Latest / Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning / Ohio State Football: Buckeyes Announce Changes To Coaching Staff
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Friday, February twenty, first
- 0:03Speaker 1: time your host Tom or the Texas game in one
- 0:05Speaker 1: hundred and ninety days the game against Michigan in two
- 0:08Speaker 1: hundred and eighty one days. If you're planning your next event,
- 0:11Speaker 1: make it unforgettable with Grateful Griddle, Columbus's favorite food trucks
- 0:14Speaker 1: serving up smashburgers, gourmet sandwiches, and good vibes. Book your
- 0:18Speaker 1: catering today at grateful Griddle oh dot com. So today
- 0:22Speaker 1: we have tons of news on this show. Is it
- 0:26Speaker 1: new news? Like? I mean, it's official now, So that's
- 0:30Speaker 1: a thing. It's the news that I think a lot
- 0:32Speaker 1: of people have been waiting for and wondering, like when
- 0:34Speaker 1: are they going to announce this stuff? WIHIU State has
- 0:37Speaker 1: made it official. Two new assistant coaches on the staff,
- 0:40Speaker 1: five coaches returning but in slightly different roles with some
- 0:44Speaker 1: slightly different titles. Can be breaking that all down today
- 0:46Speaker 1: with our buddy, Tony Gerderman at Fucky Huddle dot com. Tony,
- 0:49Speaker 1: let's start with the defense, and let's start with new
- 0:51Speaker 1: defensive coordinator Matt Patricia.
- 0:55Speaker 2: Yeah, a decision that made Buckeye fans happy and thrilled
- 0:58Speaker 2: to have Matt Patricia. Of course, no, the hire was
- 1:02Speaker 2: met with huh and why. And the thing is like,
- 1:06Speaker 2: because of his history in the NFL, like everybody knows
- 1:09Speaker 2: his name, also know that things did not go well
- 1:12Speaker 2: in Detroit, and so that's kind of what he's remembered for.
- 1:14Speaker 2: And I'll try to remind people he was defensive coordinator
- 1:18Speaker 2: for two Super Bowls and New England clearly like a
- 1:22Speaker 2: smart rocket scientist, legit dude, and somebody that if when
- 1:27Speaker 2: you have his pedigree, like I think that qualifies you
- 1:31Speaker 2: to be a college defensive coordinator. Somebody who's well known
- 1:35Speaker 2: has put some good defenses out there and will have
- 1:38Speaker 2: an opportunity to do the same thing at Ohio State.
- 1:40Speaker 1: Yeah, he's going to be interesting to see. I'm always
- 1:42Speaker 1: interested when you have NFL guys come out down to
- 1:45Speaker 1: the college game who maybe have not coached in the college
- 1:47Speaker 1: game a while. Chip Kelly was one thing where he
- 1:49Speaker 1: had spent some time in the NFL but then came back.
- 1:51Speaker 1: Or Tim Whalton. You know, Tim Walton had to adjust
- 1:54Speaker 1: a little bit from the NFL game to the college game,
- 1:56Speaker 1: and just in terms of the amount of time you
- 1:57Speaker 1: get with guys and all of that kind of So, yeah,
- 2:00Speaker 1: it's going to be that'll be an interesting adjustment for
- 2:03Speaker 1: Matt Patricia and one of the many, many intriguing storylines
- 2:08Speaker 1: this spring around the Buckeyes. The other new face is
- 2:11Speaker 1: Tyler Bowen. He's going to be in charge of the
- 2:14Speaker 1: offensive line, a really restructured offensive line coaching staff. We
- 2:18Speaker 1: did a live show on Wednesday night talking about three
- 2:22Speaker 1: of the new you know, not the top ten assistants,
- 2:25Speaker 1: but three of the other kind of sub assistants to
- 2:28Speaker 1: the offensive line. Is going to be a very very
- 2:30Speaker 1: different look in that offensive line room. But Tyler Bowen,
- 2:33Speaker 1: you know, the concern with him coming in was, well
- 2:35Speaker 1: he hasn't done that much with the offensive line, Like, well,
- 2:37Speaker 1: don't worry. They have a lot of guys to help
- 2:40Speaker 1: him with that offensive line.
