It's official....Coombs back to OSU.
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/28524698/titans-db-coach-kerry-coombs-ohio-state-d-coordinator
OSU officially matching the recruiting hire of Harbaugh. Going to be tough sledding. Dude's one of the best recruiters out there. Let's hope Day shows he cant coach, and that's how the wheels fall off.
January 20th, 2020 at 8:59 PM ^
Friends this matters shit. We are so far behind Alabama, Clemson, LSU, Georgia, Oklahoma and OSU ... who cares?
January 20th, 2020 at 9:05 PM ^
Honestly, you're probably right. It probably doesn't make it any worse, but it still sucks to see.
January 21st, 2020 at 5:08 AM ^
Wait, I thought Greg Mattison was the D-Coordinator?
January 21st, 2020 at 9:14 AM ^
The Mattison as DC thing was phony from the start. Just a face saving device for Mattison to justify leaving. Looks like they hired Mattison to hurt Michigan and to enhance chances of signing Zach Harrison.
January 21st, 2020 at 9:41 AM ^
Mattison is also an excellent recruiter. As is Brown their DL coach. They have an excellent recruiting team now with Coombs.
I think Mattison was brought in as a recruiter first and foremost, because this probably isn't Day's strong suit (rather he's an unbelievable play caller).
January 21st, 2020 at 12:40 PM ^
OSU fan here. Mattison and Haffley both had D-coordinator titles. When that happens, the one calling the plays is the real coordinator. That was Mattison, not Haffley. Same should continue under Coombs.
January 21st, 2020 at 7:26 PM ^
Ohio St had enormous improvement on defense with Greg Mattison there. They went from #72 total defense last year to #2 this year. That's the equivalent in improvement on defense to what LSU had in improvement on offense from last year to this.
January 21st, 2020 at 1:49 PM ^
Mattison the the DC. He calls the formations. Halfley was the co DC but it's Mattison's D
Coombs has never been a DC and pretty sure he will be similar to Halfley, role wise. He get a huge raise (I wasn't aware NFL position coaches got paid so little relative to college coaches) and he's from Ohio. If Fickell leaves at UC, I wouldn't be surprised to see him at UC
January 21st, 2020 at 3:50 PM ^
OSU already has one of the top DL coaches and recruiters in the country in Larry Johnson. Their need was for a DC.
They aren't taking a redundant coach and paying him $1M a year to hurt Michigan. That kind of move would potentially hurt them more.
Zach Harrison was gone as soon as The Game was over and he signed with OSU 3 weeks before Mattison left.
January 21st, 2020 at 12:54 PM ^
The ONLY reason they hired Mattison, is because he, along with Al Washington, were our main recruiters for Ohio. By hiring both of them, they cut off any pipeline we have left in that state especially with Mattison, who had been recruiting that state for Michigan since 2011 under Hoke.
January 20th, 2020 at 9:16 PM ^
If I am a young dude being recruited, I trust Jean-Mary more. I think many will. Coombs has experience, but not much more. I think the bigger problem is we don't cheat and they and the other big schools do.
January 20th, 2020 at 10:19 PM ^
"Coombs has experience, but not much more."
I think you're underselling his experience a little bit. In fact, by a lot.
January 20th, 2020 at 10:51 PM ^
Lol "not much more". Is this sarcasm? Coombs can point to six first round db's in five years he recruited and coached, and now he can say he has NFL experience.
January 20th, 2020 at 10:57 PM ^
In a sea of bad takes, this one stands out
January 21st, 2020 at 8:21 AM ^
^^^^^Kool-aid drinker for sure^^^^^
January 21st, 2020 at 3:58 PM ^
Coombs and Jean-Mary coach different position groups.
January 20th, 2020 at 9:37 PM ^
Why are Georgia and Oklahoma on the list?
Georgia has the best team money can buy but their coaching SUCKS and Oklahoma would not be a top 5 B1G team.
