In a season unlike any other, the Buckeyes had one of the more bi-polar units in the nation. The 2020 Silver Bullets were truly elite when it came to stopping the run last fall, finishing with the sixth-best run defense. But as good as they were at stuffing opposing ground game, they were the exact opposite at defending the pass, finishing with sixth-worst such performance among all FBS programs.
Now, with so much focus on how the back end of his defense must improve over the next eight months, Ryan Day will be forced to find answers without one of his most trusted advisors. After 49 years in the profession, co-defensive coordinator Greg Mattison is retiring at the age of 71, leaving Day to replace a leader on that side of the ball for the third straight year.
"His career speaks to itself," Day said of the former coordinator at Michigan, Notre Dame, Florida, and the Baltimore Ravens. "What he’s done and accomplished on the field but more importantly, it’s what he’s done off the field. The relationship and respect he has around the country as one of the best coaches, and the impact he’s had on so many people."
Though the primary play-caller of the OSU defense, Kerry Coombs, remains in place, Mattison is believed to have played a pivotal role in both the development of weekly game plans and of younger coaches like Al Washington (linebackers) and Matt Barnes (safeties and special teams). With this opening on his staff, Day faces a critical decision: whether to continue reliance on the single-high system he envisioned upon taking over as head coach in 2019 or to diversify following the mixed results of the past season.
"Anybody who has a background in four-down, single-high defense certainly would fit quicker," Day told reporters over Zoom on Friday when asked about who might replace Mattison. "But then also bringing in somebody that has a little bit more of a diverse background can give us different perspective, and areas where we can maximize who we have. And I think that’s what’s important, because we try to do that all the time on offense, and I think that that’s going to be important to what we do on defense, is based on who we have that year, what gives us the best chance to be successful?"
Many within the fanbase will clamor to hire a beloved former player with connections to the program, while others will decry anyone without a proven track record of recruiting. Some within the media have already begun speculating on specific former colleagues Day worked with in the past, mimicking the hire of a then-unknown defensive backs coach named Jeff Hafley in January 2019.
But the Buckeyes' head coach has a number of options available, none of which are guaranteed to deliver success.