- 2:42Speaker 2: Yeah. The last w coach the offensive line was I
- 2:44Speaker 2: believe twenty seventeen. One thing I try to tell people
- 2:48Speaker 2: is that if you're an assistant coach, and you're a
- 2:49Speaker 2: good assistant coach, you can pretty much coach any position,
- 2:52Speaker 2: and it's just about making sure the technique is there
- 2:55Speaker 2: and that you're watching it, correcting it and getting all
- 2:59Speaker 2: of those little things helping the players be the best
- 3:01Speaker 2: version of themselves. And if you look at, like over
- 3:04Speaker 2: the course of a coach's career, how many different positions
- 3:06Speaker 2: they've coached, you'll see that they touch a lot of
- 3:09Speaker 2: different positions. And he's a guy who was Virginia Techs
- 3:13Speaker 2: quarterbacks coach last year, but as coach tight ends at
- 3:15Speaker 2: Penn State and has done different things. But he's going
- 3:18Speaker 2: to have a wealth of help around him and the
- 3:22Speaker 2: hires that we talked about on the live show. So
- 3:24Speaker 2: he's known as a recruiter and known as a developed
- 3:28Speaker 2: developer of players, and now we've got to see could
- 3:30Speaker 2: see both of those things on the offensive line for
- 3:33Speaker 2: Ohio State, which would be maybe the one thing that
- 3:36Speaker 2: they've been missing in Brian Days' time at Ohio State
- 3:40Speaker 2: is both the recruiting and the development. Sometimes they get one,
- 3:43Speaker 2: sometimes you get the other. Here's an opportunity to get both.
- 3:48Speaker 1: One position where there has not been any concern about
- 3:51Speaker 1: either the recruiting or the development is at the wide
- 3:54Speaker 1: receiver position. And that's why Brian Hartline, well, he has
- 3:57Speaker 1: himself a new job title. He has gone from wide
- 3:59Speaker 1: receivers coach to coaching the wide receivers, but also the
- 4:02Speaker 1: new offensive coordinator. And this is a spot where I know,
- 4:06Speaker 1: again like everyone has some concerns, and you know, he
- 4:08Speaker 1: didn't get the call plays the last time he was
- 4:10Speaker 1: named the offensive coordinator. You still have Ryan Day in
- 4:13Speaker 1: the building, you still have plenty of other great offensive
- 4:16Speaker 1: minds in the building, and at this point, whatever you
- 4:19Speaker 1: need to do to keep Brian Hartline in that building
- 4:21Speaker 1: and keep that wide receiver portal, you know, recruiting, developing,
- 4:25Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff, rolling, whatever you gotta do. Man, Like,
- 4:28Speaker 1: just that's got that sounds great.
- 4:30Speaker 2: Yeah. I like how you describe it as the one
- 4:32Speaker 2: area of the one position where there's no concern. And
- 4:34Speaker 2: now it's like, let's turn this into a huge concern
- 4:36Speaker 2: because now Brian Hartline is the offensive coordinator again and
- 4:40Speaker 2: play calling plays, which he's never done full time in
- 4:45Speaker 2: a game over the course of a season. So let's
- 4:48Speaker 2: just put some drama in there. But Ryan Day has
- 4:51Speaker 2: said a couple of times now he expects him to
- 4:53Speaker 2: be the best offensive coordinator in the country, And I'm
- 4:56Speaker 2: with you, like, this is the natural progression of things.
- 4:58Speaker 2: If this is what Brian Hartline, it's eventually you're going
- 5:00Speaker 2: to have to give it to him or else somebody
- 5:02Speaker 2: else will. And I guarantee you whoever that school would
- 5:05Speaker 2: have been, their coaches, their fan base would have been thrilled.
