'Let's go cover these guys.' "
In 2002, Gamble famously played receiver and cornerback, sliding over after the Buckeyes were hit with injuries on defense, and he helped lead Ohio State to the national title. Torrence said that after he came to Ohio State he tried to get in touch with Gamble, and he still believes that if given the right chance, he could have pulled off the Gamble double.
"That's what I really wanted to do, but I guess you have to be a team player and do what's best for the team," Torrence said. "That's what coach Tressel told me when I came back from baseball [as a sophomore] and I thought I was going to play receiver and contribute to the defense, but it was definitely the opposite. But I'm glad I made the change."
Though he made that change on the field, he hadn't flipped the switch in his head, even while starting at cornerback last season. Torrence could run with and cover a receiver, but he wasn't thinking like a defender. "He used to be out there going crazy over calls," senior safety Jermale Hines said, "and not really knowing what he's doing coming over from playing receiver. He really didn't have any idea about the corner spot. Now he's learned the ins and outs of it and he's getting a lot better."
Last week against Indiana, Torrence intercepted a pass when Hoosiers quarterback Ben Chappell had a miscommunication with his receiver and Torrence brought in the deep ball like he was fielding a punt and returned it 25 yards.
"We talked about, 'Hey, get your hands on the ball and you'll be an offensive guy,' " OSU cornerbacks coach Taver Johnson said. "He took that one back a little bit and I said, 'You are good with the ball in your hands.' "
That was nice for Torrence to hear. But maybe an even better play was when he sniffed out a route that, thanks to film study during the week, he'd been sitting on all game and came up and cracked Indiana running back Zach Davis-Walker for a 4-yard loss.
"That was probably the best hit for me so far," Torrence said. "I never really had the chance to hit anybody until this year. Being out there in the game is when you get that experience and learn to be more physical and that's what going on this year."
If only it had happened a little sooner. Torrence said there's a part of him that wishes he had redshirted as a freshman so he'd have a year of eligibility left. After he was named the Buckeyes' defensive player of the week for the Indiana game, Tressel called him a young senior. But Torrence doesn't regret anything he chased in the past, and with half a season left, he figures there are still plenty of chances to make up for lost time.
"The more I'm out there, the more I'm feeling at home," Torrence said.
That's easier to do when there's only place you're trying to call home.