The likely biggest change to the Ohio State coaching staff this season is the addition of new co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach Alex Grinch. Grinch is an Ohio native who spent the last three years as the defensive coordinator at Washington State. In 2017, he was a Broyles award semifinalist for best assistant coach. It is therefore worth examining what Grinch did with the Cougars’ defense – and what he may bring to Ohio State.

At Washington State, Grinch used a somewhat unique style in his front seven. His “Speed D” was effectively a 3-3-5 alignment, with two hybrid outside linebacker defenders. The weak linebacker was a mix of an outside linebacker and rush end, while the strong side hybrid mixed an outside linebacker with a nickel defender, similar to Ohio State’s Sam position.

Yet what made Grinch’s defense distinctive was that, before the snap, he would often have his defense linemen shift to a different gap. The Cougar defensive linemen would then often slant up front in a particular direction.

According to Grinch, he could not always recruit big and fast defensive linemen to Pullman. So he would error on the side of taking undersized, athletic defenders. The pre-snap shifting was intended to maximize that athleticism – while minimizing the size disadvantage – using movement to confuse the opponents’ offensive line and put the Cougars’ defensive linemen in a position to play one gap and penetrate into the backfield.

In the secondary Grinch was more conventional. He based his defensive backs in a split safety look, generally playing cover 4 quarters matchup zone coverage. The latter, also known as quarter-quarter-half, combines cover 2 to the boundary with cover 4 to the wide field, with one goal being to have increased force run support to the short field from the boundary corner.

Grinch is unlikely to bring the 3-down, shifting scheme to the Ohio State defense, at least on a regular basis. Ohio State has recruited to its one-gap, four down linemen scheme, bringing in defensive tackles that fit the 3-technique and 1-technique nose guard positions. And the Buckeyes can attract the “big and fast” defensive linemen, which means they can play a more gap-sound style up front.

Grinch’s odd scheme could have some influence, however, on Ohio State’s nickel package. There, the Buckeyes already employ some odd fronts and could do some shifting with smaller, rush-oriented defensive linemen on the field.

Grinch’s bigger influence, however, is likely to be in Ohio State’s coverage schemes. Under former defensive coordinator Chris Ash, the Buckeyes were primarily a cover 4 team. But in defensive coordinator Greg Schiano’s initial season, Ohio State played a large amount of cover 1 man. This generally worked well in 2015 with the Buckeyes’ secondary talent, particularly with safety Malik Hooker to man the deep middle zone.

But the Buckeye defense struggled early in 2016 with man coverage. This resulted in a greater use of quarters as the season progressed, particularly on early downs.

Bringing in Grinch – who is well versed in such split safety schemes – suggests that Ohio State may again emphasize cover 4 (and cover 6) in the upcoming season.