LOS ANGELES — If at first you don’t succeed, try tackling again. That’s what the Ohio State defense will be doing on Saturday in the 2022 Rose Bowl against a Utah offense that is about as physical as a short-tempered bouncer in the angriest bar on the block. The Utes are as comfortable playing three …
Continue reading “Buckeye Defense Right Back On The Horse Against Physical Utah Offense”
LOS ANGELES — Any time a head coach hires a new defensive coordinator before the season is actually over, you know things have not gone as planned. And when things do not go as planned, it can become difficult to predict exactly where the changes will end. When Ohio State head coach Ryan Day announced …
The Ohio State defense turned in its best performance of the season in limiting Michigan State to a single second half touchdown in the Buckeyes’ 56-7 rout over the Spartans. Matt Barnes stuck with his now-familiar game plan in facing Michigan State and Kenneth Walker III—mix cover 3 and cover 3 pressures with cover 1 …
Football is a team sport, but so is football recruiting. Sure, some teams have superstar players, just like some teams have superstar recruiters. But no recruiter or player can win alone. Coaches rely on each other to help in recruiting a player in order to give a more complete picture of what they are “selling.” …
Continue reading “Matt Barnes Keeps Conversations Moving As a Recruiter”
Ohio State signed three cornerbacks in the 2021 class, landing Jakailin Johnson out of Missouri, Jordan Hancock out of Georgia, and Denzel Burke out of Arizona. Burke, however, was the only of the three to enroll early for the Buckeyes and participate in winter workouts and spring football. He was also the only one who …
Continue reading “Denzel Burke Showed ‘Uncanny’ Moments Despite Inexperience”
If your lasting memory of the 2020 season is Alabama receivers running free through the back end of Ohio State’s defense, you’re missing the bigger picture of what it took to even get to that point for the Buckeyes, but you’re also not alone because head coach Ryan Day had that game in the front …
Continue reading “Defensive Staff Changes Allow More Eyes On Back End for Buckeyes”
Young Buck Impressing Ohio State freshman running back TreVeyon Henderson became the third Buckeye to lose his black stripe this spring. Most freshmen ultimately have theirs removed during fall camp or even during the season, so it’s a rarity to have it happen in the spring. In fact, with the additions of linebacker Reid Carrico …
A handful of media members were permitted to watch a few minutes of Friday’s Ohio State football practice, giving outsiders their first glimpse at the three quarterbacks who are competing to replace Justin Fields. Not much throwing was seen, as redshirt freshmen CJ Stroud and Jack Miller repped in order, then were followed by true …
Continue reading “Ohio State Football Notebook: ‘These coaches are recruiting their ass off’”
Ohio State secondary coach Matt Barnes met with reporters via Zoom on Thursday to discuss spring practice and the goings-on for the Buckeye defense. Also joining the session were safeties Josh Proctor and Marcus Williamson. Here are the highlights of what everyone had to say. Matt Barnes — The transition has been a good one. …
Continue reading “Matt Barnes, Buckeye Secondary Talk Spring Ball”
Snapshot The ability to replace Jordan Fuller at free safety last year was always going to be one of the biggest issues for this team and that proved to be the case for most of the season. The Buckeyes were able to get away with it because of their offense and other aspects of their …
Continue reading “Spring Breakdown: Ohio State Safeties Ready to Step Up?”
Snapshot Ohio State loses starting cornerback Shaun Wade from last season, but does return the other starter in Sevyn Banks. (For our purposes, we are only considering the outside cornerback positions here and will cover the “slot corner” (from here on out known as “slot safety” or “strong safety” or “box safety”) with the safeties …
Continue reading “Spring Breakdown: Can Ohio State Corners Get Back to Being ‘Best In America’”
The off-season became the silly season in recent weeks with Ohio State Head Coach Ryan Day having to replace a co-defensive coordinator and an SEC school looking to poach another defensive coach. A couple of quick promotions from within allowed Day to fill in the holes left by Greg Mattison while trying to fight off …
Continue reading “Silver Bullets Podcast — OSU Coaching Moves, 2021 Schedule, and More”
On Wednesday, Ohio State football coach Ryan Day announced that he had finalized the latest edition of his coaching staff by promoting Parker Fleming from quality control to full-time special teams coordinator, giving safeties coach and special teams coordinator Matt Barnes the new title of secondary coach, and moving defensive coordinator Kerry Coombs away from …
Ohio State head coach Ryan Day announced on Wednesday that he has shifted safeties coach and special teams coordinator Matt Barnes to secondary coach and elevated special teams quality control coach Parker Fleming to special teams coordinator, thus filling the open vacancy left by the retirement of co-defensive coordinator Greg Mattison. Day said that this …
