COLUMBUS, Ohio –– Ohio State head coach Ryan Day has brought on a fresh perspective to the Buckeye coaching staff this offseason on both sides of the ball, and Day already likes what he’s seeing from the pair.

Offensive and defensive analysts Todd Fitch and Paul Rhoads, who enter the program with 60-plus years of combined collegiate coaching experience, were brought on in February, and are already making their presence felt in Columbus.

“The early returns on this has been a home run, an A+,” Day said Wednesday. “Just really a great feel for what we need, great feel for what a room needs on offense and defense, and also their impact on our guys. Just another guy who’s been around, who can kind of put their arm around somebody and talk to them, so I’m very, very excited about those additions.”

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Fitch, who worked with Day on the Boston College offensive coaching staff in 2013 and ‘14, spent last season as the offensive coordinator and eventual interim head coach at Vanderbilt, while Rhoads, who was a graduate assistant at Ohio State in 1991, was the defensive coordinator at Arizona in 2020.

Day said both hires will lend a seasoned eye to certain position groups that may not have a world of experience in the coaching department.

“For whatever reason, at those positions we’re a little bit younger,” Day said. “We had Brian Hartline there, we had Corey Dennis there, we had some younger guys in there. And I felt like it may help to have a little bit more experience in those roles as we head into this season. Every year you kind of look at it and figure out, ‘What do you need?’”

Following the end of the 2020 season, punctuated by a 52-24 loss to Alabama in the College Football Playoff Championship Game, Day said he would consider bringing in analysts to help tweak things.

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With the most evident issues on the Buckeyes’ 2020 team coming on defense, a secondary specialist may have been the speculative favorite for such a hire, but Day didn’t shy away from bringing in a new set of eyes for his offense, either.

“Todd Fitch is somebody that I’ve worked with before, he’s got a tremendous amount of experience, he’s a really good coach, I worked with him at Boston College, been around some great offenses,” Day said. “He has the right personality for this situation, and he’s gonna really help us on offense.”

Day didn’t have the same first-hand familiarity with Rhoads, but said he leaned on the recommendations of several confidants, including 2019 Ohio State co-defensive coordinator and current Boston College head coach Jeff Hafley, who worked with Rhoads on the Pittsburgh defense in the mid-2000s.

“Paul Rhoads, while I didn’t know him or had worked with him, I talked with several people that had worked with him; Chip Kelly being one, Jeff Hafley being another, coach Wannstedt, I mean there’s a lot of guys that just couldn’t say enough great things about him as a person,” Day said. “And then obviously his background and what he’s been through and his experience is critical.”

The advent of the analyst position on the Buckeye coaching staff may have been something of a foreign concept before now, but as spring practice gets underway at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, all indications are that Day’s new hires are fitting in just fine with Ohio State.