College football teams are now allowed to have an unlimited number of staff members coach players during practices and games.
The NCAA’s Division I Council voted Tuesday to approve a rule change permitting any staff member to provide technical and tactical instruction on college football teams. The change, which will become final on Wednesday, will be effective immediately.
FBS teams will still only be allowed to have 11 coaches – the head coach and 10 assistants – travel to recruit players.
With the rule change, Ohio State could now have more than 25 coaches coaching players during practices and games. While Ohio State’s four graduate assistants – Mike Sollenne and Sean Binckes on offense and LaAllan Clark and Michael Hunter on defense – were already allowed to coach in practices, Ohio State’s analysts, quality control coaches and other program assistants will now be allowed to coach without restriction as well.
Those coaches include former UCLA offensive line coach and Michigan offensive coordinator Tim Drevno, who was hired by the Buckeyes as a quality control coach this offseason; former Ohio State wide receiver Devin Jordan, who is in his third year with the Buckeyes as a program assistant; and former Findlay head coach Rob Keys, who will now lead Ohio State’s special teams coaching efforts along with program assistant Gunner Daniel.
Ohio State’s expanded roster of coaches also includes defensive quality control coaches Joe Lyberger, Sam McGrath and Brent Zdebski; program assistants Riley Larkin, Gerren DuHart and Joshua Chorba; and offensive analysts Tony Johnson and Billy Fessler, both of whom were hired this offseason, with Fessler joining the Buckeyes to help Chip Kelly coach quarterbacks after briefly serving as Kelly’s quarterbacks coach at UCLA.
Ryan Day indicated last week that he was in favor of expanding the number of on-field coaches without expanding the number of coaches who would be on the road recruiting.
“We've thought about it. We've had conversations about it. I think that one of the things that you have to consider is all the guys who want to come up in this profession and the opportunity that they can have in this profession, we want to make sure that we're not limiting those folks,” Day said. “But at the same time, we're in the process of recruiting people to our team as opposed to drafting. So it is different than the NFL, and there's a lot of things to consider, especially with some of the IAWP (individual associated with a prospect) rules that come with recruiting a prospect.”