January 20th, 2020 at 9:41 PM ^
Because they have made the playoff.
January 20th, 2020 at 11:02 PM ^
So then why doesn’t the list of teams we are so far behind include Michigan State, Notre Dame and Florida State?
January 21st, 2020 at 10:14 AM ^
Michigan almost certainly would have made the playoff in 2016 and 2018 had it played in the Big 12 in Oklahoma's place.
Per S&P, the highest ranked B12 teams in 2016 after Oklahoma were Okl St at #13 (10-3), Baylor #32 (7-6), West Va #33 (10-3), and TCU #34 (6-7). Contrast that to the B1G highest rated excluding Michigan: #10 OSU (11-2), #11 PSU (11-3), #16 Wisconsin (11-3), and #24 Minnesota (9-4).
In 2018 this was Okl St at #22 (7-6), West Va #24 (8-4), Texas #32 (10-4), and Texas Tech #37 (5-7). Contrast that to #6 OSU (13-1), #15 PSU (9-4), #19 Wisconsin (8-5), and #23 Iowa (9-4).
January 20th, 2020 at 10:35 PM ^
Oklahoma beat OSU in Columbus and you think they’d do worse in the B1G than Michigan?
January 20th, 2020 at 10:54 PM ^
In 2017, no.
in 2018 and 2019, yes.
30-40% of CFB starters turn over every year.
January 20th, 2020 at 11:13 PM ^
Ah, so they beat them three years ago, haven’t played them since, and now it doesn’t matter? Did you actually think about what you wrote before hitting “save”?
This is the internet so I don’t expect much, yet you still manage to disappoint. Oklahoma isn’t the 6th or worst team in the B1G and it’s beyond stupid to suggest it.
January 20th, 2020 at 11:28 PM ^
Wut? How many starters from those 2017 teams are still playing CFB? How many coaches from those staffs are even around?
So you think that game from 3 years ago is more important than what happened in 2019 (or 2018 for that matter)?
The biggest OOC win by a Big 12 team in 2019 was Texas beating Louisiana Tech - impressive stuff. And no Texas beating a Utah team that DGAF in some toilet bowl game wasn’t a better win than beating LT.
January 21st, 2020 at 12:15 PM ^
Oklahoma would not be a top 5 B1G team
Do you really believe this?
January 20th, 2020 at 9:51 PM ^
Have to disagree with being behind Oklahoma. They win in a conference which is a joke and when they played a good team got destroyed. If they played in the B1G they would loose a few games every year
January 20th, 2020 at 9:56 PM ^
But would they lose a few games?
January 20th, 2020 at 11:04 PM ^
Agreed - who can tell me the biggest OOC win by a Big 12 team last year?
January 21st, 2020 at 8:54 AM ^
Why do we always criticize programs here that have had so much more success than us the last 15 years.
January 21st, 2020 at 10:14 AM ^
If you can't beat 'em on the field, then beat 'em on the internet.
Yeah, it's a little sad.
January 21st, 2020 at 11:37 AM ^
We haven’t played Oklahoma on the field in 43 years, so since the invention of the internet, that’s the only place we are able to beat them
January 20th, 2020 at 9:56 PM ^
I’ve come to the sad sad pitiful realization that I need to stop caring about OSU. Because I’ve cared so much the last two pretty good seasons have been ruined (bowl games didn’t help). Hope we go 11-0 next year. Maybe by the time OSU is a game away from tying up the all time series something will have changed in the NCAA to give us an advantage or maybe a meteor will wipe their program from the face of the earth. Either equally likely.
January 20th, 2020 at 10:16 PM ^
Our recruiting rankings have been almost exactly equal with Clemson over the time frame that Harbaugh has been coach. Don't believe it, look it up
January 20th, 2020 at 11:08 PM ^
True - now we just need their pharmacist.
i move how Dabo admitted to shooting his up his players with Roids last year and the world was like “ok cool”.
