A glance at the list of football coaches on Ohio State's athletics website tells you that Greg Schiano is the team's defensive coordinator. He also serves as its associate head coach.
Kerry Coombs is listed as the cornerbacks coach and is Urban Meyer's special teams coordinator. Larry Johnson heads the defensive line and is an assistant head coach, while Billy Davis coaches linebackers. The latest addition to the defensive staff, Davis steps in for Luke Fickell, who not only coached linebackers for the Buckeyes but served as defensive coordinator.
“Schiano is the lead dog in calling them and we will help him in any way we can.”– Bill Davis, on Ohio State's defensive play-calling
With Davis solely acting as linebackers coach, it makes sense for Schiano — who has head coaching experience not only in college but at the NFL level — to take over Fickell's defensive coordinator duties. In fact, that is exactly what Ohio State said in a press release on Feb. 27 in preparation for spring practice; Schiano was "taking over as the sole defensive coordinator."
Makes sense, right? Not quite, according to Meyer, who partially refuted it a week later.
“I didn't release that he's the sole defensive coordinator. I don't know where that came from. That was not an Urban Meyer release,” Meyer said. “He's the defensive coordinator. I'm going to evaluate what's the best for our program.”
An Ohio State spokesman then apologize for putting out the perceived incorrect information. However, after Fickell left to be the head coach at the University of Cincinnati, speculation brewed about if Coombs — a Cincinnati Man and former Bearcat assistant — would head down Interstate 71 with him. Coombs released a statement on Twitter putting to bed those rumors and one followed from Meyer's account not long after.
Great news! My rt-hand man, Kerry Coombs, is a Buckeye! In add to coordinating the SPT, he will have an expanded coordinating role on our D
— Urban Meyer (@OSUCoachMeyer) December 10, 2016
OK, so Coombs has "an expanded role," Schiano is "the defensive coordinator" and the side of the ball has a new assistant in Davis. Here is Meyer's explanation for the group's alignment.
“I want to watch Coach Davis, watch Coach Coombs and obviously Larry is a very integral part. Kerry will have a much-expanded role just because [of] the nature of it,” Meyer said. “Greg's going to be defensive coordinator and now Luke Fickell's gone. So he's going to give a little more attention to the front seven, Greg. That means Kerry will have a little more responsibility on the back end of our defense.”
Cornerbacks and safeties have to work in accordance with one another on any defense. Ohio State's secondary ranked among college football's best in 2016, with a nation-leading seven interceptions returned for touchdowns. Schiano and Coombs thrived together, so the latter's "expanded role" with the former coordinating things and keeping an eye on the front seven shouldn't be too strenuous. Here is what Davis had to say about his role in the play-calling on that side of the ball.
“I am here to help in any way I can,” Davis said. “But Coach Schiano will call it.”
With extensive NFL experience like Schiano, Davis adds that element to the development of Ohio State's current players and the recruitment of their future ones. But he, like Schiano and the other defensives coaches on staff, knows that all coaches rely on one another throughout the preparation for a game and on Saturdays in the fall.
“There is one main guy that is thinking about it and calling it, but there are multiple times in a game that you say, 'Hey, help me solve this problem. What do you guys like here?' Then you call accordingly,” Davis said. “We all are well-versed in the scheme and how we solve the problems within it.”
Meyer has not said where each coach will operate on gameday but Schiano worked from the press box in 2016. Fickell was on the field, as was Johnson and Coombs. How that dynamic works moving forward will be one to keep an eye on, though it sounds like Schiano is atop the totem pole and the others fall in line behind him in what is a team effort. Which is why Meyer denounced the idea that Schiano is "the sole defensive coordinator."
Coombs's expanded role will give him more weight in the secondary, something he has certainly earned with pumping out four first-round NFL draft picks at cornerback over the last four years. But for Coombs, the words "expanded role" don't really differ too much for him as compared to his first five seasons in Columbus.
“I don’t know how you can get more involved; there’s only 24 hours in a day,” Coombs said. “We’re all in there together and we all do this together and work really, really hard. That defensive staff is a really special group of guys.”
It is, and won't likely stay together long. For at least the 2017 season, though, Schiano will lead the defensive play-calling with input from everyone on that side of the ball. It is a joint effort, despite what their job titles say on the masthead.
“We’re trying to win every single game and we’re trying to play the best defense we can on every snap and I think there’s four guys that are really committed to that,” Coombs said.
Added Davis: “Schiano is the lead dog in calling them and we will help him in any way we can.”