- 5:09Speaker 2: So this is this is if you're an o Higher
- 5:11Speaker 2: State fan, you're like, I'm nervous about this, Well, I mean,
- 5:15Speaker 2: welcome to life in the big city. This is everybody
- 5:18Speaker 2: every other fan base would be thrilled to have this.
- 5:21Speaker 2: So if you are not thrilled, then you have gotten
- 5:24Speaker 2: to the point where Brian Hartline has spoiled you and
- 5:28Speaker 2: now maybe maybe now he can spoil you as an
- 5:31Speaker 2: offensive coordinator and calling plays and doing all of those
- 5:33Speaker 2: sorts of things.
- 5:35Speaker 1: Yeah, he's had another couple of years with Ryan Day
- 5:37Speaker 1: and with Chip Kelly this last year to sort of
- 5:40Speaker 1: continue to grow as a coordinator of offense, play caller,
- 5:44Speaker 1: you know, in waiting basically, So yeah, and you know
- 5:48Speaker 1: they were, Yes, there were people who are concerned about, well,
- 5:50Speaker 1: he hasn't called plays before. There were also people concerned about, well,
- 5:53Speaker 1: what happens is Chris Henry going to sign with Ohio
- 5:55Speaker 1: State in twenty twenty six And the answer to that
- 5:58Speaker 1: is is Brian Hartline around If so, you got to
- 6:00Speaker 1: feel pretty good about your chances there. You don't get
- 6:02Speaker 1: to be worried about both. You got to pick one.
- 6:04Speaker 1: Whichever one you're more worried about, you can worry about
- 6:06Speaker 1: that the other one. These these two things are probably
- 6:09Speaker 1: you know, you got to balance those two things. And
- 6:12Speaker 1: you know, as I said, I think Brian Hartline has
- 6:15Speaker 1: had a couple of years to continue to grow and
- 6:17Speaker 1: develop and learn in terms of running a full offense.
- 6:21Speaker 1: So I think you're going to see probably a more
- 6:22Speaker 1: prepared Brian Hartline now than you did a couple of
- 6:25Speaker 1: years ago. We'll see how that all goes this spring.
- 6:28Speaker 1: Another assistant coach on the offensive side of the ball,
- 6:30Speaker 1: getting a nice bump and then probably a nice race to.
- 6:33Speaker 2: Go with it.
- 6:33Speaker 1: Billy Fessler. That's a name that I don't know. He's
- 6:36Speaker 1: been around the program a bunch, He's been around other
- 6:38Speaker 1: programs in the state of Ohio in the Big Ten,
- 6:40Speaker 1: but it's you know, I don't know that that's a
- 6:42Speaker 1: name that most Ohio State fans would necessarily be able to,
- 6:45Speaker 1: you know, conjure a face and know exactly what he does.
- 6:48Speaker 1: But man, the people who have worked with him in
- 6:50Speaker 1: the past whether it's Chip Kelly or Will Howard or
- 6:53Speaker 1: Ryan Day, they all speak incredibly highly of Billy Fessler,
- 6:57Speaker 1: who is the new quarterbacks coach.
- 6:59Speaker 2: Yeah, and you look at the quarterbacks that he's worked
- 7:01Speaker 2: with at Ohio State, because he was at Ohio State
- 7:04Speaker 2: in twenty twenty and twenty twenty one and got to
- 7:06Speaker 2: work with Justin Fields and c J. Stroud was with
- 7:09Speaker 2: the quarterbacks last year at Ohio State and helped with
- 7:11Speaker 2: Will Howard, a guy that is trusted by Joel Morehead
- 7:15Speaker 2: who brought him to ACCRI to be his offensive coordinator
- 7:19Speaker 2: and quarterbacks coach, a guy that a lot of people
- 7:21Speaker 2: respect as a as an offensive guy. And Chip Kelly
- 7:24Speaker 2: of course did the same thing, brought him to be
- 7:26Speaker 2: his quarterbacks coach last year before heading over to Ohio State,
- 7:29Speaker 2: and then brought him with him to Ohio State. And
- 7:32Speaker 2: the thing is that I think what makes me feel
- 7:35Speaker 2: okay about this is he's not the most experienced guy,
- 7:38Speaker 2: but he's experienced coaching Ryan Day's quarterback and that's something
- 7:42Speaker 2: that nobody else can really say out there. That was
- 7:46Speaker 2: that Ryan Day was looking to hire. So he knows
- 7:48Speaker 2: what Ryan Day wants his quarterbacks to do. And they
- 7:51Speaker 2: how they want to be, how they're supposed to be coached.
