Veteran assistant Kerry Coombs will not return to Ohio State
COLUMBUS — A decorated coaching career at Ohio State for Kerry Coombs is over — for the second time.
The Buckeyes will not have the legendary position coach Coombs returning for a third season during his encore run with the program, one that didn’t go the way anybody expected when he returned as a defensive coordinator.
The energetic, enthusiastic Coombs struggled in the transition to that top role with the Silver Bullets, and Ohio State stripped him of play-calling duties in September after an upset loss to Oregon. Coombs remains one of the best developers of defensive-back talent in the country and a renowned recruiter, and multiple sources had indicated to Lettermen Row that the Buckeyes were open to his return if he was comfortable with a position-coach role moving forward.
Lettermen Row has confirmed that Perry Eliano will be hired from Cincinnati, and it has another top candidate for a role in the secondary in Tim Walton with it now clear Coombs won’t be back.
“I would tell you that obviously this has been the hardest stretch of my professional career — which I would tell you means I’ve had a really good career,” Coombs said in the middle of the season. “Because if this is the hardest stretch, life is not going to be too bad.
“The handling of it is a work in progress. But I would also tell you this: Handling it in a different fashion, picking up the ball and going home, kicking the can down the road, quitting, packing your stuff up, being a miserable human being — if I had done those things, that would make me a liar to everyone of those young men I have coached along the way that had tough times. The guys that got replaced on a given Saturday or a Friday night or a Sunday afternoon and we had to have a conversation about hanging in there, that it’s going to be OK. Whether they agreed with the decision or not, it didn’t matter. You have to battle and fight through.”
Coombs did that, finishing out the rest of the season with the Buckeyes with his trademark fire and a Rose Bowl victory on Saturday.
But that will apparently be the end of the line for Kerry Coombs and Ohio State, and the program has already moved on to replace him.
