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Post 23 Season tOSU Coaching Changes

Eliano wasn't a great recruiter, but he was a good coach. The safeties were good this season.

This had to be Knowles decision, and there must have been behind the scenes issues with coaching.
The thing is the last year the starting safeties were good. The backups who knows cause they wouldn't take off Ransom off the field till he was dead(hurt).

So it could have been a mixture of recruiting/development/refusing to play subs
 
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The next few days should be interesting. I have no insider knowledge, but expect more goings and comings as the season officially wraps up along with the coaching conference. Hopefully the comings on the coaching side will be as positive as the transfer additions.
 
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JL aint gonna be a coach this year unless there's some master plan that blows up in their face.... I think people need to adjust... Day is coaching for his job.... I'd be shocked if anyone brought in was fresh and a first time assistant

edit: Can someone explain the greatness of JL as an assistant given this will only be his 3rd year of college coaching... other than he's a buckeye legend? I'm really just curious because everyone seems to be losing their minds that he's not on the staff it feels like everyone seeing "former buckeye great and NFL player so he must be the next Hartline"
I will throw my hat in the ring here - he is an ace recruiter, he's been in the wings as an understudy at ND and now one year at OSU, knows the game and LB position very well, and then (in order of qualifications imo) is a Buckeye legend. I'm not in the coaches' room so I can't pretend to know if he is a great coach with player development, but sometimes you have to find out. We didn't know on Hartline and turns out, he is an ace recruiter and an excellent coach at WR.

So that would be the lead argument for at least making him ST Coordinator for now because he can't be a downgrade to Fleming and he can go out and recruit more actively. Once the LB spot comes open, if JL has developed and learned as an actual position coach, then I would expect him to be a great fit. If not, we will find out quickly.

Eliano wasn't a great recruiter, but he was a good coach. The safeties were good this season.

This had to be Knowles decision, and there must have been behind the scenes issues with coaching.
Yeah I am honestly flummoxed (a word I do not use lightly) by that decision. Safety was probably the strongest position we had on the team. And if recruiting was wanting, Walton can easily handle that in the secondary. Of all the potential coaching changes, I didn't even think that was on the table. I just assumed Fleming and Frye were first on the chopping block. Frankly, what is the holdup on firing Fleming after signing day? Same goes for Frye imo. Both should have already been done by now.
 
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I have nothing against Eliano but when you can't land a top safety who is related to you, that's an issue.

I will throw my hat in the ring here - he is an ace recruiter, he's been in the wings as an understudy at ND and now one year at OSU, knows the game and LB position very well, and then (in order of qualifications imo) is a Buckeye legend. I'm not in the coaches' room so I can't pretend to know if he is a great coach with player development, but sometimes you have to find out. We didn't know on Hartline and turns out, he is an ace recruiter and an excellent coach at WR.

So that would be the lead argument for at least making him ST Coordinator for now because he can't be a downgrade to Fleming and he can go out and recruit more actively. Once the LB spot comes open, if JL has developed and learned as an actual position coach, then I would expect him to be a great fit. If not, we will find out quickly.


Yeah I am honestly flummoxed (a word I do not use lightly) by that decision. Safety was probably the strongest position we had on the team. And if recruiting was wanting, Walton can easily handle that in the secondary. Of all the potential coaching changes, I didn't even think that was on the table. I just assumed Fleming and Frye were first on the chopping block. Frankly, what is the holdup on firing Fleming after signing day? Same goes for Frye imo. Both should have already been done by now.

I think the safety play appeared to improve more than it actually did. It was definitely better, but I think the ridiculous corner play from Burke, Igbinosun and Hancock made them look better than they really were.

There were still some coverage lapses, there were several busted assignments near the line of scrimmage from the safeties and, this might not be popular here, but Styles was pretty underwhelming given the amount of hype there was coming into the season.

In the end, I think he was most hurt by how good Walton is. His unit improved massively. He's landing a ton of top corners. I think Walton's greatness just highlighted how "okay" Eliano is.
 
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Since it’s Knowles “safety driven defense” and we just let go that position coach, I thought Knowles may assume that role while still being the DC thereby freeing up a spot for LJ’s replacement to learn alongside him this year and JL takes over for Fleming? Then when LJ retires, hire a safety coach? Knowles taking over a position group as a way to bridge the LJ retirement gap?

Maybe I am missing something but that seems possible?
 
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Since it’s Knowles “safety driven defense” and we just let go that position coach, I thought Knowles may assume that role while still being the DC thereby freeing up a spot for LJ’s replacement to learn alongside him this year and JL takes over for Fleming? Then when LJ retires, hire a safety coach? Knowles taking over a position group as a way to bridge the LJ retirement gap?

Maybe I am missing something but that seems possible?
It seems to me like these are the two best options:

1. Bring in a S coach to replace Eliano. Fire Fleming and bring in a second DL coach to create a transition year to move on from LJ Sr. Keep Laurinaitis in his current role for one more year and promote him next year as LJ Sr transitions from full time coach.

2. Transition Walton to coaching the entire secondary and being aboard a GA to help specifically with the safeties. Replace Eliano with a second DL coach to create a transition year. Fire Fleming and promote Laurinaitis to full time.
 
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It seems to me like these are the two best options:

1. Bring in a S coach to replace Eliano. Fire Fleming and bring in a second DL coach to create a transition year to move on from LJ Sr. Keep Laurinaitis in his current role for one more year and promote him next year as LJ Sr transitions from full time coach.

2. Transition Walton to coaching the entire secondary and being aboard a GA to help specifically with the safeties. Replace Eliano with a second DL coach to create a transition year. Fire Fleming and promote Laurinaitis to full time.

option 1 is the only answer.... the D has been a man short coaching wise for several years now. Give them a full 5 Defensive coaches....
 
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If Eliano was let go because of his recruiting shortcomings then I'm not sure how Frye survives.

I mean, there's context involved in everything. If Frye is losing out on guys because of NIL, that's different than losing someone you made a competitive offer for like Bolden.

At the end of the day, Eliano couldn't close the top ranked safety in the country WHO WAS RELATED TO HIM. I mean, you can't come back from that.
 
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