Love for Ohio State, Developing Players Brought Kerry Coombs Back
From the start, Kerry Coombs was Ryan Day’s first choice to replace Jeff Hafley.
With the 2020 signing class almost entirely locked up, Day could afford to wait for the Tennessee Titans to finish up their playoff run. Out of respect for Coombs’ job at the time, neither he nor Day have opened up about when the talking began to take place, but it was no surprise that one day after the Titans were eliminated, Coombs was announced as Ohio State’s new defensive coordinator.
Any time there is a job opening at Ohio State, the head coach is flooded with resumes. He has his pick of any number of qualified candidates. While Coombs didn’t send his resume or a cover letter, when Day came calling, the opportunity was too much to pass up.
“I love Ohio State,” Coombs said last week. “I don’t want to understate this, and I missed it. I missed the development of the player. I get goosebumps talking about it. I missed the development of the player.”
And while Coombs was able to improve the NFL players he was working with, it’s nothing like the development in college.
Just think of it in terms of the tables involved.
In the NFL with the Tennessee Titans, the tables never change. Only the players sitting in them. When there are no practices, it’s meeting after meeting. It’s a professional environment, but it’s stationary. It’s the same thing every day. Same desks. Same chairs.
Now think of the tables for a college coach.
Perhaps starting with a meeting in the guidance counselor’s office in high school, or perhaps a table in the cafeteria. The first conversation with a recruit. Getting to know them. Sitting across the table from them, learning about their goals.
A rapport is built. In-home visits are made. Perhaps a dinner at the dining room table. Or sitting around the coffee table in the living room.
Then that player becomes a Buckeye and the tables change again. Now the learning process kicks in. The teaching, the progressing. Meetings, counseling, parenting. All of it.
Three or four or five years later, Coombs is now sitting with that player at another table. This time it’s the NFL Draft. A million miles away from that first table, but all part of the development of a player into something special.
“I love, I love recruiting,” Coombs said. “I love going into high schools and talking with high school coaches. I love meeting players when they’re 16, 17, 18 years old and seeing that transition from a boy to a man. I love being behind the stage on a draft night and seeing a kid realize his dreams.”
And then there’s Ohio State, where all of these things get to happen. For an Ohio guy like Coombs, there’s nothing else like it.
“I love coming out of that tunnel on a Saturday afternoon,” he said. “I can tell you that every Sunday when I walked into the stadium in Nashville, every Sunday, there was a lady who sat by the gate. And she was a huge Titans fans, every Sunday, and I will go by there, it would not fail, she’d say O-H because she was also a Buckeye. They’re everywhere. And Buckeye nation is really, really powerful.
“I think you always make career decisions based on what’s best for your family. I love my family. I have seven grandchildren in Cincinnati. Three of them are moving to Detroit but that’s going to be okay. And so I’m an Ohio guy. I love it. I missed it. And I’m really really excited to be back and I want you to understand, it wasn’t leaving there. I tell people this all time: I didn’t leave Tennessee. I came to Ohio State. I came back. Does that make sense? And I’m really excited to be back.”
Entire article:
https://theozone.net/2020/02/love-ohio-state-kerry-coombs-back/