In his first two years as an assistant coach at Ohio State, Matt Barnes’ primary job was coaching special teams while coaching defensive backs was his secondary responsibility. Now, it’s the opposite.
While Barnes is still helping out with special teams, Parker Fleming is now the special teams coordinator. Barnes has traded that title for a new role as the Buckeyes’ lead secondary coach, taking that responsibility from Kerry Coombs, allowing Coombs to focus primarily on his main job as defensive coordinator.
A few months into his new role, Barnes – who was previously the linebackers coach at Maryland before joining Ohio State’s coaching staff in 2019 – is happy to be able to spend most of his time with the defense, specifically the defensive backs.
“I’ve really enjoyed it so far,” Barnes said Thursday in his first interview since his promotion. “I really enjoyed the opportunity to be involved with special teams, and I will remain involved in special teams, but I’m just really passionate about coaching defense. So for me, I’ve really enjoyed the opportunity to just dive head-first into defense.”
Barnes believes that will help Coombs, as well, as Coombs enters his second season as Ohio State’s defensive coordinator, now as the Buckeyes’ sole defensive coordinator following Greg Mattison’s retirement. While Coombs is still working with the secondary, too, Barnes is now leading that position group while Coombs has the flexibility to work with the entire defense.
“Kerry and I have worked in chorus through this transition, and Kerry remains to be very involved with our defensive backs,” Barnes said. “But I think maybe helping him, because the back end is so heavily involved, I think maybe taking some of that, alleviating some of that stress or time spent, allows him to really dive into the coordinator role and see some things that when you’re immersed in the defensive backfield, you maybe don’t see the whole picture quite as well. I think hopefully it’s allowed him to have some more time to really focus on the coordinating.”
Barnes also believes Fleming, who was also promoted from within after previously serving as the quality control coach for special teams, has “done an outstanding job” in his first spring as Ohio State’s special teams coordinator.
“I wish you guys could have just been in our special teams meeting. It was elite. It was one of the best meetings I’ve ever been in,” Barnes said. “I think Parker Fleming is an outstanding football coach. I don’t think he’s good, I don’t think he’s great, I think he’s elite.”
While Coombs is known for his over-the-top energy, Barnes has a more reserved personality. You won’t hear Barnes yelling and screaming as much on the practice field as Coombs does. But he isn’t trying to be anyone but himself.
“Let me brag on Kerry’s style for a minute, man: I admire his energy. He sees everything in practice. He’s all over it. He’s unbelievable. He does a fantastic job,” Barnes said. “But I think we work really well together. I think we play off of each other. My style is more matter of fact. I just want you to get my corrections, and I want you to hear what I’m saying, and not necessarily how I’m saying it. So I just want to make sure I’m communicating as clearly as I can.”
“I’m just really passionate about coaching defense. So for me, I’ve really enjoyed the opportunity to just dive head-first into defense.”– Matt Barnes on his new role as secondary coach
That said, Ohio State cornerback Marcus Williamson said Barnes and Coombs are “actually more similar than you’d think.”
“I find myself sometimes watching tape, and you’ll see the end zone copy and they’re both doing the same celebration or the same kind of coaching style, so you see kind of similarities in how they coach,” Williamson said. “They’re very energetic, juice kind of guys, as I guess we like to say around here.”
Ohio State safety Josh Proctor also said the secondary coach transition from Coombs to Barnes hasn’t been a huge change for the defensive backs, as both of them were already in defensive back meetings and both of them still are. One thing he said Barnes has done, though, is place additional emphasis on being detail-oriented.
“I think the biggest change right now is just like the extra details,” Proctor said. “Like being detailed in everything we do as far as footwork and the way we may flip our hips and stuff like that. And just really breaking down the game and making sure we understand what we need to do, when we need to do it.
“I don’t think it’s much of a big change. It’s really just Coach Barnes just kind of taking over the role of explaining; I feel like he’s better at explaining stuff to us, kind of. He breaks things down in different ways. But Coach Coombs, he’s still very much a part of everything we do. He doesn’t miss anything.”
Both Coombs and Ryan Day have expressed their full faith in Barnes to get the job done as he takes on the responsibility of improving a secondary that struggled on the back end of Ohio State’s 122nd-ranked pass defense last season.
“Matt Barnes is jumping into this thing with two feet, and he’s got a lot of help over there now,” Day said last week. “So I feel really good about what we have going on with the staff, really excited about what I’ve seen so far back there.”
