Ohio State announces that Ryan Day has fired a defensive assistant
Ohio State is making a change to its coaching staff on defense.
Ohio State is parting ways with safeties coach Perry Eliano, the Buckeyes announced on Monday. Eliano was in the final year of the two-year contract he signed to become the Buckeyes’ safeties coach in 2022.
Eliano joined the Ohio State coaching staff as safeties coach in January 2022 when the Buckeyes brought in 3 new full-time defensive assistants along with defensive coordinator Jim Knowles and secondary coach Tim Walton. Ohio State’s defense improved during his 2 years on staff, and led the nation in passing yards allowed per game with only 145.9 allowed per game in 2023. That was an improvement from the 2022 season when Ohio State was 26th in the country in pass defense.
The previous year Ohio State was No. 96 in pass defense, and allowed 245.8 yards per game in 2021.
However, one criticism was that Ohio State couldn’t land multiple top recruits, including 5-star safety KJ Bolden, who is a cousin of Eliano, in the 2024 recruiting class.