In the ever-evolving world of college football, top programs must add pieces to both create contacts in all corners of the country and keep things fresh. It is a necessary move in order to stay in the upper-echelon of the sport.
Urban Meyer and Ohio State took a step to doing that Wednesday when they announced the hire of two former head coaches, Joker Phillips and Brian Knorr.
Phillips and Knorr both are set to work in quality control for the Buckeyes, a program spokesman confirmed Wednesday evening. A quality control member researches and analyzes anything from trends in the game to things that could potentially go awry if not accounted for come game day.
Basically, they are there to do grunt work so the nine assistant coaches have more time to scheme and plan for their next game. However, they cannot physically go on the field and coach.
"You're a guy that checks for potential landmines for things that might go wrong. You help get stuff where it needs to get," Rutgers special teams coordinator and former Ohio State quality control coach Vince Okruch told nj.com in January. "Urban said, 'I'd like to try this,' so we did and it worked out great.
"Some places have like 8, 10, 12 guys that do this. Its goal is to assist the full-time coaches and allow them to have more time to be creative in their game-planning and it also allows them to spend more time with the players."
Phillips and Knorr both have significant coaching experience and will likely be asked to be another mind at the disposal of Ohio State's staff to help in preparations for the team's next opponent. Let's learn a little bit more about them.
Joker Phillips
Phillips — whose real name is Joe — is listed in the Ohio State directory as "quality control — kicking" with a job title of Sports Program Associate. He last worked with the Cleveland Browns in 2015, coaching wide receivers.
Phillips, 53, also committed a Level II NCAA violation when he had impermissible contact with a recruit while working as an assistant coach at the University of Florida in 2013. It forced his resignation, but the school did not draw punishment from the NCAA for his violation.
The recruiting violation is a serious black eye on his coaching past, but prior to that, Phillips locked down commitments from a bevy of top prospects. His biggest fish was former five-star inside linebacker Micah Johnson, who is currently on the Cincinnati Bengals' practice squad.
Knorr with Wake Forest in 2011.
Phillips is best known for his time at the University of Kentucky, where he played wide receiver and sits fifth on the program's all-time receiving yards list. After a brief stint with the Washington Redskins, Toronto Argonauts of the CFL and Redskins again, Phillips returned to his alma mater as a graduate assistant.
He left Lexington to work at Cincinnati, Minnesota, Notre Dame (where he succeeded Urban Meyer as wide receivers coach) and South Carolina from 1997-2002 but returned shortly thereafter. On Jan. 4, 2010, the Wildcats named him head coach. After a 1-9 start in his third season, Kentucky announced he would not return. Phillips went 13-24 and 4-20 in the SEC.
Though the two have never worked together, Meyer and Phillips each coached at a lot of the same places before the latter got to Columbus. Meyer coached at Cincinnati in addition to Notre Dame before he took over at Florida in 2005.
Ohio State's kicking game has been relatively average in Meyer's first four seasons in Columbus, though it is considerably less important than it was to prior regimes. Drew Basil, Sean Nuernberger and Jack Willoughby combined to make 40 of 56 field goal tries (71.4 percent) in four seasons.
Such numbers could be the reason for Phillips' hire and position of quality control with the kicking team. That statement is not based off any behind-the-scenes knowledge — just simply his title as it is listed by Ohio State.
Brian Knorr
Knorr does not have past coaching stops similar to Meyer like Phillips but does have strong ties to Ohio. He spent six seasons as linebackers coach and later defensive coordinator at Ohio University under Jim Grobe. Knorr then replaced Grobe and served as head coach of the Bobcats from 2001-04.
He comes to Ohio State via Kevin Wilson's Indiana program, who chose not to retain him in January after a two-year stint as their defensive coordinator. Ohio State lists Knorr as an unspecified intern with athletics, though a team spokesman confirmed he also will be part of Meyer's quality control team.
Knorr, 52, played quarterback at Air Force and returned to coach there in 2005 after Ohio fired him. He went 11-35 and 8-24 in MAC play with the Bobcats, failing to surpass the four-win total in any of his four seasons in Athens.
Knorr left his alma mater for Wake Forest in 2008, a move that reunited him with Grobe. With the Demon Deacons, Knorr again worked with linebackers and first as the co-defensive coordinator before taking over sole duties of the unit in 2012.