If that was Michigan / Harbaugh, the CFB world would have had an aneurysm.
January 21st, 2020 at 1:38 PM ^
BIO-HACKING FTW!
CRSPR-Cas9 myostatin knockout injections, wonder if the NCAA has anything on the books about this yet?
January 20th, 2020 at 11:21 PM ^
Recruiting rankings may be the same but Clemson churn out more high draft picks than Michigan like Watkins, Nuk, Watson, Wilkins, Lawrence, Ferrell, etc.
Clemson had 8 1st round draft picks while Michigan had 4 1st round picks in Harbaugh's tenure. Clemson had 30 draft picks while Michigan had 25. Clemson was able to develop more elite talents that can compete with Bama, OSU, etc. Michigan gets blown out by OSU and Bama.
January 21st, 2020 at 1:16 PM ^
Clemson churns out, not Clemson churn out. Soccer people with the British plurals drive me nuts. A school/team is a singular subject. This is Murica, dammit.
January 21st, 2020 at 12:41 AM ^
It's been fairly close. Clemson has averaged 0.9063 over its last 5 classes (105 signees), which would be about the 250th ranked kid in the class.
Michigan averaged 0.8997 over the same period with 116 signees. 0.8997 would be about the 285th ranked player.
OSU averaged 0.9249 w/ 116 signees. Roughly 183rd ranked player.
January 21st, 2020 at 9:52 AM ^
The difference is a lack of elite players, mostly at QB. Clemson takes more three star guys than Michigan but gets more top 50 and top 10 guys while Michigan gets a lot of guys ranked 100-200. This is also why you see a lot more Clemson guys at the top of the NFL draft than Michigan despite them not getting a ton more guys into the NFL overall. And those elite guys are the difference in the big games, especially at QB where we've had a parade of mediocre.
January 21st, 2020 at 10:16 AM ^
Michigan has had a parade of high 4* QBs and made nothing of them. That's not bad luck. That's lack of player development.
January 20th, 2020 at 11:42 PM ^
We are precisely one elite quarterback behind those teams. Put Joe Burrow behind our center and we are in the title game. If Shea hit half of the open deep targets in the bowl, we beat Bama.
January 21st, 2020 at 12:36 AM ^
An elite QB would be nice but the so-called QB whisperer has been mute since he got here. Shea was a 5* #1 in his class and that’s the best Harbaugh could do? You think Harbaugh develops Burrow as well as Brady did or as well as Day did with a first year starter two years in a row? Starting to think Luck was a transcendent college QB and Harbaugh just managed not to screw him up.
I’d add an elite RB, considerably better OL and a much deeper DL. But yeah, those 4 things + a better game day coach and we might be a playoff team.
January 21st, 2020 at 10:09 AM ^
It’s crazy with 4 gaping holes on our team and being a horrible game day coach that 2 out of Harbaugh’s 5 years here it has come down to our game with OSU to decide the conference and who goes to the B10 championship game/playoffs
January 21st, 2020 at 3:50 PM ^
No we are an elite defensive line behind those teams. No QB in college football would have made up for us not having a DT that can stop a run
January 21st, 2020 at 3:45 PM ^
I'd maybe exempt Oklahoma from that group. We generally recruit on par with them, and they're always overrated and benefit from a pretty easy conference.
January 20th, 2020 at 9:01 PM ^
"... but I also like that he knows Ohio State and he knows how to recruit to Ohio State."
Anyone can be a hell of a recruiter if they "know how to recruit to Ohio State".
January 20th, 2020 at 9:05 PM ^
Ahh, the old "circle of trust".
January 20th, 2020 at 10:18 PM ^
True. Ohio State recruits itself anyway with tradition and the only P5 program in a top football state. But when you add bag it’s fish in a barrel
January 20th, 2020 at 9:01 PM ^
As a Titans fan this kinda sucks