Report: Buckeyes to add Rhoads as defensive analyst

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Published Feb 10, 2021

Report: Buckeyes to add Rhoads as defensive analyst

Kevin Noon • DottingTheEyes

Publisher

@kevin_noon

After making internal moves to replace a retiring Greg Mattison, the Buckeyes have gone out of the program to bring in a new face, this time in a defensive analyst role.

Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports reports that former Iowa State head coach Paul Rhoads will join the Ohio State staff in an analyst role.

Rhoads most recently served as the defensive coordinator at Arizona on the Kevin Sumlin staff. Rhoads served in a GA role at Ohio State in 1991 under John Cooper.

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"Now that I’m going into year three, I am taking a hard look at that and seeing if there are some people around who would be the right fit," Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said earlier this month. "I think the big thing for us is that it has to be the right fit, culturally. It has to be the right personality that brings the right things to the table."

The 54-year-old coach was a former defensive back in the late 1980s at Missouri Western and has spent most of his career coaching defensive backs including stops at Pacific, Iowa State, Auburn, Arkansas and UCLA.

Rhoads served as head coach of the Cyclones for seven years and had a 32-55 record before being relieved of his head coaching duties after the 2015 season.

The reported addition of Rhoads brings another former head coach into the coaching rooms for the Buckeyes joining former Indiana head coach Kevin Wilson.

Rhoads will not be in a direct coaching role however as an analyst and will be relegated into more of a support type of role but also can be involved with game planning leading up to a game, just not on-field work directly with players.

Alabama was one of the first schools to really utilize the analyst position and teams like Ohio State are now taking a strong look at what has worked for the Crimson Tide through the years. New Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian was an offensive analyst at Alabama before being elevated to offensive coordinator. Coaching veterans Mike Stoops, Charlie Strong, Major Applewhite and Butch Jones all serve in off-field roles for the Tide.

And now if the reports are true, Ohio State has itself a high-profile analyst in an effort to keep up in the coaching arms race.

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