Day makes several moves on his coaching staff
COVER PHOTO: OSU head coach Ryan Day looks on as his team plays in the annual spring game. Picture by Sam Fahmi/Columbus Wired.
It has been an interesting past couple of weeks for the Ohio State football team and it all started when head coach Ryan Day released an official statement on Jan. 8 saying he was not retaining the services of safeties coach Perry Eliano, who was coming up on the end of the second year of his two-year contract.
No reason was given as to why he fired Eliano.
Two days later, Day announced he had found Eliano’s replacement in a familiar face, Matt Guerrieri.
In the same breath, it was also revealed in the statement announcing Guerrieri’s hire that special teams coordinator Parker Fleming was given his walking papers after three years in the full-time position.
Then came the news that was being rumored for the past week or so that Day was on the hunt for a new offensive coordinator, a guy who was actually going to be in charge of calling the offensive plays for the upcoming season. Those rumors were put to rest on Friday when the school sent out an official statement that former Penn State and Houston Texans head coach Bill O’Brien would fulfill the role.
“I am extremely pleased to be able to add Bill O’Brien to our coaching staff,” Day said. “He brings with him a wealth of knowledge – and a tremendous amount of success – at both the NFL and collegiate levels. He is an excellent and experienced offensive coach who has run NFL and Power 5 programs and developed some truly elite players throughout his career. He’ll be an excellent teacher and recruiter for us, and he absolutely strengthens our staff.”
Not only will O’Brien be the team’s OC but will also serve as quarterbacks coach, supplanting current QB coach Corey Dennis. The school said Dennis will still serve in a “still-to-be-determined role with the program”.
The statement also said that current offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach Brian Hartline will serve as a co-coordinator with O’Brien.
However, probably the most important news for the least important coaching position on the team came when Day said Fleming was no longer their special teams coach.
Fleming’s tenure was pockmarked by more than a couple of disastrous instances that continually fueled the fire to fire Fleming.
Among several instances of instability were three botched fake punts and a punt return for six that was wiped off the books.
The first botched fake came against Michigan in 2022.
Trailing 24-20 midway through the third quarter, the Buckeyes were facing 4th-and-10 at the UM 48 after moving five yards backwards thanks to a snap infraction against redshirt longsnapper, Mason Arnold.
The snap was supposed to go to upback Mitch Rossi, who had blockers to his left and looked assured to get the first down. Instead, Arnold sent it directly back to punter Jesse Mirco, who had to get off a quick kick that was nearly blocked. The kick rolled into the end zone for a touchback and the Wolverines then put together a 15-play, 80-yard touchdown drive that ate up nearly eight minutes worth of clock.
Michigan would go on to win, 45-23.
Then a month later came the fake punt against Georgia in the Peach Bowl college football playoff semifinal that was almost pulled off if not for head coach Kirby Smart’s heady decision to call a timeout.
With just under nine minutes to play in the game and holding a 38-27 lead, OSU faced a 4th-and-1 at their own 34. The ball was snapped to Rossi, who dashed around the left side of the offensive line and got the first down by a few yards. However, a mere split second before that, Smart wisely saw the Buckeyes line up in a formation he knew wasn’t normal and brilliantly snuffed out OSU’s devious plan.
Although, the play probably wouldn’t have stood anyways because it was shown after the fact that the Buckeyes would probably have gotten flagged for having 12 men on the field.
Day then called for a real punt and on Georgia’s very next play, Bulldogs quarterback Stetson Bennett hit receiver Arian Smith for a 76-yard touchdown pass and then capped it off by finding receiver Ladd McConkey for a two-point conversion to pull UGA to within three, 38-35.
Still, the Buckeyes had a chance to win the game with three seconds left. However, kicker Noah Ruggles wildly shanked a 50-yard field goal attempt - which would have been a career-long - so far to the left that the moment the ball came off his foot, everybody knew it was no good.
Georgia won, 42-41 and would go on to smash TCU in the national championship, 65-7.
And another gaffe was this year in a matchup against the Maryland Terrapins and the fake punt that wasn’t supposed to be.
After their opening drive went three-and-out, it was 4th-and-2 for OSU at their own 33. Longsnapper John Ferlmann then errantly snapped it to linebacker Cody Simon, who was playing the upback. Simon had zero blocking on the play - because it wasn’t designed to be a fake - but tried to make something out of it and took off to the right side. However, several Terrapins were there to swallow him up for a three-yard loss.
