Tony Skinn, then a Seton Hall assistant coach, didn’t know it was Chris Holtmann’s number when he saw an introductory and exploratory text message pop up on his phone a few months ago. Without a background in Ohio, he wouldn’t have even known that the 614 digits meant it was coming from somebody in Columbus.
The two assistant coaches already on staff wouldn't have had such questions. Jake Diebler is a native of Ohio who previously worked for the Buckeyes as a video coordinator under Thad Matta. Ryan Pedon grew up in Columbus and was with Holtmann at Butler before moving back to his home state. They had already enjoyed deep-seeded prior relationships with either – or both – Ohio State and Holtmann.
Skinn, a Washington D.C. native whose coaching experience came at Louisiana Tech and Seton Hall and who only knew of Holtmann from hearing people talk about him and watching his teams play, is an outsider. Or he was an outsider.
Quickly, Skinn inserted Holtmann’s number into his contacts and shortly thereafter began the interview process that ultimately ended with him getting a new job. A month ago, Holtmann hired him to replace outgoing assistant Terry Johnson, who left for Purdue where he’ll have a larger role in the offense in hopes of making him a more attractive head coaching candidate.
In what Skinn called a “no-brainer” of a decision, he’s now the newest member of Ohio State’s coaching staff.
“In my opinion, I think I bring something different from the outside, and I think that's what (Holtmann) was looking for,” Skinn said on Thursday. “As uncomfortable as he might have been with hiring someone that he doesn't know, he did his due diligence in just the type of person that I am, the type of worker that I am. So I just think that he did his research, but from my standpoint, I think I bring something different outside of his coaching tree. Diebler's from Ohio and from the midwest.
“Having an opportunity to get a guy like myself who's from the rich DMV – I'm a little biased, so I have to say rich DMV – is a positive thing to be able to get a guy like myself that knows the region that's maybe been untapped a little bit.”
He’s right in saying that Ohio State hasn’t previously made much traction in the DMV. In the Holtmann era, the Buckeyes have offered scholarships to those from the area but they haven’t landed anybody from there – at least not yet.
Skinn has already put those long-standing connections to use. Over the weekend when college coaches were allowed back on the road to recruit for the first time since March of last year, he was back at DeMatha Catholic High School for an event. He sparked the conversation that led to a June official visit from five-star forward Jarace Walker who played for D.C.-based Team Thrill of the Under Armour Association. Several guys in the area – including Baltimore’s Jahnathan Lamothe, who picked up an offer – have said they’ve been in contact with Ohio State.
If it sounds like Skinn has been kept busy, he says that would be accurate.
The 38-year-old assistant is in the middle of moving his family from New Jersey to Ohio and going through the difficulties of finding a house in this market. He’s trying to hit the recruiting trail hard during a time when the dead period ended and the Buckeyes have brought in at least one visitor almost every single day in June. He’s working to get adjusted to new co-workers, none of whom he’s worked with before. And, perhaps most importantly, he’s building whatever relationships he can with the players currently on the team, noting that he believes you “can’t force relationships” and it “has to be organic.”
So far this summer in offseason workouts, Skinn has primarily worked with Jimmy Sotos, Justin Ahrens and Eugene Brown. He sent text messages to Duane Washington Jr. and E.J. Liddell, too, when he first got the job to introduce himself.
“When you take on a new role and a new job, the most important things are your guys that are currently here,” Skinn said. “As much as we want to make sure we bring in the next top talent, it starts with home. So for me, it's just really getting to know the guys personally, working guys out individually which we've been doing, but also a combination of just playing catch-up with the guys that we're recruiting. When I got here, we had a calendar of just two, three guys coming in every single day. I knew some of those guys but not all of them.”
The process for Skinn has been a bit of a whirlwind. But it’s also exactly where he wants to be.
He admits he might have gotten a “little too over-excited” when he first spoke to Holtmann. As he says, “these jobs are very hard to get.” Skinn didn’t hear back from the head coach for a few days after their first conversation, leading him to assume the Buckeyes were going in a different direction. But Holtmann reached out to him and they talked again, this time for an hour on the phone during Skinn’s family vacation. It was, as the new assistant put it, a less forced and more organic conversation than some he had experienced in past hiring processes.
By the middle of May, the job was his.
“Obviously I just left Seton Hall where there was a ton of success in the three years that I was there,” Skinn said. “Had some really, really good teams. Had one of the best players in the country. But when you get another opportunity to just kind of take that step up, it's something that excites you. I'm just glad to be here.”
And he’s glad to be different, too, because that’s what stands out about him compared to just about everybody else who has been on staff.
Pedon, Johnson and Mike Schrage came from Butler with Holtmann. Scoonie Penn and Terence Dials were once Buckeye stars. He used to work with Mike Netti at Gardner-Webb. David Egelhoff and Kyle Davis are holdovers from the Thad Matta days. Quadrian Banks was Holtmann’s strength coach when he was Gardner-Webb’s head coach.
They all either had prior deep ties to Holtmann or Ohio State. All except for Skinn.
“I'm a big fan of listening,” Skinn said. “I don't think you can develop in life if you don't listen. The one thing that I've been impressed with coach Holtmann is, obviously he's the head coach and when it's all said and done it's going to be his call, but when you sit there in a staff meeting where so many different voices are helping him to make a decision, it gives you the confidence to make sure you give your opinion.
“I would say just from the outside coming in, coming from a different league, coming from a different space, just giving it a different voice. Whether I'm right, whether I'm wrong, it's just something a little bit different than what he's been used to obviously with coach Pedon and now with coach Diebler being here.”
