The Eleven Warriors Web Report comes to you weekly from the Spectrum Sports studios in downtown Columbus, featuring our own Beau Bishop, Dan Hope and James Grega.
This week's show begins by discussing the surprising departure of Ohio State cornerbacks coach Kerry Coombs, who is set to join the Tennessee Titans after six years on Urban Meyer's coaching staff at Ohio State, where he also served as assistant defensive coordinator last year and as special teams coordinator for the last five years.
As Bishop expressed, Coombs brought a lot to the Buckeyes that will make him a difficult assistant coach to replace. Outside of defensive line coach Larry Johnson, Bishop said he does not believe any Ohio State position coach had made a bigger impact than Coombs, who has developed four cornerbacks who have been first-round picks in the past four NFL drafts (likely to be come five in five NFL drafts if Denzel Ward is a first-round pick this year).
"You want to talk about shoes to fill, let alone the juice he brought to the program and all that, that's a big position to try to fill," Bishop said of Coombs.
The good news, Hope said, is that Ohio State has some flexibility in replacing Coombs because of the new rule that allows teams to have 10 full-time assistant coaches instead of nine. Because newly hired defensive assistant Alex Grinch was a defensive coordinator and secondary coach at Washington State, which could enable him to take over Coombs' responsibilities, Ohio State does not have to lock in on hiring someone who can coach a specific position.
"They just got to find whoever is the best candidate out there, and not even necessarily 'Who's the best position coach out there?' but 'Who's going to help us on the recruiting trail?'" Hope said. "Coombs was such a good recruiter, you need to bring in another guy who can fill that void on the recruiting trail, and that's ultimately going to determine who they end up hiring."
After discussing Coombs' departure, the conversation turned to Ohio State basketball, which returns to the floor Tuesday night against Indiana for the first time since its loss to Penn State last Thursday.
While the panel agreed that Thursday's loss – which came after Penn State made 11-of-14 shots, including Tony Carr's game-winning buzzer-beater, from 3-point range – wasn't a major cause for concern, Grega said he believes the Buckeyes do need to prove this week that they can start stronger out of the gates.
"Ever since the Michigan State game, they've played well, but they haven't gotten off to a good start," Grega said. "They're taking like 10 minutes to feel a team out and see how this game's going to go, and then they attack. I think they need to attack right off the jump, really go at Indiana, go at Illinois in these next two games."
Given that Ohio State is favored to beat Indiana and Illinois, however, Bishop is already looking forward to the possibility of next week's game between Ohio State and Purdue in West Lafayette, Indiana, potentially being a matchup of two highly ranked teams.
"Wouldn't it be cool if you talk about going to West Lafayette, and you're talking about two of the top 12, 13 teams in the country, and how they respond to that will be fascinating," Bishop said. "If they win these two games against Indiana and Illinois, they get to the Purdue game and Purdue's ranked second or third and Ohio State's 11 or 12, and you have all the national exposure that comes with that, how do you respond to those bright lights? I have a feeling they'll respond well."
Watch the video above to hear more of the panel's conversation about Coombs and Ohio State basketball. For an expanded discussion on both of those topics as well as the ongoing troubles surrounding Michigan State athletics, watch this week's Eleven Warriors Report on Spectrum Sports Mid-Ohio, which premieres at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