- 7:53Speaker 2: So that gives Ryan Day, I think a lot of
- 7:57Speaker 2: relief and confidence that is the development will continue.
- 8:01Speaker 1: Ed.
- 8:02Speaker 2: This is a lot of trust that he's putting in
- 8:05Speaker 2: to Billy Fessler. When you were talking about Julians Say
- 8:07Speaker 2: and Lincoln keenoles Tavi at Saint Clair. This is not
- 8:10Speaker 2: Will Howard coming in with a thousand pass attempts in
- 8:13Speaker 2: his career. These are guys that are still very able
- 8:16Speaker 2: to be forged and shaped and so this is a
- 8:21Speaker 2: big responsibility. But this is Brian Day. He's a quarterbacks coach.
- 8:25Speaker 2: He's not going to entrust this to somebody that isn't
- 8:28Speaker 2: going to do exactly what he's looking for well.
- 8:31Speaker 1: And Ryan Day also has a very good sense for
- 8:33Speaker 1: what good quarterback coaching and development looks like and he's
- 8:37Speaker 1: seen it up close, and he's this is someone that
- 8:39Speaker 1: Chip Kelly, who obviously Ryan a had a tight, close,
- 8:42Speaker 1: long term relationship with. He's someone who really liked and
- 8:46Speaker 1: trusted Billy Fessler as well, brought him along from UCLA
- 8:49Speaker 1: with him when he came over to Ohio State last year.
- 8:51Speaker 1: So yeah, this was this was one that felt like,
- 8:53Speaker 1: at some point a job is going to open on
- 8:55Speaker 1: the staff and Billy Fessler is going to get it,
- 8:57Speaker 1: and and that has now happened. Someone else who has
- 9:00Speaker 1: been sort of climbing the ladder at Ohio State is
- 9:03Speaker 1: Keenan Bailey, who came in as a very very low
- 9:05Speaker 1: level assistant and he just continues to excel at everything
- 9:09Speaker 1: that he does. He's someone you hear great stuff about.
- 9:11Speaker 1: In terms of recruiting, You've seen great, great development. That
- 9:14Speaker 1: was probably one of the best tight end rooms Ohio
- 9:16Speaker 1: States had in a long time. They've one of their
- 9:18Speaker 1: deepest tight ends rooms in a long time. This year.
- 9:21Speaker 1: Kenan Bailey is still going to be in charge of that,
- 9:22Speaker 1: but he also is now the co offensive coordinator.
- 9:25Speaker 2: Yeah, co offensive coordinator, which was I think was a
- 9:28Speaker 2: surprise to most because I figure, like Keenan Bailey is
- 9:33Speaker 2: you always hear about him, but this was a very
- 9:37Speaker 2: nice bump for him and a nice thing. No, It's
- 9:40Speaker 2: like he's he's earned this. Ryan Day talks candidly and
- 9:44Speaker 2: openly about how much he respects and like Kenan Bailey
- 9:47Speaker 2: likes Keenan Bailey called him the hardest working coach coach
- 9:50Speaker 2: on the staff. At the championship celebration. Is somebody that
- 9:54Speaker 2: was here a year year before Ryan Day even got here.
- 9:56Speaker 2: So this is his tenth year now at Ohio State
- 9:59Speaker 2: and has done everything from probably making copies to now
- 10:03Speaker 2: like he's the co offensive coordinator of the Ryan Day
- 10:07Speaker 2: Ohio State offense. So that's that's a pretty good client
- 10:11Speaker 2: for somebody who has put in all kinds of hours
- 10:13Speaker 2: to make it happen.
