Coby Bryant won the Jim Thorpe Award last year as college football’s best defensive back, and Sauce Gardner might be the first cornerback selected in the 2022 NFL draft.
Ohio State’s new safeties coach played a key role in helping both of them become elite collegiate cornerbacks and NFL draft prospects.
Before he was hired by the Buckeyes in January, Perry Eliano was the cornerbacks coach at Cincinnati for the last two years. Over the course of those two years, Bryant and Gardner emerged as two of the best cornerbacks in the entire country.
Gardner, who did not allow a single touchdown pass in his Cincinnati career, earned first-team All-American honors after both of those seasons.