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Ohio State Football: Grading Ryan Day’s 2019 coaching staff

By Frank Teriaca

ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN - NOVEMBER 30: Head coach Ryan Day of the Ohio State Buckeyes (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN - NOVEMBER 30: Head coach Ryan Day of the Ohio State Buckeyes (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /
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INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA – DECEMBER 07: Head coach Ryan Day of the Ohio State Buckeyes (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images)
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA – DECEMBER 07: Head coach Ryan Day of the Ohio State Buckeyes (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images) /

The Ohio State football program went through a lot of personnel changes in 2019. How did Ryan Day grade out in filling his inaugural staff?

The start of the 2019 calendar year brought a lot of change to an Ohio State football program that saw a good amount of stability throughout the Urban Meyer years.

A new head coach in Ryan Day followed by new coordinators in Greg Mattison, Jeff Hafley and Mike Yurcich. Also a new linebackers coach in Al Washington and a new special teams coordinator and assistant secondary coach in Matt Barnes.

While Day’s new hires were mostly homerun hires, it was the staff that he decided to keep in place that proved to be the backbone of this program.

Looking at incumbent coaches

Stability in key spots such as having a co-offensive coordinator who has worked with Day for two seasons in Kevin Wilson was big. Keeping Wilson paid dividends as the former Indiana head coach was extremely valuable to a first-time head coach in Ryan Day.

Recruiting director Mark Pantoni and strength coach Mickey Marotti are two of the best in the country at their respected positions. Larry Johnson Sr. is also the best defensive line coach in the country, constantly being able to pump out top-five NFL Draft picks and a slew of other NFL talented players.

Tony Alford has been a reliable running backs coach for the past five seasons at Ohio State, being able to develop J.K. Dobbins into a potential first-round NFL draft pick.

Wide receivers coach Brian Hartline is quickly turning himself into one of the best receiver coaches in the country as his players enter the NFL ready and able to run an NFL route tree with the best of them. He is also one of the best recruiters in the nation, tabbing two five-star receivers in this past recruiting cycle in Julian Fleming and Jaxon Smith-Njigba.

Greg Studrawa is a stable force as offensive line coach and did a fabulous job this past season at developing his players into a juggernaut at both run and pass blocking. He also has been landing some big-time recruits such as Paris Johnson Jr. this past season and Nicholas Petit-Frere in 2018.

The coaches that Day kept in place provided the foundation for a good coaching staff but the coaches that Day was able to bring in brought it over the top.

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