Category: Buckeyes Wire

Ohio State officially names Kerry Coombs defensive coordinator

Ohio State has made it official with a release naming Kerry Coombs its new defensive coordinator Monday.

There’s already reports out there, but now it is official. Ohio State has named former assistant Kerry Coombs its defensive coordinator per a release from the university Monday. The Cincinnati area high school coaching legend worked under Urban Meyer as the defensive backs coach for five years. He then left to join Mike Vrabel on his staff with the Tennessee Titans of the NFL for two years.

Now, he is back with a promotion along with much fanfare and anticipation. He spent time developing the NFL types Bradley Roby, Eli Apple, Marshon Lattimore, Gareon Conley, and Denzel Ward. In fact, every single defensive back that played for Coombs ended up in the NFL.

“Kerry Coombs is the coach I was really hoping we could hire and bring back to Ohio State,” Day said in the release. “He is an excellent coach and he has had two outstanding seasons in the NFL on Mike Vrabel’s staff with the Tennessee Titans. I’ve spent a season on staff with Kerry and I really like his coaching and knowledge of the game, but I also like that he knows Ohio State and he knows how to recruit to Ohio State. He’s recruited some of the players currently on the team and he coached a handful of Buckeye defensive backs who went on to become first-round NFL draft picks.”

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This is big, welcome news for Ohio State and will no doubt check a lot of the boxes that needed attention when Jeff Hafley left to take the opportunity to be the next head coach of Boston College.

 

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Ohio State basketball falls out of the AP Top 25 Poll

For the first time this season, the Ohio State basketball team has fallen outside of the AP Top 25.

For the first time this season, the Ohio State basketball team is no longer in the Associate Press Top 25 College Basketball Poll.

What a fall it has been. The team sprinted out to a 9-0 record that included wins over Cincinnati and Villanova at home, and North Carolina on the road. It also stood at 11-1 just a few games later that included a win on a neutral court over the Kentucky Wildcats.

The Buckeyes were just one day away from being the No. 1 team in the country before it fell to West Virginia on December 29. It got as high as No. 2 overall after the win over Kentucky.

Now, less than three weeks and four more losses later and the Buckeyes are simply in the “other teams receiving votes” category, and it is clear that it’s time to reset expectations.

Baylor is the new No. 1 in the country, followed by Gonzaga, Kansas, San Diego State, and Florida State to round out the top five. Here is a complete look at the top 25.

Ohio State is next in action on Thursday against Minnesota at home. It needs a win in the worst way.

Kerry Coombs will reportedly be the highest paid assistant coach in Ohio State football history

According to salary reported by the Columbus Dispatch, Kerry Coombs will be the highest-paid assistant coach in Ohio State football history.

If you haven’t heard yet, former Ohio State defensive backs, and now former Tennessee Titans assistant Kerry Coombs is all set to make his return to Columbus. According to multiple reports, he’ll have the defensive coordinator position but also still have responsibilities with the defensive backs.

If you wondered why a guy in the prime of his NFL career would come back to the college ranks, consider the fact that a promotion and money talk. Not only will Coombs have the responsibility of calling some shots on the defense, he’ll also apparently be bringing a boatload of cash with him — at least according to a report (subscription required) from the Columbus Dispatch.

So much so, that Coombs will be the highest-paid assistant coach in Ohio State history according to sources that spoke to Bill Rabinowitz. Coombs’ salary is reported to be around $1.2 Million a year, about $100,000 more than the $1.1 Million that current co-defensive coordinator Greg Mattison makes.

The hire will no doubt make a big splash in recruiting circles, and across the coaching landscape in the Big Ten and beyond. To be the best, you have to pay the best coaches and lure them in, and it appears as though the Buckeyes have done that once again.

BREAKING: Kerry Coombs set to rejoin Ohio State

According to a report from Lettermen Row, it appears as though famed defensive backs coach Kerry Coombs is set to return to Ohio State.

It has been speculated ever since Buckeye assistant Jeff Hafley accepted the head coaching job at Boston College, now it appears to be on the cusp of being officially announced by Ohio State.

According to a report from Lettermen Row, Ryan Day and the program are expected to announce the hiring of Kerry Coombs as with a defensive coordinator position and the assignment of working with defensive backs coach again, as early as Monday afternoon. The folks at Lettermen Row site multiple sources familiar with the situation.

It was clear when Hafley left, that Coombs was the main target of Day. Formerly a part of all the fun under Urban Meyer, the Cincinnati area high school coaching legend accepted the defensive backs coaching post under Titans head coach Mike Vrabel.

At the time he Day said Ohio State would try and get one of the very best out there to replace Hafley, who was a bit of an unknown prior to his arrival in Columbus. Convincing Coombs to come back would certainly fit that bill.

But when Tennessee went on an improbable run to the AFC Championship Game, Ohio State had to be patient and courteous. Now, with the Chiefs win over the Titans Sunday, the news was supposed to come quickly, and that’s exactly what appears to have happened.