- 10:14Speaker 1: Yeah, and before he came to Ohio State, he was
- 10:16Speaker 1: a recruiting assistant at Notre Dame, which is that is
- 10:20Speaker 1: not the glamorous end of the business by any means,
- 10:22Speaker 1: but has now moved himself up to co offensive coordinator
- 10:26Speaker 1: in the span of basically a decade. That's you know,
- 10:29Speaker 1: if you wanted to buy stock in someone and say
- 10:32Speaker 1: ten years from now, this guy is probably going to
- 10:34Speaker 1: be running a fairly substantial college football program inan Bailey
- 10:37Speaker 1: would not be a bad guess on that front. Moving
- 10:40Speaker 1: to the defensive side of the ball, Nice bumped for
- 10:43Speaker 1: Tim Walton. He's the secondary and cornerbacks coach. Now he's
- 10:46Speaker 1: the co defensive coordinator as well. Continuing new coach the secondary,
- 10:49Speaker 1: continuing new coach to the cornerbacks. This is maybe the
- 10:53Speaker 1: only position outside of wide receiver where you can look
- 10:56Speaker 1: and just go. The recruiting is pretty much flawless. That
- 11:00Speaker 1: has been fantastic. The track records there, the depth is there. That,
- 11:03Speaker 1: like Tim Walton, has been a phenomenal addition to the
- 11:07Speaker 1: Ohio State coaching staff. When he came from the NFL,
- 11:10Speaker 1: there was a lot of questions about, boy, he's been
- 11:12Speaker 1: in the NFL a long time and yeah, sure he
- 11:13Speaker 1: can coach there. How is that going to translate to
- 11:15Speaker 1: the college level. How is that going to translate to recruiting? Man,
- 11:18Speaker 1: oh Man, that has been a home run higher and
- 11:22Speaker 1: now get a nice bump to co DC. That probably
- 11:25Speaker 1: a nice salary bump as well. He's one guy, one
- 11:27Speaker 1: of those guys a lot like Brian Hartline. The longer
- 11:30Speaker 1: you keep him in the building, the better off your
- 11:32Speaker 1: program is, for sure.
- 11:34Speaker 2: And you also do need the front end, back end
- 11:38Speaker 2: situation going on in terms of running the defense, So
- 11:42Speaker 2: he'll be part of that with Matt Patricia and I'm
- 11:45Speaker 2: with you like it's Keeping him was big because any
- 11:49Speaker 2: school that would have gotten him would be thrilled and
- 11:52Speaker 2: would be dancing in the streets and you talk about
- 11:55Speaker 2: the recruiting that Tim Walton does. Just imagine if if
- 11:59Speaker 2: Uncle Phil with Oregon wasn't able to promise you deals
- 12:03Speaker 2: and write checks, how the kind of recruiting that he
- 12:07Speaker 2: would he would be doing. And it's already impressive. But
- 12:10Speaker 2: you know, he's a guy that everybody has the utmost
- 12:13Speaker 2: respect for and he's been able to continue to put
- 12:17Speaker 2: production out there and talented secondaries and again a guy
- 12:22Speaker 2: that this defense needed to have back and they've got him.
- 12:26Speaker 1: And one more guy they needed to get back in
- 12:28Speaker 1: the secondary with safetyes coach Matt Garary. He has a
- 12:31Speaker 1: little promotion as well as promoted to pass game coordinator.
- 12:35Speaker 1: He and Walton and Matt Patricia you mentioned earlier sort
- 12:38Speaker 1: of the front end, back end portion of that. Gary
- 12:41Speaker 1: is someone who worked a bunch with Jim Knowles over
- 12:44Speaker 1: the years at various stops, so he's probably going to provide,
- 12:47Speaker 1: you know, he and Walton will provide some continuity in
- 12:49Speaker 1: terms of boy, this worked real well on the back
- 12:51Speaker 1: end last year. Marry that with potentially some new looks
- 12:54Speaker 1: up front with Patricia. This is this is another one
- 12:57Speaker 1: where all you have to do is listen to Ryan
- 12:59Speaker 1: Day talk about Matt Greary, And you know, Matt Greary
- 13:02Speaker 1: is probably going to get a little bit of a
- 13:03Speaker 1: bump and a little bit of a salary bump to
- 13:06Speaker 1: make sure he sticks around Columbus because Brian Day is
- 13:08Speaker 1: very high on him as well.
