He also has the title of assistant head coach.
“Tony has continually mentored and produced tough, reliable and productive running backs for the Buckeyes,” Day said in a release. “He has a terrific understanding of how to get his student-athletes to perform at a high rate of competitiveness, and I’m really pleased to promote him to run game coordinator.”
An Akron native who played running back for former Ohio State coach Earle Bruce at Colorado State, Alford has had a 1,000-yard back every season since coming to Columbus with the exception of the pandemic-shortened 2020 season when Trey Sermon ran for 877 yards in just eight games.
Alford has produced four NFL Draft picks at Ohio State, starting with Ezekiel Elliott in the spring of 2016. He was the No. 4 overall pick after being named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year in 2015.
Mike Weber, J.K. Dobbins and Sermon also were drafted, and Dobbins became the first OSU back to eclipse the 2,000-yard mark in 2019.
Last season, true freshman TreVeyon Henderson broke Archie Griffin’s single-game freshman rushing record with 270 yards against Tulsa and finished with 1,248 yards on the ground.
Alford’s promotion comes on the heels of an overall reshaping of the Ohio State coaching staff.
Justin Frye became the team’s new offensive line coach (along with the title associate head coach for offense) last week while most of the defensive staff has turned over.
Jim Knowles became the new defensive coordinator Jan. 2, and Tim Walton and Perry Eliano were hired last week to coach the secondary.
Day also promoted receivers coach Brian Hartline to passing game coordinator while Kevin Wilson remains offensive coordinator and tight ends coach.
Ohio State also announced Matt Guerrieri has joined the staff as a senior analyst and advisor.
Guerrieri is a northeast Ohio native who previously worked with Knowles at Duke for six seasons.
While in Durham, Guerrieri primarily coached safeties, and his pupils included All-American Jeremy Cash, a transfer from Ohio State who enjoyed a decorated career for the Blue Devils.
Guerrieri spent 10 total seasons in Durham, where he became co-defensive coordinator after Knowles left to become defensive coordinator at Oklahoma State in 2018.
Two of the coaches who were left out in the coaching shuffle at Ohio State reportedly have new jobs.
Multiple reports indicated Kerry Coombs will land on his feet at the University of Cincinnati while Al Washington is headed to Notre Dame.
Coombs, a University of Dayton graduate and Cincinnati native, spent the last two seasons at Ohio State as defensive coordinator, but he was demoted early last fall after the Buckeyes were shredded by Oregon.
Prior to that, he had a successful two-year run as secondary coach for the Tennessee Titans and spent six years as cornerbacks coach at Ohio State.
His college coaching career started at UC, where he was hired to coach defensive backs for Brian Kelly in 2007.
Through the years he has developed a reputation as a dynamic recruiter, and five Ohio State cornerbacks were first-round draft picks in his first tenure with the Buckeyes.
Coombs is perhaps best-known as a high school coach, including a 16-year run as head coach at his alma mater, Colerain, that included a 2004 state championship.
Washington spent the past three seasons coaching linebackers at Ohio State, but ESPN reported he will be defensive line coach and run defense coordinator for the Fighting Irish and new head coach Marcus Freeman.
Sources: Notre Dame is hiring Al Washington as the school’s new defensive run game coordinator and defensive line coach, sources told ESPN. Washington has coached at Ohio State, Michigan and Boston College in his career.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) January 16, 2022
They shared a staff together at Cincinnati in 2017 under head coach Luke Fickell.
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