No official word has come from Ohio State yet, but as soon as it does, we’ll have it for you here at Buckeyes Wire.

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day visits Cameron Martinez

There’s one big fish still out there for the Ohio State football 2020 recruiting class, and Ryan Day was in to pay a visit this weekend.

The official and traditional signing day for college football is quickly approaching, and although Ohio State has signed almost its entire class already during the early signing period, there’s still one big fish still out there that head coach Ryan Day and staff would love to land.

Four-star athlete Cameron Martinez verbally committed to the Buckeyes back in early July, but he decided to delay his signing until February to keep his options open.

It can all be traced to former Ohio State co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach Jeff Hafley’s departure from the program. He was the lead recruiter that had established a relationship with Martinez, and the news of Hafley taking the head coaching job at Boston College gave the MLive’s two-time Michigan high-school player of the year pause.

Since that time, it’s been a busy, flurry of activity for head coach Ryan Day and Ohio State. There was the whole lead up to Fiesta Bowl and the College Football Playoff to deal with that took everyone’s focus and time.

But now, it’s time to get back on the trail and try to let Martinez know he made the right decision in the first place. On that note, Day and special teams coordinator and assistant secondary backs coach Matt Barnes were on the recruiting trail, battling bad weather and travel to watch Martinez play in a high school basketball game over the weekend.

There are reliable sources pointing towards former Ohio State defensive backs coach Kerry Coombs coming back to Columbus to fill the spot left vacant by Hafley’s departure, and that would be a great hire to fill the void. Either way, Day’s selling of the program would likely revolve around him bringing in one of the best defensive backs coaches in America, and the virtues of what the program can offer.

According to a story by MLive, the visit did indeed strike a chord with Martinez.

“It meant a lot to me and also showed a lot,” Martinez said in a text to MLive.com. “They had a busy day and for them to come to the game and then come over (to the house) with the weather being bad, I really appreciated it. I haven’t seen them in a while, so it was good to catch up with them as well.”

So we’ll keep a watch on this and any news regarding a pending hire of sorts. With all the unknowns at the defensive back position, and the need that will be there after this year, getting Martinez, an athlete that could factor in there or at another position down the road will be key.

WATCH: Kollin Moore records first Buckeye pin in Covelli Center

Kollin Moore pins Matt Wroblewski in the Big Ten dual match on Monday. Watch video of Kollin Moore’s pin.

It took a few months and half a dozen dual matches, but Kollin Moore became the first Buckeye to record a pin in the brand-new Covelli Center during Ohio State’s dominant win over Illinois on Sunday.

The Buckeyes have recorded plenty of wins in the Covelli Center this year. Wrestlers have won plenty of tight matches and earned plenty of bonus points, but no Buckeye had yet to record a pin. There were other pins, though, most notably Sammy Sasso’s upset loss to Brent Moore in the dual match against Virginia Tech.

The Buckeyes look very solid, with national contenders at multiple weight classes–led by Moore and Luke Pletcher. The Buckeyes definitely need work in some weight classes, like 125 pounds and 184 pounds, before they can really be considered national title contenders, especially with the deep lineups that Iowa and Penn State have. The Buckeyes will travel to Iowa City to face the dominant Hawkeyes this Friday evening. We’ll get a good gauge of how close Ohio State is to the national elite during that dual.

Watch Moore’s full match against Matt Wroblewski of Illinois and the pin(pin starts at about 5:30):
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Just two Ohio State players will be playing in the Super Bowl

Only two former Ohio State football players will compete in Super Bowl LIV. Time to root on Nick Bosa and Darron Lee.

The stage is now set. The Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers will be making history as the two teams battling it out in Super Bowl LIV. And while the NFL is littered with former Ohio State players, the game on February 2 will have just two former Buckeyes vying for a Super Bowl ring.

You are now of course very familiar with what former defensive end Nick Bosa has done in his rookie season with the 49ers. He has put together a rookie of the year for the ages on the defensive line. He’s been dominant and disruptive. He’s the only Ohio State player currently on the active roster for the ‘Niners.

Then there’s the Kansas City Chiefs. They too have just one former Buckeye on the roster. It’s New Albany, Ohio’s finest, linebacker Darron Lee. He’s played all sixteen games for Kansas City with modest results this year. He’s totaled 31 tackles for the AFC Champions.

That’s it. Just two OSU players will be playing in arguably the biggest sporting event on the annual calendar on the planet Earth. So, if you’re looking to root on some former Ohio State players at a Super Bowl party near you in a couple of weeks, the pickings are slim.

Then again, Nick Bosa is likely to get plenty of camera time and have a big impact on the outcome of which team hoists the Lombardi Trophy, so there’s that.

It’s now clear Ohio State basketball was punching over its weight earlier in the year

After a promising start to the season, the Ohio State basketball team has hit a serious skid. It’s simply not the team we thought early on.

