Malcolm Jenkins back for more with Buckeyes

COLUMBUS - Most observers probably were surprised when cornerback Malcolm Jenkins decided to stay for his senior year at Ohio State and turned down the chance to enter the NFL draft as a probable first-round draft choice.

A few years earlier, Jenkins probably would have been very surprised by that call too.

Playing in the NFL was his dream - his only dream - when he was younger.

"I was going to get to the NFL. I didn't have a backup plan," Jenkins said on Friday at the Big Ten summer media preview.

"People would say, ‘What do you want to do?' and I would say, ‘Play football,' " he said.

Playing football is something Jenkins was going to be doing in 2008. It was just a matter of where.

The NFL evaluations that underclassmen can request told him he could be a top 15 pick in April's draft. But Jenkins, a first-team All-American, still chose to remain a Buckeye for another season.

"Basically it was just that I'm having fun right now. I wasn't ready to make football a job yet," he said. "Talking to Anthony Gonzalez and Ted (Ginn Jr.) and all those guys, they put it down like football is a job once you get to the next level. The teammates aren't as close, the teams aren't as close knit. They were like, take your time with your decision and do what you think is right."

Jenkins joked that there was one time he might have doubted his decision for a second or two. 

"I did an interview and they asked me do you ever look at all that money and think you should have changed your mind. I said I thought about it once when I looked in my refrigerator and only saw peanut butter and jelly in there," he said. "But I don't regret my decision. It's been great so far and I'm pretty sure it's going to continue to be that way."

Jenkins has had four pass interceptions each of the last two seasons. He got onto the field right away as a freshman when he was OSU's "nickel" back when the Buckeyes used five defensive backs.

He has started on the OSU teams that lost 38-24 to LSU and 41-14 to Florida in the last two BCS national championship games.

The chance to get back to a third straight BCS title game played a role in his return, but it was far from the only reason, Jenkins said.

"For me, coming back was not necessarily all about the national championship. I'm just trying to enjoy college football. But if we get it all right and win the national championship, that would be the cherry on top," he said.

The OSU senior knows that won't be easy.

"To be completely honest, even if we go undefeated, nobody wants to see us in the national championship game," he said. "For us to go, we're going to have to be undefeated and beat some people by huge margins. If we lose to anybody, we won't be considered. At least that's my opinion."