Ohio State Football: What Greg Mattison’s retirement means

The Ohio State football program will now be in search of a new assistant coach, as Co-Defensive Coordinator Greg Mattison’s retirement has officially been confirmed by Head Coach Ryan Day. Mattison will officially retire at the end of the month.

“Greg is a terrific coach,” said Ryan Day when Greg Mattison was hired in January of 2019. Mattison was crossing enemy lines, as he was previously serving as a defensive line coach for Michigan, a position he had held since 2015.

Mattison was a valuable member of the Buckeye coaching staff, and despite having two vastly different defenses between 2019 and 2020, still closed out his career with success.

The 71-year-old had been on the sidelines for college and NFL teams since 1976 when he was a graduate assistant at Illinois. Mattison was quite familiar with the Big Ten, after having been on the coaching staff for not only Illinois but also Northwestern and Michigan.

Now Ryan Day and the Ohio State football team will look to fill his position. “We will look at all options,” said Day “Is there someone out there who can take Greg’s spot in the same exact role, or do we move some things around and reassign some of the job descriptions?”

Day has assembled quite the staff at OSU. There are some question marks regarding Defensive Coordinator Kerry Coombs‘ future. Coombs also acts as the secondary coach, which was undoubtedly the weakest part of the team in 2020.

There were rumors after former OSU Head Coach Urban Meyer was hired to be the Head Coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars, that he may pull some of his former assistants from Ohio State to the NFL. He did lure associate AD Ryan Stamper to North Florida, but that appears to be it. Other than Greg Mattison and possibly Kerry Coombs, Ohio State is expected to retain all other assistant coaches.

We wish Greg Mattison a healthy and happy retirement and will follow-up with any updates made regarding the coaching staff throughout the season.