Scarlet Sunrise: First-year cornerback Calvin Simpson-Hunt sheds black stripe

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First-year cornerback Calvin Simpson-Hunt sheds black stripe

Calvin Simpson-Hunt has lost his black stripe.

The first-year Ohio State cornerback is the latest Buckeyes player to earn the post-practice honor. He was the second of Ohio State’s two top-10 cornerback signees in the 2023 class. The other is Jermaine Mathews Jr., an early enrollee who has emerged as an important piece this season in the absence of starting corner Denzel Burke. In fact, Mathews just made his first career start last week at Rutgers.

Simpson-Hunt, however, didn’t join the team until June. He left Waxahachie High School in Texas as the No. 7 cornerback and No. 58 overall prospect last cycle. The 6-foot-1, 195-pound corner recorded 25 tackles, three passes defended, two tackles for loss and one fumble recovery as a senior. The previous season, he logged 29 tackles, five TFLs, one sack and one interception.

🚨𝗕𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗽𝗲 𝗔𝗹𝗲𝗿𝘁 🚨

BIA has added even more speed to the group, congrats @CSimpsonHunt 🌰 pic.twitter.com/WaSuMCBGPk

— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) November 9, 2023

Simpson-Hunt was also a star in track and field. He ran a 22.00 200 meter as a sophomore and a 10.65 100 meter as a junior. Although he originally committed to Texas Tech, Simpson-Hunt ultimately de-committed and chose Ohio State.

Like a handful of other Buckeyes true freshmen, Simpson-Hunt took part in the All-American Bowl last January in San Antonio.

Simpson-Hunt is now making his mark at Ohio State, where he’ll try to follow in Mathews’ footsteps with early success in Columbus. Wednesday night’s recognition was the first step in doing so.

Ryan Day strongly pushes back on wrongdoing in alleged sign-sharing with Purdue

ESPN reported Tuesday evening that Michigan sent documents to the Big Ten — documents that the program believes show Ohio State and Rutgers sharing the Wolverines’ signals with Purdue last season.

Purdue ended up losing the 2022 Big Ten Championship game to Michigan, 43-22.

It’s not clear if sign sharing among league teams violates any NCAA rules or the Big Ten’s sportsmanship policy.

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day was asked Wednesday about the report, and if Ohio State did anything wrong according to Big Ten rules.

Day was strong in his pushback of any wrongdoing.

“I’m not going to get into all of that right now. But I can tell you this right now that nobody here did any of that,” Day said, referring to illegally sharing signals with Purdue. “So, you know, we went through and made sure we went and asked all the questions, got our compliance people involved, and none of that came back at all.

“So I can answer very strongly that that did not happen.”

Day did not provide any further comment.

Ohio State hoops inks two 2024 prospects on National Signing Day

Ohio State men’s basketball signed a pair of 2024 prospects Wednesday: guard John “Juni” Mobley and wing Colin White.

Both have Ohio ties. Mobley was born in Rochester, New York, but lived in Reynoldsburg — a suburb of Columbus — from when he was 4 years old until the pandemic rolled around. White led Ottawa-Glandorf to the Division III Ohio state title game last season.

For more details about those two, plus one more 2024 recruit the Buckeyes are still in the conversation for, go here.

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Buckeyes vs. Michigan State: 2 days
Buckeyes vs. Michigan: 16 days

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