Four plays later, Maryland QB Taulia Tagavailoa found receiver Kaden Prather for a 15-yard strike in the back of the end zone to give the Terrapins an early 7-0 lead. Ohio State ultimately won, 37-17.
Day admitted during his postgame press conference that the play was not designed to be a fake.
Then there was the 78-yard punt return for a touchdown by receiver Emeka Egbuka against Arkansas State in 2022 that was called back because linebacker Teradja Mitchell was hit with a leaping over the offensive line penalty. Although the Red Wolves had their pick of penalties on that play because the Buckeyes were also penalized for a block in the back, which Ark. St. declined.
Ohio State hasn’t had a punt return for a score since Jalin Marshall returned one at home for 54 yards against Indiana in a 42-27 win.
Fleming was only one of four Football Bowl Subdivision coaches to be a full-time special teams coordinator and no replacement was announced but it’s assumed that the rest of the coaching staff will collaborate in that position.
O’Brien, who spent last season as the New England Patriots offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, has experience in the Big Ten, too. From 2012-13, he was named as Joe Paterno’s successor at Penn State, where he was the 2012 Paul “Bear” Bryant National Coach of the Year as well as the Big Ten Coach of the Year, despite losing to first-year OSU head coach Urban Meyer that year in Beaver Stadium, 35-23.
Meyer led a sanctioned Buckeyes squad to an undefeated, 12-0 season while O’Brien went 9-4.
Following his two-year run in State College, O’Brien spent six full seasons and part of a seventh as the head coach of the Houston Texans. His teams compiled a 52-48 record with four AFC South titles, four playoff appearances and two appearances in the AFC Divisional Round. Houston was one of just three teams in the NFL to win four division titles from 2015-2019, and its 21 wins over the 2018 and 2019 seasons were the second-most in a two-year span in franchise history.
O’Brien had some pretty successful offenses while in Houston. Quarterback Deshaun Watson threw for 4,165 yards in 2018 and 3,852 yards in 2019 and that latter squad featured former OSU running back Carlos Hyde, who ran for over 1,000 yards as well as 1,000-yard receiver DeAndre Hopkins.
After his time in Houston, O’Brien spent two seasons in Tuscaloosa, Ala. under Nick Saban as the Crimson Tide’s quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator. There, he was responsible for turning Bryce Young into a Heisman Trophy-winning QB and helped the Crimson Tide reach the College Football Playoff national championship game in 2021. In his second season, Alabama was fourth nationally in scoring offense (41.1 points/game), 11th in total offense (477.1 yards/game) and 19th in passing offense (281.5 yards/game) while going 11-2 with a Sugar Bowl victory over Kansas State.
Last season wasn’t O’Brien’s only stint with head coach Bill Belichick in New England as he served as a wide receivers and quarterbacks coach from 2007-11 and was their offensive coordinator in 2011, helping the Patriots to a pair of Super Bowl berths in both ‘07 and ‘11. The Patriots earned the top seed in the AFC that year with a 13-3 record while leading the conference in scoring (32.1 points per game), was second in the NFL in total offense (428 yards per game) and passing (317 ypg). Quarterback Tom Brady threw for 5,235 yards - a career-high at that time - and 39 touchdowns during that 2011 campaign.
Guerrieri is a familiar face around the Woody Hayes Athletic Center because he served as a senior advisor and defensive analyst for Day in 2022.
Coach “G”, as he’s affectionately known around the “Woody”, also has rapport with current defensive coordinator, Jim Knowles, going back to 2012 when the pair first worked together at Duke University.
During his tenure in Durham, N.C., Guerrieri was a graduate assistant for three seasons before being named safeties coach prior to the 2015 season, a position he held until 2021. When Knowles left Duke after the 2017 season to go to Oklahoma State, Guerrieri became the team’s co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach for the next four seasons from 2018-21.
While at Duke, Guerrieri was one of three finalists for the 2020 American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Assistant Coach of the Year award, a nominee for the 2018 Broyles Award, and one of 247Sports’ Top 30 Coaches Under 30 in both 2018 and 2019.
He mentored All-American Jeremy Cash (a former Buckeye) as well as Michael Carter II, a fifth-round NFL Draft pick who has played in 47 games and started 20 times the past three seasons for the New York Jets. Cash, the 2015 ACC Defensive Player of the Year, was also a finalist for the Nagurski Trophy, Thorpe Award and the Lott IMPACT Trophy.