COLUMBUS — Make Ohio State football less like an NFL team. We talked about it on the Wednesday show, and if you didn’t want to wade through nearly three hours of jabbering to get to the point, or if you want a reminder about what we said, here are five points of a plan for Ohio State to lean back toward college thinking.
Move from NFL coordinators to coordinators with major college experience
Hiring Matt Patricia two seasons ago and Arthur Smith before this season made sense to me. Nick Saban recycled veteran coordinators, sometimes those with NFL experience, for years. Ryan Day doing the same, bringing deep resumes and potential strategic advantages to Columbus, seemed like an edge Ohio State could exploit compared to most other programs. It made sense because Ohio State had NFL-quality players — the first-round defenders of a year ago, and the Julian Sayin-Jeremiah Smith connection this season that Arthur Smith could attempt to maximize.
Assuming it’ll be more difficult, in the era of NIL and the transfer portal, to put as much NFL talent on the field, I think it’s time for the Buckeyes to go back to the college route. The goal should be less about maximizing elite talent that was better than everyone else and more about elevating good talent that might be closer to what other competitive teams have.
TLDR: If you don’t have JJ and Reese-Downs-Styles, are Smith and Patricia the right fit?
With that in mind, Bill put together a list of college coordinator candidates if one or both of Smith and Patricia aren’t necessarily fired, but on their own or by mutual coordinator and program agreement, go back to the NFL.