Alex Grinch to Oklahoma a loss for Ryan Day as he shapes vision for Ohio State's defense

Posted by Christie Applegate on Thursday, June 6, 2024

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Tried an old reporter’s trick on Alex Grinch last week at Rose Bowl media day in Pasadena. After waiting Grinch out for half of the allotted interview time, I approached him with an introduction and an opening question about how he felt his first season with Ohio State had gone.

I knew where I hoped the conversation would eventually go, and so did he. So he cut me off mid-question and said:

“Can we talk about Washington?”

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“Sure,” I said, adding that I was hoping we could come back around to some other stuff (like reports that he could be on his way out).

“I’d stick to Washington,” Grinch said. “If that’s not the story. I appreciate ya, but I’d rather just talk about Washington.”

So we did. He was insightful, given his history coaching against the Huskies at Washington State, and against some of that same coaching staff when they were at Boise State and Grinch was a defensive backs coach at Wyoming. Then I circled back and was a little more forthright, telling Grinch “people are wondering about your future here.”

“I can’t talk about that,” he said. “I’m excited for the Rose Bowl.”

Grinch is expected to be named the next defensive coordinator at Oklahoma, The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman reported Friday. He’ll have free rein to revamp a defense that ranked 114th in the country this year, and in theory, make the Sooners more of a mainstay in the College Football Playoff picture. Our interaction in California last week made it obvious that Grinch was either considering leaving, or had already made up his mind. In a week when plenty of other OSU assistants expressed interest in wanting to stay on Ryan Day’s staff, or outright lobbied to do so, Grinch preferred to say nothing. Can’t fault him for not wanting to discuss it then.

So he’s gone. An Ohio native who came home to work at Ohio State is done after one season in Columbus.

That’s surprising. Grinch would have meshed well with what I think Day is looking for while assembling his staff: Young, energetic, forward thinking coaches who have a handle on what works and what doesn’t in modern college football. Grinch was considered a rising star in coaching when Urban Meyer hired him away from Washington State last year, and he still is as he heads to Oklahoma looking to put his stamp on a defense again. And that’s where this kerfuffle starts.

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It felt like Day was sending a message on the day he was announced as Ohio State’s next head coach when he said of his defense: “We’ll be aggressive, with multiple fronts, sound and simple for the players so that they will have the ability to play fast.” To me that message was: Greg Schiano’s defense is out and Grinch’s is in.

Sound and simple would not be the words used to describe Schiano’s defense this year. Meanwhile here is a line from a Seattle Times story describing Grinch’s “Speed D” at Washington State:

“Grinch’s main objective is to simplify everything to minimize thinking for his players so they are freed to play fast.”

Grinch never said this, but it isn’t hard to read between the lines. He came to be the heir to Schiano and run Ohio State’s defense. Ohio State paid him $800,000 to get him here and set up that transition. It never happened. Schiano, who had accepted the Tennessee head coaching job around the same time rumors first began coming out about a courtship between Grinch and Ohio State, ended up staying in Columbus after the Volunteers pulled their offer following fan backlash. Schiano was also a rumored candidate for some NFL openings last year, but nothing ever happened there, either. So Grinch likely came to Columbus expecting to run the show, and instead had to play second fiddle to Schiano while the Buckeyes had their worst defensive season in the history of the program.

That alone might have been enough for Grinch to look elsewhere. To stay on the head coaching track, Grinch needs to be seen in a position that shows his quick turnaround of Washington State’s defense into one of the more aggressive and productive units in the country wasn’t a fluke, that he can do it in any conference against any level of competition. He didn’t get that chance at Ohio State this year, and it’s unclear whether he would have been able to do it in Columbus this year. That’s because there’s still the tiny detail of Schiano’s status on Day’s staff still being up in the air.

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So what is Grinch to do when it’s unclear what will happen with Schiano? If Day were simply willing to move on from Schiano and keep Grinch, then I think we’d already know that, and Grinch wouldn’t be going to Oklahoma. Instead, it seems we’re stuck in another waiting game with Schiano, trying to see whether a surprise head coaching gig opens up for him or whether he’ll get any offers from the NFL. If Day is trying to do right by Schiano, who was a trusted resource for Day during the time he served as interim head coach, then it might have just cost him Grinch.

It wouldn’t be totally surprising to see Schiano back next year. The one thing Schiano does do according to the vision that Day is trying to set in place is recruit well. While his defense this year was a disaster, Schiano did produce top-10 defenses at Ohio State in 2016 and 2017. If you allow for some talent drop-off this year, then it’s fair to expect that Schiano can turn things around next year as the young talent on Ohio State’s defense gets a year older. But that’s also assuming he’ll make better personnel decisions and alter his philosophy to mesh better with what Day wants.

Schiano is not alone in the defense’s shortcomings this year. Aside from Larry Johnson on the defensive line, you can fairly say that every other defensive assistant had a group that underperformed this year. That includes Grinch’s safeties.

“Early on you saw them in situations that unfortunately you’d like to not have a safety in, by himself with 53 1/3(yards) on either side of you,” Grinch said last week. “That’s not the ideal situation to be in. Unfortunately, as coaches we didn’t do a good enough job of not putting them in some of those spots, and we didn’t hold up very well early on.”

That comes back on Schiano. The scheme was his. If he’s back, the scheme needs to be tweaked.

As we wait for word on Schiano, which could come any minute with how fast things are moving on the coaching and personnel front with Ohio State right now, we’re left to wonder what other shakeup could be coming on Day’s defensive staff. Johnson is expected back to coach the defensive line, and it would be somewhat surprising to see cornerbacks coach Taver Johnson let go after one season. That leaves Grinch, who’s already gone, Schiano and linebackers coach Bill Davis.

Day is rumored to have interest in Michigan’s Al Washington and Cincinnati’s Marcus Freeman. Either one would make sense as young, up-and-coming coaches who are strong recruiters and who have Ohio ties. Freeman is a former OSU linebacker, and Washington is a Columbus native who was a defensive tackle at Boston College when Day was a graduate assistant there. The pair later coached together at BC.

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Either would be a welcome addition to the staff, as both have experience coaching linebackers. Washington has some more diversity in his background and could take Grinch’s spot as the safeties coach. But neither has run his own show before. Washington has never been a coordinator. Freeman was a co-DC at Purdue, and while he’s held the title of defensive coordinator at Cincinnati for the last two seasons, he was doing so under a defense-leaning head coach in Luke Fickell.

If Day wants a proven coordinator not named Schiano, he now needs to look elsewhere.

A viable option just walked out the door.

(Photo of Grinch: Adam Lacy / Getty Images)

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