Ohio State should have had a new defensive coordinator this season.
If not for a botched hiring by Tennessee, Ohio State would be entering the 2018 season with a new defensive coordinator. But after a tumultuous offseason, Greg Schiano will return to Columbus for another season, giving the Buckeyes one last ride with perhaps the best defensive coordinator of the Urban Meyer era.
Schiano came to Ohio State with the near impossible task of improving a defense that ranked in the top-20 nationally each of the last two years under then-defensive coordinator Chris Ash – and he did it, even though there was nearly no room for improvement.
The Buckeye defense went from averaging a spectacular 311 yards per game in 2015 – good for No. 9 in the country at the time – to 296 yards per game in 2016 and 301 in 2017, topping Ash's best numbers in both of his seasons in Columbus.
Not only that, Schiano has delivered as a recruiter as well. In his short time in Columbus, the Buckeyes have brought in the top-two recruiting classes in program history, and both of those classes were defense-heavy, especially at the top.
The 2017 class included five-stars Chase Young, Shaun Wade, Jeffrey Okudah and Baron Browning while the 2018 class featured Taron Vincent, Tyreke Johnson and Nicholas Petit-Frere, who Schiano helped win over even though he plays on the offensive side of the ball.
Though Schiano should not necessarily get all the credit for signing a top-rated defensive recruiting class – it also reflects back on coaches like Kerry Coombs and Larry Johnson – Schiano is ultimately the leader of the defense, and recruiting successes and failures fall back on him.
Schiano has been everything Ohio State could have asked for and more during his short time in Columbus. Now, the Buckeyes have one last ride with one of the top coordinators ever to coach under Urban Meyer.
Though he should be the head coach at another program, Schiano will have one more season as an assistant in Columbus to groom the highly-touted players he recruited, shut down opposing offenses and bring in the nation's top talent.
For one more season, Schiano will be one of the top assistants in college football. And the Buckeyes will gladly have him, even though they're more than prepared for his seemingly imminent departure.
Ohio State has already hired Schiano's presumed replacement: former Washington State defensive coordinator Alex Grinch. Grinch will serve as the Buckeyes' 10th assistant coach this season after completely revamping the Cougars' defense from one that wasn't even ranked in the S&P top 100 to a top-30 defense in just three years.
From SBnation.com:
But the Wazzu defense was simply ... reliable. The Cougs completed their absurd transformation under Grinch, who inherited a defense ranked 101st in Def. S&P+ three years earlier and improved to 74th, then 63rd, then 29th.
Grinch established an aggressive, efficient identity that occasionally got them into trouble — Arizona and Khalil Tate torched them to the tune of 58 points and 11.5 yards per play — but overall held opponents to 17.4 points per game (with two shutouts) and 4.2 yards per play in their nine.
When Schiano does eventually leave Ohio State, the Buckeyes seem to be in more than capable hands with Grinch, but he's not gone yet. Ohio State gets to enjoy one more year of an embarrassment of riches with Schiano calling the shots and one of the nation's top young defensive minds waiting in the wings.
Even though the future looks bright with Grinch, the present is already pretty stellar, and it's on borrowed time this season. Schiano should not still be here, but he is, and Buckeye fans should enjoy this last ride, no matter how excited they are for the future.
