Five Questions as Buckeyes coaching staff gears up for return to championship contention
The summer offseason is in full swing, and Lettermen Row is trying to survive it with our annual Position Week breakdowns. By the time all nine units and coaching staff at Ohio State have been covered, training camp and media days will nearly have arrived, and the return of football in the Horseshoe will be just around the corner. Our offseason preview weeks come to a close with the loaded Buckeyes coaching staff.
COLUMBUS — The standard isn’t changing anytime soon, even if Ohio State has a reason to shift its mindset this fall.
For the first time since 2017, the Buckeyes will enter a college football season without Defending Big Ten champs as a qualifier. No, they fell short of that goal last fall. They were beaten badly by their rivals. And they didn’t win a national title.
Instead of being the hunted, Ohio State is now the hunter in the Big Ten, gunning for a return to the top of the conference it ruled for the last four seasons. With the disappointing season last fall, the Buckeyes decided to shake up their coaching staff, especially on the defensive side of the ball, to make it happen.
“The thing that’s unique about Ohio State is you’re not allowed to lose a game here,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said after the Buckeyes spring game. “I talked to the players about this in the offseason, the [Los Angeles] Rams, they went on a losing streak this year. They lost a bunch of games, but they go play in the Super Bowl and win at all. You can’t do that at Ohio State. You have to be tough, week in and week out. … But we’re going to have to be physical. If we’re tough and we have good leadership next year, then we have a chance to reach our goals.”
That doesn’t just apply to toughness and leadership in the locker room. No, it certainly includes the coaching staff alongside Day.
The Buckeyes completely overhauled the defensive staff and made a small adjustment to the offensive side of the ball. Will it all yield immediate championship results? That’s where the breakdown begins as Lettermen Row is kicking off the final positional week of the summer with Five Questions for the Ohio State coaching staff.
Will Jim Knowles lift Buckeyes to immediate defensive turnaround?
Ohio State needs to see results on the defensive side of the ball now. And Jim Knowles is well-aware of that. The new Buckeyes defensive coordinator was able to slowly build his defenses at Duke and Oklahoma State into top units in the country — and each of those defensive reclamation projects took years. He won’t be afforded that time in Columbus, however. The Buckeyes need to be better immediately, and the pressure is already on the unit that has underwhelmed for two years to be good enough for a national title run. Ohio State has the best offense in the country, and that can’t be wasted with an average — or below average — defense. Knowles and his defensive staff know what they need to do if they want to get their side of the ball playing at a high level. Will the results come instantly? All signs are beginning to point toward a vastly improved defense with the new system in place. If that’s the case, expect the Buckeyes to be in title contention.
Does Justin Frye add new, physical wrinkles to Ohio State offense?
Ohio State was No. 1 in the country for total offense a season ago. That was in spite of the Buckeyes ranking No. 47 nationally in rushing offense, averaging just 180.6 yards per game on the ground. Simply put, that’s not good enough for what the Buckeyes want to be with their rushing attack. So Ryan Day parted ways with offensive line coach Greg Studrawa and brought in former UCLA offensive line coach Justin Frye to run the offensive line — and be the associate head coach for offense. Frye helped the Bruins become one of the best rushing teams in the country last year, featuring a violent and physical, yet innovative, brand of running the football. Will that same style that made Frye Day’s pick show up in the Ohio State ground game this fall? Expect to see new wrinkles of the offense to help TreVeyon Henderson and the Buckeyes backs. Frye and Tony Alford together make a scary-good pairing for the running backs.
Do Perry Eliano, Tim Walton make difference in secondary?
No position group on the roster went through more of a makeover this offseason than the safeties and cornerbacks. Both positional groupings lost multiple contributors to the transfer portal, but the Buckeyes might just be better off for it. With new defensive backs coach Perry Eliano and Tim Walton, who will coach safeties and cornerbacks, respectively, Ohio State feels like it has taken a step forward despite all the turnover in the locker room. Eliano coached a first-round pick and Thorpe winner last season at Cincinnati. Walton has experience coaching some of the best cornerbacks in the NFL. Both together have a chance to take the Buckeyes back into the conversation of ‘DBU,’ a moniker they claimed for years but have fallen off with since 2020. The coaches can change all of that, and with the talent on hand at both cornerback and safety, it’s a safe bet to assume they will.
Is this just the beginning for Brian Hartline?
To be clear: Brian Hartline is the best wide receivers coach in the country, and there isn’t a close second. But the one knock on Hartline from the outside — that he hadn’t produced a first-round receiver — was emphatically put to bed when Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave, not to mention former Buckeyes receiver Jameson Williams, were selected in back-to-back picks in the NFL Draft’s first round in April. But this might only be the beginning of an unprecedented run for Hartline as a position coach. Jaxon Smith-Njigba is nearly a lock to be a first-round pick next spring. Julian Fleming has a chance to break out, and young receivers are in the pipeline, and most of them have first-round ability — if they are developed by Hartline. As impressive as the last two years have been for the Ohio State receivers coach, this could only be the beginning for Brian Hartline’s success with the Buckeyes.
How long can Buckeyes keep current staff together?
Ryan Day has formed his staff into an all-star collection of coaching talents as he enters his fourth season at Ohio State. Rising stars are mixed in with veterans to make up the 10-man staff the Buckeyes believe is the best in the country. But how long can all of them stay together? Young coaches such as Brian Hartline, Corey Dennis, Justin Frye and Perry Eliano are already names that are popping up as having potential to quickly move up the coaching ladder. Running backs coach Tony Alford seems to gain buzz as a potential head-coaching candidate every offseason. One lucky program will eventually give offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson another shot to be a head coach, and the retirement rumors surrounding Larry Johnson grow louder after each Buckeyes season. The coaching staff is elite, yes. But the question remains: how long will it stay together?
