Ohio State Football: New assistant coach coming home
A great addition to the Ohio State coaching staff.
It’s now official, the Ohio State football program will have a new assistant coach. Alex Grinch, a native of Grove City who played his college football at Mount Union is coming home.
After leading the Washington State Cougars defense the last three seasons, Grinch has agreed to join Urban Meyer’s staff. It is expected he will work with the Ohio State secondary and be named co-defensive coordinator.
Urban Meyer had this to say about his new assistant as reported by Dave Biddle of 247Sports.
"“I am pleased to announce the addition of Alex Grinch to our coaching staff,” Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer said. “I am very impressed with his body of work while at Washington State, as many others were, and am happy he chose to come home to Ohio to become a part of our Buckeye coaching staff.”"
Grinch took over a Washington State defense that was ranked No. 99 in the country in total yards allowed per game in 2014. Last season the Cougars were ranked No. 16 in that category.
In Mr. Biddle’s article it was mentioned Grinch coached the secondary at all four of his stops. A look at how the Washington State pass defense improved during his time in Pullman is quite impressive.
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The year prior to Grinch taking over as the defensive coordinator, the Cougars allowed 296.5 yards a game through the air. Last season, Washington State’s pass defense was ranked No. 9 in the country giving up just 196.9 yards per game.
And that’s without having the athletes to work with like he will have at Ohio State. I wonder what he will think when he gets to coach guys like Jeffrey Okudah and Kendall Sheffield who were ranked as five-star recruits in high school.
Not only is Alex Grinch a terrific coach in his own right, just having someone to share the responsibilities of coaching the safeties will take some of the burden off of Greg Schiano. That will allow him more time to focus on the defensive unit as a whole.
Next: Grading the offensive coaches for 2017 season
Being able to add an extra assistant to the staff should certainly be a benefit for the Buckeyes in the 2018 season. And it’s not a surprise Urban Meyer apparently found the right guy to fill the position.