Who should Ohio State target at defensive coordinator?
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Jim Knowles’ surprise departure leaves a huge whole in the Buckeyes’ staff for 2025.
Ohio State’s national title celebration was missing a notable face on Sunday, as Buckeye Nation shortly learned that defensive coordinator Jim Knowles was leaving Columbus to take the same position at Penn State. Ryan Day will now need to find a new defensive coordinator this offseason, and while there isn't a clear slam-dunk choice like there was when Ohio State first hired Knowles, there are a ton of good options out there.
Here are just a few of the many names the Buckeyes could target to take over control of what was college football’s best defense in 2024.
Randy Bates
A name featured on virtually everyone’s watch list for
Ohio State this offseason, Bates makes sense for a variety of reasons. The OSU alum began his coaching career within state lines as the offensive line coach at Muskingum College in 1982, more recently spending 12 seasons as the linebackers coach at Northwestern (2006-17) before taking over as Pitt’s defensive coordinator in 2018 — a position he has held for the last seven years.
Bates has put together a number of solid defenses with the Panthers, including three units that ranked in the top 25 nationally in 2019, 2020 and 2022. While this past season’s group was not spectacular, ranking 91st in scoring defense, Bates has a track record of success and familiar ties to both Ohio State and the Big Ten. He also coached alongside Chip Kelly as the linebackers coach at New Hampshire in 1992-97, though he did not cross paths with Ryan Day, who played for the Wildcats from 1998-2001.
Jeff Hafley
It would likely be tough to pry Hafley away from the NFL and back into the college ranks, but it's at least worth the phone call. The current Packers defensive coordinator is obviously well acquainted with both Day and Ohio State, as he served as the Buckeyes’ defensive coordinator in 2019. It was a tremendously successful one-year stint, as Ohio State ranked No. 1 nationally in total defense and No. 3 in scoring defense under his watch.
He parlayed the Ohio State job into a head coaching gig at Boston College, and while that didn’t quite work out, he has once again proven his worth as a DC in the NFL, as Green Bay ranked sixth in the league this past season allowing less than 20 points per game. Hafley and Day go way back, with the two having coached together with the 49ers in 2016. Again, it's unlikely Hafley would leave the NFL at 45 years old for a job he already had, but you still have to make him say no.
Rob Harley
This is a little more of a niche pick, but a potential under-the-radar candidate for Ohio State could be a name that is known quite well in Columbus. Rob Harley, the great-nephew of three-time Buckeye All-American Chic Harley and a member of the 2002 national title team, recently took the job as defensive coordinator for Northern Illinois under Thomas Hammock. Harley spent the previous four seasons at Arkansas State as assistant head coach and DC, where he helped produce 10 All-Sun Belt Conference players.
Harley began his coaching career at the D-II level with Ohio Dominican before jumping on as a grad assistant at Michigan State from 2012-13. He then spent a year as linebackers coach at FIU before six seasons as linebackers coach at Pitt, where he was also the Panthers’ recruiting coordinator over his latter four seasons with the program. At just 42 years old, Harley isn’t the flashiest of hires, but he is an up-and-coming coordinator with obvious deep ties to the program.
Matt Guerrieri
If Ryan Day is intent on keeping this search in-house — which, as an aside, should not be the case for a program as prestigious as Ohio State unless there are no other options — then Matt Guerrieri is the clear and obvious choice. It certainly wasn’t a coincidence that Day went out of his way to laud Guerrieri as “one of the brightest minds in college football,” and, “a star in the making,” during the Buckeyes’ national title celebration on Sunday.
Guerrieri was brought to Ohio State because of his knowledge of Knowles’ defense, having worked with Knowles as both a GA and safeties coach during their time at Duke. The young coordinator would allow the Buckeyes to maintain some level of continuity on a defense that is losing all but three of its starters from this past season, and would obviously play well for a guy like Caleb Downs, who just had an All-American campaign with Guerrieri as his position coach.
That being said, Guerrieri is only 35 years old, and the results in his limited opportunities in charge of a defense both in 2023 at Indiana and as co-DC at Duke from 2018-21 have not exactly been exceptional. Day is correct that Guerrieri is a rising star in the coaching profession, but Ohio State is not a place for a coordinator to learn on the job, and the time might not be right just yet.
Luke Fickell
Do I hear Chip Kelly 2.0?
Okay, I will admit that this obviously is not quite the same as Kelly leaving his head coaching position at UCLA to take a coordinator gig at Ohio State, as it was clear that the 61-year-old Kelly had enough of being the lead man in charge. Fickell, meanwhile, is coming off only his eighth season as a full-time head coach, not including his interim stint with the Buckeyes in 2011. He is also set to make nearly $8 million in 2025, so money would not be a factor in Ohio State’s favor here either.
Could Fickell see the writing on the wall at Wisconsin after a 13-13 start through two full seasons with the Badgers? Sure, but this would be a way more surprising move than Kelly’s. Still, it can’t hurt to just pick up the phone.
If it isn’t Guerrieri, then Ohio State’s next defensive coordinator will likely be someone that nobody is talking about right now. The Buckeyes are the biggest brand in college football and are coming off a national championship. Ross Bjork and Ryan Day should be able to choose from nearly anyone in the country they think is a good fit. No stone should go unturned.
Regardless of who gets the job, there is no reason to panic. Ohio State is still loaded with premier talent, and while Knowles’ departure was unforeseen heading into this offseason, it is not uncommon to have your coordinators stolen. Nick Saban cycled through coordinators at Alabama like pairs of socks during his reign of terror over college football, and Day will have to navigate similar territory that comes with being the team at the top.
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