COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Buckeyes have added another piece to the coaching puzzle for Ryan Day’s first staff with the addition of Matt Barnes to take over the duties coaching special teams and to assist with coaching in the secondary along with Jeff Hafley.
Barnes spent three years at Maryland where he coached the linebackers and then added the duties of special teams coordinator going into the 2018 season.
“Matt is young coach who has really done a great job at Maryland,” Day said via press release. “He’s an energy guy who has considerable knowledge of the Big Ten Conference plus experience coaching in the Southeastern Conference. He’s going to work well with our staff and I’m pleased to have him on board.”
This most recent while at Maryland, under Barnes, the Terps ranked 18th nationally and third in the B1G in kickoff returns, a category where the Buckeyes were near the bottom of the nation. Maryland was also 11th in the nation with two blocked punts and No. 39 in net punting nationally.
The new Ohio State coach will be the third coach hired in that has ties to Ohio State’s biggest rival as Barnes spent the 2015 season in Ann Arbor (Mich.) under Jim Harbaugh where he served as a defensive analyst.
Before that he served as a graduate assistant at Florida.
Urban Meyer previously served as the special teams coach for the Buckeyes so it was up to Day to either find someone to fill in that spot or do it himself. With his involvement with quarterbacks, it was highly unlikely that he was going to take on those duties himself so they needed to look outside the program to find someone to take over that role.
This move means that Taver Johnson will have his second run with the Buckeyes come to an end. Johnson rejoined the Buckeyes going into the 2018 season and served the one year after returning to Ohio State after a previous run under Jim Tressel.
This move completes at total overhaul of the defensive staff for Ohio State that only saw Larry Johnson remain on staff from the 2018 coaches. Greg Mattison and Hafley will serve as co-coordinators along with Johnson, Al Washington and now Matt Barnes.
