Kerry Coombs isn't going to let his defensive players forget about what happened against Alabama.
During his appearance on The Ryan Day Show on Wednesday, the first time he's spoken publicly since Ohio State's 52-24 national championship game loss to Alabama three weeks ago, Coombs acknowledged that the Buckeyes' defensive performance against the Crimson Tide – in which they gave up 621 yards – was unacceptable. And he said they'll be talking about that game all offseason as motivation for making sure they don't play like that again in 2021.
“Obviously, we didn’t play our best game,” Coombs said. “And it’s up to us to learn from it, to let it drive us and motivate us and for us to go to work tomorrow morning and every day on making sure that doesn’t happen again.”
Coombs said he has also shown the Buckeyes what people were saying about Alabama after the Crimson Tide suffered a 44-16 loss to Clemson in the national championship game two years ago, using that as evidence of how a team can bounce back from being embarrassed on the biggest stage.
“We talked about that today as a defense as well,” Coombs said. “It gives you great resolve going forward. It gives you things to work on.”
As Ohio State's defensive coordinator, Coombs (along with Ryan Day as head coach, of course) bears the brunt of the responsibility for improving the Buckeyes' defense – specifically the pass defense after Ohio State ranked 122nd in the Football Bowl Subdivision with 304 passing yards allowed per game in 2020.
That's even more true after Day opted not to hire a new co-defensive coordinator, instead announcing Wednesday that Ohio State was replacing the retiring Greg Mattison by moving Matt Barnes to secondary coach and promoting Parker Fleming to special teams coordinator.
Coombs said he is going to miss working with Mattison, but he is excited about the promotions of Barnes and Fleming and believes the staff the Buckeyes have in place will be able to get the defense back on track.
“Matt Barnes is a really, really bright coach,” Coombs said. “I’ve been working with him in the secondary for the entire season. I love Parker. Parker was one of my intern guys back when I was special teams coordinator the first go-around, and I think he’s a really sharp young coach. And I love the fact that our head coach believes in hiring and promoting from within. I think that’s the way things should be done. If you know people and you’ve seen them and you appreciate the quality of their work, you allow them to continue to move up the ladder.
“And I’m not evaporating from the secondary. I’m gonna be around an awful lot with those kids and those kids that I’ve recruited and those kids that I’ve coached. It’s still gonna be an area of expertise. But it’s also gonna give us a great opportunity to move around and be involved with the other position groups and really focus on team defense and complementary defense and making sure that all of us are working hand in hand to produce the best result, which is to be the best in the country.”
