After two years of substandard performance for Ohio State’s defense, Ryan Day had to make a tough decision.
He could have taken a similar tact as he did in 2021, when the only changes to Ohio State’s full-time coaching staff were promoting Parker Fleming to special teams coordinator and shifting around some responsibilities for the defensive coaches following Greg Mattison’s retirement. Even after his December hire of former Oklahoma State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles to be Ohio State’s new defensive coordinator, Day could have retained most of the defensive coaching staff around Knowles by tweaking some of their roles.