Ohio State football: Multiple changes expected on defensive coaching staff

Indications now are only one man will be brought back from the 2021 defensive coaching staff — veteran defensive line coach Larry Johnson.

One change has been known since December: Jim Knowles was hired away from Oklahoma State, and he officially took over Jan. 2.

Matt Barnes, who handled play-calling duties most of the season after they were stripped from Coombs in Week 3, left to become defensive coordinator at Memphis. That is a promotion from his time in Columbus, when he was officially the secondary coach.

Yahoo! Sports was the first too report Eliano will be moving north up I-71, where he coached one of the best cornerback duos in college football the past two seasons at Cincinnati.

Ahmad Gardner was named a first-team All-American for the second season in a row while Coby Bryant collected the Thorpe Award as the best defensive back in the country.

Eliano, 43, spent two seasons working for Luke Fickell at UC after two at New Mexico, where he was special teams coordinator and cornerbacks coach and also served as interim head coach for a period of time.

The Killeen, Texas, native has also worked at Stephen F. Austin, Central Arkansas, Sam Houston State, UTSA and Bowling Green in a coaching career that began in 2001.

Walton is coming back to the place he was a starting cornerback in 1992 and ‘93.

A high school quarterback and defensive back at Carver High School in Columbus, Ga., he was part of John Cooper’s second recruiting class at Ohio State and was a four-year letterwinner.

He began coaching in 1995 was a graduate assistant at Bowling Green, where he later coached positions on both sides of the ball. He also worked at Memphis, Syracuse, LSU, Miami (Fla.) and Memphis before moving to the NFL in 2009. At LSU, he worked for Nick Saban and won a national championship.

At the pro level, Walton coached defensive backs for the Lions then spent a season as the Rams defensive coordinator before coaching cornerbacks in New York for the Giants.

Most recently, Walton was the cornerbacks coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars, who are revamping their staff after firing Urban Meyer during the season.

The university did not confirm Coombs and Washington would not be retained, but two coaches will have to go to make room for the newcomers (10 full-time staffers are allowed, including the head coach).

Coombs is a Cincinnati native who coached cornerbacks at Ohio State from 2012-17 and was successful both in recruiting talented defensive backs and sending them to the NFL.

After a two-year stint as defensive backs coach with the Tennessee Titans, he returned to Ohio State as defensive coordinator in 2020, and the results were much less positive.

The Buckeyes’ secondary struggled throughout ‘20, and neither the front or back end of the defense was reliable for much of the ‘21 season.

Washington, a Columbus native and son of former Ohio State linebacker Al Washington Sr., left Michigan to coach Buckeye linebackers in 2019, Ryan Day’s first season as head coach. His position group improved dramatically in year one and was strong in year two, but the top four players moved on last winter, including second round NFL Draft pick Pete Werner and third round pick Baron Browning.

Their replacements were disappointing enough that a converted running back, Steele Chambers, was the Buckeyes’ best linebacker by the end of the season.

In addition to the on-field additions, FootballScoop.com reported two young coaches will join Knowles in Columbus after working with him at Oklahoma State.

Michael Hunter and Koy McFarland will both be part of the support staff, and both are already in the OSU employee directory online.

They won’t be able to do on-field coaching or recruit off campus, but they could help Knowles implement his scheme.