By Kris Mead
Although the Buckeyes are an 8-1 football team, it is
obvious that they have not been playing up to their potential nor to the level
of performance that is accustomed with previous Meyer Buckeye squads. The
issues are on both sides of the ball, but the Buckeye defense, a staple
component of all Buckeye teams from Woody to Tressel to Meyer, has been
sleepwalking the entire season. There are ample reasons for this: large amount
of new defensive position coaches, the loss of the likely number one overall
NFL draft pick in Nick Bosa, and lastly, what has hardly been covered, the
sense that the defensive coordinator, Greg Schiano, does not want to be
coaching at Ohio State.
Greg Schiano, in late November of 2017, was to be named the
head football coach of the University of Tennessee. However, within twenty-four
hours after Schiano signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the University of
Tennessee, Tennessee alumni, donors, politicians and former athletes were
screaming public outrage against the hiring. Most people were claiming the
reasoning behind not wanting to hire Schiano was his potential knowledge of the
sexual abuse scandal at Penn State, as Schiano was a defensive coach under
Jerry Sandusky from 1990-1995. In all likelihood, the Tennessee fans were actually
outraged against Schiano’s past head coaching record. It seems unlikely, for
instance, if Nick Saban was in the same position as Schiano, that Tennessee
would so vehemently deny Saban from coaching their team. Regardless of the
reasoning, the Tennessee athletic director, John Currie, quickly withdrew
Schiano’s hiring.
So Schiano went from thinking he was going to get back into
the head coaching ranks, to not only realizing his head coaching dreams may be
gone, but to now realizing his reputation was in question. The victim of all
this turmoil explicitly directed at one man is Schiano, but to a greater sense
towards the 2018 Ohio State defense. The Ohio State defense has been on the
same rollercoaster of emotions as Schiano. The defense thought he’d be gone by
the end of the 2017 season and as a result Meyer started looking for a new
defensive coordinator. In January, Alex Grinch was hired to be a “co-defensive
coordinator” alongside Greg Schiano.
On paper this should all seem fine. Schiano maintains his
Ohio State role, while Grinch focuses on the secondary. But there has to be more
to it. It’s hard not to believe that Schiano doesn’t feel as though he is in
some sort of purgatory. Due to the strength of the outcry against him by
Tennessee fans, he must be wondering if a big school head coaching position is
beyond his grasp. This may result in souring
Schiano’s motivation to continue coaching at a high level. On the flip side the players must be thinking
that Schiano, deep down, does not want to be coaching them. After all, Schiano
was about to address a press conference regarding his new Tennessee position in
Knoxville on November 26, 2017, just before his hiring was abruptly negated. Essentially,
it’s as if Schiano broke up with his significant other and was going to cohabitate
with someone else before that new someone rejected him. Having no place to sleep, Schiano dragged
himself back to the old significant other – in this case, Ohio State. Factor in
the issues this may have on recruiting, in which high school players who wished
to be coached by Schiano may now be second guessing whether Schiano is really committed
to coaching them or will even remain at the university to coach them. College
athletics is the one league in which buying into a coach’s philosophy is half
the battle in getting players to play at their highest potential. The Schiano
fiasco not only calls into question Schiano’s coaching future, but also, to a
larger extent, the Ohio State defense’s play.
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