The Ohio State football program has been ignoring special teams for the last few years. Ever since Ryan Day decided to fire Parker Fleming as the special teams coordinator, things have been bad over the last couple of years. Quite frankly, the special teams were bad under Fleming, as well.
Day took some strides to improve the special teams by adding kicker Connor Hawkins from the Transfer Portal. He was one of the best options available as a kicker, so now they finally have someone they can rely on at that spot. Jayden Fielding was terrible in big spots.
Still, Day hasn't had a full-time special teams coordinator since he fired Fleming heading into the 2024 season. Now, he has made one of the best hires in his head coaching career with the Buckeyes. The Ohio State Buckeyes have hired one of the best special teams coordinators in the country.
The Ohio State football program hires Robby Discher as special teams coordinator
The Buckeyes have hired Illinois special teams coordinator Robby Discher. He is one of the best special teams coordinators in the country, as he has coached nine All-Big Ten players while he was with the Illini. He helped develop David Olano at Illinois into one of the best kickers in the nation.
Adding Discher to the coaching staff might finally help solve the massive issue that the Buckeyes have had with their special teams unit. Not only has the kicking game been bad, but the punting has been bad, as well. Discher will be brought in to fix all of the problems that are happening.
This is a slam-dunk hire. Day went out and got the best coach he could to help with the special teams, and fans should be elated by this. Day now has two former NFL head coaches as his offensive and defnesive coordinators, and one of the best special teams coordinators in the country.
The Buckeyes have one of the best coaching staffs in the nation. Now, they have no excuses not to make a deeper run in the College Football Playoff in 2026.