The Ohio State basketball team got out of the gates extremely fast in 2019. It had huge wins early on over Cincinnati and Villanova at home, on the road at North Carolina, and on a neutral court against Kentucky. On the surface, those wins look good on any college basketball resume.

Now that 2020 has hit though, things look much different.

Cincinnati looks like just an average team, Kentucky has had its struggles, and North Carolina is in a downward spiral it hasn’t seen since what seems like the advent of the industrial revolution. So while those are still some very, good wins, they aren’t what they seemed to be early on.

On top of that, the Buckeyes have hit a skid that is now no longer just a blip on the radar, but a troublesome trend. Early on, its young talent was playing much more cohesive, sharing the basketball, and showing a toughness well beyond its years.

But now, the rough and tumble Big Ten seems to have reset things a bit. Okay, a lot.

No longer is this Ohio State team playing through chaos, working well together, or taking care of the basketball. What has resulted is a season that has gone from so promising, to one with more questions than answers. To make matters worse, head coach Chris Holtmann seems to be at a loss as to how to get this group to play like what we’ve been accustomed to seeing under his tenure.

What is clearly his most talented team to date, now has to be his most perplexing.

There are even signs of some behind-the-scenes grappling going on. Though the details are sketchy, guards Luther Muhammad and Duane Washington were suspended for a game for “a failure to meet program standards and expectations.” Drama in the midst of a serious swoon is never a good thing.

The two are now back, but where there’s scarlet and gray smoke …

The Buckeyes must face the reality of where things stand. At 2-5 now in the league, a shot at a regular-season Big Ten Championship is most likely down the tubes. There’s still a chance at a deep run in the Big Ten Tournament and an NCAA Tourney appearance to potentially look forward to, but somehow Holtmann will have to keep this team motivated in the face of reset expectations.

And about those NCAA prospects? What was once a projected No. 2 seed is in a free-fall with every passing loss. Ohio State has lost six of its last nine. That resembles nothing close to an NCAA Tournament team. It barely resembles an NIT team.

The good news is that there’s still time to get this thing turned back around. The schedule eases a wee-bit over the next few games, and Holtmann has shown that his teams generally figure things out as March comes closer.

But it won’t be easy. There’s no doubt this team has lost some confidence and swagger, and it’ll be tough to wrestle that back in the deepest league in the country where there’s simply not a stretch of games to build momentum without going out and taking it.

This Ohio State team might still be pretty good, and once it gets to March might even find more of what was going right early in the campaign. But the painful truth is that the 2019-2020 Buckeyes just aren’t what we thought they were in early December.

It’s time to reset expectations — and not in a good way.

 

Contact/Follow us @BuckeyesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes and opinion.

We have a forum and message board now. Get in on the conversation about Ohio State athletics by joining the Buckeyes Wire Forum.

WATCH: 49ers DE Nick Bosa chases down Aaron Rodgers for sack

Former Ohio State and current San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa had himself an all-out effort sack in the NFC Championship Game.

Former Ohio State and current San Francisco 49ers defensive end continues his terrorize opposing NFL quarterbacks. This time it was on one of the biggest stages it can happen on, in the NFC Championship game against the Green Bay Packers.

Not even Aaron Rodgers’ State Farm agent could stop this one from happening.

On 3rd and 7 from the Packers 42-yard line, Rodgers dropped back to pass, scrambled to his left, to get out of the pocket, but Bosa was having none of it. He got around a block, knifed his way towards Rodgers and took him down by the leg to preserve a 7-0 lead late in the 1st quarter.

In case you missed it, you can view the motor Bosa has by watching the below video shared to the official Twitter feed of the NFL.

San Francisco is having quite the day, and it looks like Bosa is going to get a shot to play in a Super Bowl in just his first season in the league. The impact he’s had on the NFL during this rookie season is quite remarkable.

But Ohio State fans knew that all along.

Ohio State wrestling blows the doors off Illinois 28-6

The Ohio State wrestling team got its fifth-straight win by disposing of Illinois 28-6 in a Big Ten dual-meet.

The Ohio State wrestling team was back in action again Sunday after winning a dual-meet against a top ten Wisconsin squad Friday night.

It went well.

The Buckeyes scored 28 unanswered points in front of the home crowd at the Covelli Center to boat race Illinois by a 28-6 total. After dropping the first two matches at 125 and 133 lbs., OSU won the final eight in convincing fashion.

The whitewashing began with a 12-5 decision by No. 1 Luke Pletcher at 141 lbs. What followed was an onslaught highlighted by a major decision by Sammy Sasso at 149 lbs., and a pin by No. 1 ranked Kollin Moore at 197 lbs.

With the win, Ohio State improves to 7-1 overall, and 3-0 in the Big Ten. The No. 4 Buckeyes have a huge one coming up on the road against No. 1 Iowa on Friday night.

A dual-meet win this coming weekend would be epic.