When Ryan Day wants to make changes, he certainly makes changes. The Ohio State football team has made all kinds of defensive changes. In fact, the only defensive coach who is back from last year is Larry Johnson. He still can do a lot of stuff on the defensive line. The Buckeyes just added another defensive coach too.
The Buckeyes added Sam McGrath to the staff. While his previous job title with Duke was linebackers coach, it’s unclear if he will eventually be doing that here in Columbus. He could be in Columbus to coach the linebackers here as well, but Jim Knowles could still be doing that,
It’s clear that with all of these new defensive coaches that Day was seriously unhappy with that side of the ball last year. As of now, McGrath will start out as just a program assistant and won’t be a full-time assistant. The Buckeyes are just adding more help.
If McGrath isn’t taking up space as a full-time assistant, then I say this isn’t a bad move. McGrath worked with Knowles at Duke as well so that’s the connection that brought him to Ohio State. It will be interesting to see if McGrath eventually progresses up to a full-time assistant.
The linebackers can’t be much worse than they were in 2021. They didn’t have the depth that they needed either. They finally seem to be building that depth. All of these changes are leaving Buckeye fans anxious for the start of next season to see how they work out.
September 3rd is still a long way out, so Ohio State football fans will have to see how they look in the Spring Game first.