Bill Davis, who served two up-and-down years as the linebackers coach for Ohio State will not return for the 2019 season. He announced on Tuesday that he will be returning to the NFL
The announcement coincides with the report that Ryan Day will be adding Michigan assistant Al Washington to his staff. Ohio State is expected to make that announcement official later in the day.
Davis joined the Buckeyes in December 2016, following the departure of Luke Fickell to Cincinnati. But even when he was first added to the staff, he was viewed as an unconventional hire.
Davis had most recently served as the defensive coordinator of the Philadelphia Eagles from 2013-2015. He only coached one year of college football before, and that was as a graduate assistant at Michigan State a quarter-century earlier.
After that, his entire coaching career was in the NFL.
Davis played his college ball at Cincinnati with Urban Meyer, and later famously served as the Best Man in Meyer’s wedding. That personal connection may have helped land him a job, but in two seasons with the Buckeyes, there were persistent questions about his linebacker unit.
Despite fielding talented players like Jerome Baker, the 2017 linebackers struggled. They were part of a defense that gave up 19 points per game, including a humiliating 55-24 blowout at Iowa, where they allowed 6.4 yards per rush and 7.6 yards per pass.
After Baker and Chris Worley left, the defense slumped even more in 2018, allowing 25.7 points per game. That’s more than 10 points worse than in Fickell’s last season.
The S&P+ rating system had the 2018 Buckeyes 79th in the nation against the rush, 74th against the pass, and 124th out of 130 teams in allowing explosive plays during the course of the regular season.
While Davis was certainly not the only person responsible for the defense’s performance, he and his linebackers caught a lot of criticism for their role in all of the big plays allowed.
Oregon State scored on runs of 49, 80, and 78 yards.
TCU had a 93-yard touchdown run and 51-yard scoring throw.
Penn State scored a 93-yard touchdown through the air.
Purdue had touchdown runs of 40 and 42 yards, and a pass of 43.
Maryland scored on runs of 81 and 75 yards.
Northwestern scored on a 77-yard run.
That’s 12 touchdowns of 40 yards or more. In the year before Davis took over as linebackers coach, 2016, the defense allowed only one 40+ yard touchdown all season.
With the issue never truly getting resolved, and without a track record of college coaching success to point to, Davis became one of the more frequent targets of anger and frustration from fans.
Nothing but the upmost respect to Billy Davis. After several discussions I support his decision to pursue opportunities in the NFL. One organization will be getting a great coach and man.
— Ryan Day (@ryandaytime) January 8, 2019
Any coach who thinks Borland and Werner are Ohio State caliber linebackers are out of their mind! Good Riddance!!!!!! Later dude….
Never believed once that a bunch of 4 or 5 star prospects could look like High school seniors. OSU has a long history of placing studs in the NFL, from Spielman to Shazier. If this new LB coach is just mediocre, our D will make massive leaps. I’m glad he has another position that takes care of his family and he can contribute with his gifts and talents.
The statement should have read: “I know I will not be retained on the coaching staff, therefore, I am resigning before being let go!”
In Davis’s case, it would be easy to dismiss him with a “good riddance,” but like the rest of us, he’s human, has a family and deserves to earn a livelihood. It seems clear he was not a good fit at Ohio State, but I’m sure he did the best he knew how – no one in competitive sports tries to fail – and I wish him the very best in his future pursuits.
And welcome to Al Washington. His dad played as a Buckeye, and we all hope the son does an exemplary job in helping the Buckeyes both on and off the field to become the very best that they can be.
You’re a better man than I am, Bob. Good riddance! Davis and Schiano cost us at least 1 and possibly 2 national titles. Defense got DEMONSTRABLY worse the past 2 years and those 2 had their fingerprints all over the shortcomings. I agree with those who say that NFL “coaches” are really babysitters and cannot teach well at all. This appears to bear that out as with the talent tOSU brings in at LB they sure didn’t seem to develop at all under Davis and CERTAINLY nowhere near to the caliber Coach Fickell used to regularly produce. I’m certain he did “do his best” as you put it, but clearly teaching – at least at the collegiate level – wasn’t for him. Glad he’s gone.
Amen! Good riddance!!! I’m sorry but Iowa and Purdue along with the big play gaffes have his stain all over it! It’s not a coincidence that these two EMBARRASSING losses happened on his watch. I mean, we are talking about 30 point losses to dumpster fire schools! That’s not an “Oh well, shit happens” type of loss. Not only should he be gone, but he should reimburse the school his entire paycheck for the last 2 years.
Honest post. I agree.
I don’t hate Davis. I’m certain that he did the best he could with his very limited experience. It’s just not feasible for a guy who never instructed even Pop Warner level linebackers to understand the most basic of fundamentals. In the professional league, they are the recipients of the real work done from Pop Warner, High School and finally the Collegiate level. They get players who are virtually plug and play. Hand them a playbook and most of the guys are self starters in developing their bodies and preparing for games. The position coaches get the best of the best from the Collegiate ranks and the pro’s really don’t have the time to “waste” developing fundamentals, much less advanced independent position skills and techniques.
Position coaches in the NFL are overpaid babysitters.
Conversely, some position coaches at the College level struggle moving up to the pro ranks because they take their development skills packages and waste too much time continuing to develop players rather than perfecting their roles within the scheme. The skills should already be present the day they arrive if they were good enough to become draft selections.
Isn’t the secondary coach that we just hired straight out of the NFL (49ers)? I don’t hear you throwing him under the bus… yet.
Thank you ,
Thank you, Buckeye Bob. Real classy comment and I agree completely. Who knows all the dynamics that contributed to our awful defense in 2018 but Day is taking the bull by the horns.
In this case, the anger and frustration from fans was justified. This was a blatant nepotism hire that should have been stopped before it started. Goodbye.