Ryan Day makes a smart, in-state hire to hopefully fix his Ohio State football defense.
Ryan Day knows the only way his Ohio State Buckeyes are playing for a national championship next year is if its pedestrian defense gets better in a hurry.
He was already able to land former Oklahoma State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles. The Pokes defense was a big reason they had arguably their best season in program history. Now Day has targeted Cincinnati Bearcats cornerbacks coach Perry Eliano to coach the safeties at Ohio State. Eliano coached the best cornerback duo in the country last year in Coby Bryant and Sauce Gardner.
With C.J. Stroud returning under center, it is most critical for the Buckeyes defense to get better to help its Heisman finalist quarterback get this team over the top.
Ryan Day raids Luke Fickell’s Cincinnati staff to revamp his Ohio State defense
Though Cincinnati is joining the Big 12 soon, this is what life is like as a Group of Five program. Eliano may have played a huge role in Cincinnati doing the unthinkable and making the College Football Playoff, but Ohio State is Ohio State. That is one of the few programs in the country where it is next to impossible to turn a job down from. This is best program not in the south.
Ultimately, Cincinnati will pull back in 2022 because how can the Bearcats top what it did last season. As for Ohio State, a two-loss regular season is not going to cut it in the slightest. Ohio State needs to win the Big Ten, reach the College Football Playoff and probably play for a national title for the 2022 campaign to be viewed as a success. These are very lofty expectations for them.
By prying Eliano out of Cincinnati, Ohio State will clearly do anything to make its defense better.
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