- 13:10Speaker 2: Yeah, and there are a lot of people will give him.
- 13:11Speaker 2: Give Gary the credit for the coverages that they were
- 13:14Speaker 2: doing last year, especially the second half of the season,
- 13:17Speaker 2: and implementing some different things and things that worked. And
- 13:20Speaker 2: to have him back then, as you said, the continuity
- 13:23Speaker 2: with the new stuff that Matt Patrician may bring in,
- 13:27Speaker 2: whatever that may be, but you do have some grounding
- 13:30Speaker 2: with Gary and Walton in there to keep things familiar
- 13:34Speaker 2: for the secondary. And yeah, another young guy that is
- 13:39Speaker 2: one of the future head coaches on this staff. I
- 13:41Speaker 2: think he's pretty safe to say that. And then Brian
- 13:45Speaker 2: Days obviously speaks highly of him, and a lot of
- 13:48Speaker 2: other people do as well. So this is a good get.
- 13:50Speaker 2: This is a guy that you know we had talked about,
- 13:52Speaker 2: is he is he the defensive coordinator and is somebody
- 13:55Speaker 2: else going to be the co defensive coordinators? Like he'll
- 13:57Speaker 2: be a defensive coordinator before too long, And then of
- 14:00Speaker 2: course they'll just continue to keep climbing the way I
- 14:02Speaker 2: see it.
- 14:03Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot a lot of bright futures, a lot
- 14:06Speaker 1: of very highly sought after coaches on that staff. That
- 14:08Speaker 1: those are all good signs, like you don't want to
- 14:11Speaker 1: have the coaching staff that no one is trying to pursue,
- 14:13Speaker 1: no one's trying to take your assistance. That's that has
- 14:16Speaker 1: not been a problem for Ohio State. Ohio State's less
- 14:18Speaker 1: two coordinators are making what north of nine million dollars
- 14:22Speaker 1: between them in the the upcoming season. So yeah, you
- 14:25Speaker 1: have you end up hiring good coaches, some of them
- 14:28Speaker 1: get hired away, and then you get to find new
- 14:30Speaker 1: coaches and keep new coaches, find good new coaches. But
- 14:34Speaker 1: Brian Day certainly seem to have done that. Two new faces,
- 14:37Speaker 1: five familiar faces in slightly different roles this year, but
- 14:40Speaker 1: they go seven different different roles different coaches on the
- 14:44Speaker 1: Ohio State assistant coaching staff for this year. So all
- 14:47Speaker 1: of those new faces and new roles, those are gonna
- 14:49Speaker 1: be some of the things we're following this spring we
- 14:52Speaker 1: cover spring ball, a lot of new faces on the
- 14:54Speaker 1: field as well, some interesting transfers, a lot of intriguing
- 14:58Speaker 1: true freshmen coming in and guys, a lot of guys
- 15:00Speaker 1: who've been around for a little while getting a chance
- 15:02Speaker 1: to take on a bigger role. This is going to
- 15:03Speaker 1: be a really fun spring. We hope you can spend
- 15:05Speaker 1: it with us at Buckeye Huddle dot com. That's where Tony,
- 15:08Speaker 1: Kevin and I cover the team, Mark covers recruiting. We
- 15:10Speaker 1: got our whole team of x's and those grewers there
- 15:12Speaker 1: as well to make you a smarter football fan all
- 15:14Speaker 1: at Buckeye Huddle dot com. That'll do it for today.
- 15:17Speaker 1: Thank you guys all for joining us. Have a great day.
- 15:19Speaker 1: We'll talk to you tomorrow.