Ohio State football: Ryan Day not worried about ‘hurt feelings’ in defensive changes

Ohio State football could have a new defensive play caller on Saturday against Tulsa with head coach Ryan Day weighing his options late into the week.

Ohio State defensive coordinator Kerry Coombs came under serious fire after his defense gave up 35 points to Oregon. He might lose play calling duties over it.

On Thursday, head coach Ryan Day still wasn’t sure if Coombs would be in charge of the defensive play calling when the Buckeyes host Tulsa on Saturday.

Ryan Day hasn’t decided if Kerry Coombs will remain the defensive play caller

“I’m still gonna kind of see how practice goes today, and then we’ll probably make a decision here later tonight,” Day said per Dan Hope of Eleven Warriors.

“I think that what we have to do is what makes the best sense for us in terms of organizing the game plan and then calling the game on Saturday. And that’s all that we’re focused on right now,” Day continued. “We can’t worry about feelings, we can’t worry about anything other than giving our guys the best situation to be successful. And that’s what I’m trying to figure out.”

If not Coombs, who might take over play calling duties? The most likely replacement is secondary coach Matt Barnes, who called plays at Maryland in 2018.

It’s never an ideal situation to change play callers on either side of the ball in the middle of the season. The Buckeyes have played just two games and are already talking about the possibility. The mere fact it’s a discussion shows how tenuous Coombs’ position as defensive coordinator is.

Once you lose play calling duties, the next obvious adjustment is to lose your job.

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