Grading Ryan Day’s off-season coaching staff moves

Grading Ryan Day’s off-season coaching staff moves

It’s been a busy off-season for Ohio State’s head football coach. After a bad ending prevented his team from reaching its goals again in 2023, Ryan Day took a long look at his staff to see where improvements could be made.

In this piece, I’ll take a look back at what’s happened over the winter and evaluate the changes Day has made to his staff.

Special Teams

Parker Fleming’s Dismissal

Day opted not to retain his special teams coordinator — and with good reason. There was little about the unit that was truly special. Aside from a decent year by placekicker Jayden Fielding, who made 16 of his 20 attempted field goals and 49 out of 50 extra points, the special teams for Ohio State did not meet expectations, despite having a dedicated coaching position specifically tasked with overseeing those functions.

The Buckeyes ranked 32nd nationally in average punt yards, with 43.69. Additionally, Ohio State was 67th nationally in kickoff return average (19.92 yards) and 114th in punt return average (4.41 yards) and failed to score on either type of play in 2023. Flipping to the other side, the Buckeyes were 77th in opponents’ punting average (42.23), 36th in opponent kickoff return average (17.93 yards), and 115th in opponent punt return average (12.36 yards).

Fleming’s unit lagged behind many programs with fewer heralded players and no coaching position dedicated solely to special teams. The dude had to go.

Grade: A-, even if the replacement is by committee. (This should have been an A+ move, but the fact that Day let Fleming stay on staff as long as he did bumps it down a bit for me.)

Offense

Replacing Corey Dennis with Chip Kelly

The bottom line is that Ohio State’s “real” quarterbacks coach is Day himself. Dennis was exposed in 2023 when there was little to no notable improvement in Kyle McCord’s play over the course of the season. It’s easy to be spoiled by the play of freaks like C.J. Stroud, Justin Fields, and Dwayne Haskins. It’s only when faced with starting a mortal quarterback that a QB coach’s true worth can be gleaned.

Urban Meyer’s son-in-law was a holdover from the previous regime and it was past time for him to go. He’s now at Utah, McCord is now at Syracuse, and Ohio State gets a fresh start in 2024.

That fresh start will come under new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Chip Kelly, who left his head coaching job within the Big Ten at UCLA to take the OSU job. I’m honestly happier having Kelly in Columbus than the guy who was originally offered the job, Bill O’Brien. That hiring was fine, but I prefer Kelly’s tactics.

Grade: A-, with a chance to become an A+ if Day actually lets Kelly call the plays.

Keenan Bailey’s Extension through 2025

Ohio State’s tight ends haven’t been world beaters, but they’ve generally gotten as much of the job done as they’ve been asked to do. They could be better blockers, but Cade Stover and Gee Scott, Jr. were both converted to the position. Bailey may have more to work within 2024 with Jelani Thurman starting to come on and a good blocking tight end arriving through the transfer portal in Will Kaczmarek.

Grade: C+

Defense

Jim Knowles’ Extension through 2026

Knowles’ defense has been on the rise since his arrival. There have been a couple of problematic position groups but those seem to be improving too, and the safety group should be much stronger in 2024. Overall, he’s been doing what he was brought to Columbus to do.

By giving him two more years on his contract, Day has shown he’s happy with the Buckeyes’ progress on the defensive side of the ball. The team could use a few more takeaways, but other than that, there wasn’t a whole lot to complain about in 2023 except in the second half of the Michigan game.

Grade: B+

Replacing Perry Eliano with Matt Guerrieri

Ohio State’s safeties improved from 2022 to 2023, but there were still some major meltdowns along the way. Not all of that is on Eliano, whose group sustained some key injuries during the season — most notably, Lathan Ransom.

Still, tight ends did pretty much whatever they wanted at times during the 2023 campaign.

Enter Guerrieri, a former OSU analyst who spent 2023 as the co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach at Indiana. It’s hard to get a read on how good of a job Guerrieri did, as Indiana is…well, Indiana. However, Louis Moore and Josh Sanguinetti — both seniors — combined for five interceptions, and Moore finished second on the Hoosiers in tackles, with 82.

Perhaps there were better available candidates, but Day did OK for himself with Guerrieri and we’ll see how this pans out for the Buckeyes in 2024 when the new assistant has a solid group of returners and incoming transfer Caleb Downs from Alabama.

Grade: B

Tim Walton’s Promotion

The OSU secondary / cornerbacks coach was handed the addition of “assistant head coach” to his title, and for good reason. Walton is quickly becoming the Brian Hartline of the defensive side of the ball. Recruiting has improved by leaps and bounds and Walton’s position group was solid in 2023, returning Denzel Burke to his previous level of excellence. This move should help keep a coach around who could be in high demand if he can continue to operate at this kind of level.

Grade: A+

Larry Johnson’s Extension through 2025

For the last few years, Ohio State’s defensive line has not been what it once was. The tackles did a better job in 2023 than in 2022. The defensive ends haven’t exactly been lights out, but Jack Sawyer’s emergence at the end of the season was encouraging. Johnson has struggled to find the right balance between substituting too much and not enough over the last couple of seasons. And production on the edge — including setting said edge — must improve for Ohio State’s defense to return to elite status.

What Ohio State needs is a transition plan. Negative recruiting based on Johnson’s age isn’t going to stop with his two-year extension. Other coaches can easily point out that Johnson may not be around for a prized recruit’s full career. What Day should do is bring in Johnson’s eventual replacement as a high-priced analyst and the Buckeyes can tell recruits that Johnson is going to coach them, but if he should leave during that recruit’s collegiate career, his replacement is known, and in the meantime he’ll be passing his knowledge on to some younger, ball-of-energy guy that will take over.

Johnson has earned the right to go out on his own terms, but let’s get more sacks out of the defensive ends, shall we?

Grade: C

Hiring James Laurinaitis

Adding Little Animal to the OSU coaching staff, after he served as an analyst in 2023, is something that most Ohio State fans wanted. It’s a feel-good story. We think he’ll be great as the team’s linebackers coach and that he’ll be an excellent recruiter.

However, we don’t have any data to back anything up at this point. It seems like a great hire, but it could go in many different directions. We’d all certainly like to see this move succeed, but at the moment it’s just someone we like, and who we think can do the job, getting added to the staff.

This is a difficult one to rate at this point, as it could easily be higher or lower. I’ll split the difference.

Grade: B