Ohio State football: Buckeyes coaching staff facing questions

The Ohio State football team had a great season in 2020, but their coaching staff faces some questions following a disastrous National Championship.

It’s hard to win a national championship. Just ask the Ohio State football program. They went undefeated in 2020 and crushed Clemson in the Sugar Bowl to make the National Title game, only to get demolished themselves by a fantastic Alabama team.

Even so, when you have as much talent as the Buckeyes do and you get blown out as badly as they did, questions pop up. No one is questioning the offensive staff after they had a stellar year. Although, Ryan Day didn’t have a good playcalling day in the Big Ten Championship or the National Championship.

The real questions are directed towards the defensive staff, specifically co-defensive coordinators Greg Mattison and Kerry Coombs. The defense did not hold up their end of the bargain most of the year. It was never more prevalent than that blowout at the hands of Bama.

There have been rumors of Washington possibly retiring before the start of next season. Would that help? It’s unclear. What is clear is that Coombs has to get his secondary fixed. Ohio State had the fifth-worst passing defense in the country in 2020.

Ohio State needs to get themselves fixed on that side of the ball next season. I’ve seen several fans call for Coombs to get fired after just one year back on the job. I think that’s a little much. The guy is a phenomenal recruiter and didn’t have Spring practice to get his guys ready.

That doesn’t mean Coombs gets a completely free pass. He has experience coaching the secondary, so they shouldn’t have been nearly as bad as they were this season. If the secondary has another performance like this in 2021, it may not be enough to save his job then.

The Buckeyes have a whole offseason to address these issues. Let’s hope they address them properly.