Cameron Brown didn’t want anyone else’s opinion on his future at Ohio State.

He didn’t speak much on it, participating in the program’s Senior Day before the Michigan State game, but still mulling over the best possible decision for him.

The redshirt junior cornerback sat down and prayed on it. He mad a pros and cons list, seeing both in whatever decision he ended up with. He didn’t look into projections for the 2022 NFL Draft, believing that if that was the decision he made, he would have an opportunity to at the next level.

Really, Brown believed he just had to follow his heart, knowing that what’s best for him would put him in the best situations to succeed.

Brown found that he had unfinished business to attend to at Ohio State.

“What really made up my mind was just a lot of stuff just didn’t sit right with me,” Brown said. “I felt like I had a lot more to prove here, and I felt like I could really help out the team.”

The wide receiver-turned-corner, who entered the 2021 season as Ohio State’s only returning starter from the 2020 team, will be back again in 2022, starting alongside freshman cornerback Denzel Burke.

And he has a lot to prove to himself and to other members of his room.

“I just want to develop as a player, as a leader,” Brown sad. “The leader role has really grown on me. I really don’t consider myself a leader yet, but eventually, over time, I think I can get there and help develop me and stuff.”

The fourth-year cornerback felt that he was understanding and playing the game in 2021 at a different level than he ever had. This year, he was learning to break down film, how to study receivers and cover different receivers with different traits and tendencies.

But after tearing his Achilles against Penn State in 2020, something he said didn’t really bother him in 2021, Brown simply said he wasn’t 100% all season and was non-committal about whether he was 100% heading into the Rose Bowl against Utah.

“I feel like every time I put my helmet on, if I go out there, everybody expects you to be 100%,” Brown said. “I don’t really think about (it)... I just go out there and play like I’m at 100%, no fear.”

There was always more that Brown felt he could have done: things he regrets, plays he wishes he could have back. But, overall, he felt he played very well in 2021, something he hopes to build off on in 2022 alongside Burke.

Ohio State needs all the help it can get in the secondary, playing a defense that allowed 246.9 passing yards per game — third-worst in the Big Ten.

But with more experience, Brown said, him and Burke — both former wide receiver recruits — will have more options to do different things, becoming more creative in the defensive backfield.

Creativity is something Brown already relies on in terms of his approach against receivers in game play.

“I know what receivers are trying to look for. I know what they are trying to do,” Brown said. “When I play corner and I am countering it, it’s helpful to know what they are trying to do.”

With that approach and with the experience of a year together, Brown and Burke — a player the redshirt junior described as having a bright future — believe they can potentially shut down any offense it faces in 2022.

“We can make a team very one-dimensional,” Brown said.

Scarlet and Gray Report's Jack Emerson contributed to this report.