Today’s Topic: What to Make of Alex Grinch’s Departure?
It had been rumored for days, but the news of Alex Grinch leaving Ohio State for Oklahoma is still surprising given that coaches don’t generally leave Ohio State for the same job somewhere else in college.
Of course, this isn’t quite the same job.
At Ohio State, Grinch was one of two coordinators, but it’s fragmented even more than that because Larry Johnson has plenty of say, and linebackers coach Bill Davis was a former NFL defensive coordinator himself.
Grinch left Washington State as the defensive coordinator. At Ohio State, he was a defensive coordinator. At Oklahoma, he will once again get to do whatever he wants, which is pretty much what any coordinator is looking for.
As to how much say he had with the Ohio State defense, coaches never really answer this question with anything other than “everybody contributes and has input.” Other coaches when talking about OSU’s defense, however, have said Grinch’s fingerprints were very noticeable.
So how much of a loss is this? Who knows.
In Grinch’s one season, the Buckeyes had arguably their worst defense ever. But this was still viewed as Greg Schiano’s defense, so Grinch can skate a bit.
But what about the position he coached? As OSU’s safeties coach, Grinch was on hand for one of the most inconsistent job searches we’ve seen. That is until he had no choice but to play Brendon White, who turned out to be pretty damn good. Before that, however, Isaiah Pryor and Jahsen Wint struggled to find consistency.
And then there is the recruiting angle. According to data from 247Sports.com, in Grinch’s seven seasons as a Power 5 assistant coach, he has been the primary recruiter for just one 4-star signee. Every other player he signed as the primary recruiter was a 3-star or lower.
As Ryan Day said when he was announced as Ohio State’s new head coach, he was going to put together a staff of excellent recruiters. Could that have been Grinch moving forward? Possibly. After all, he was only here for one year. We don’t really know all that much about him, and we certainly don’t know what Ohio State’s defense would look like under his complete command.
However, it feels like if Ryan Day wanted that to happen, he could have made it happen.
Instead, he let Grinch walk, which should probably tell you all you need to know when wondering what to think about this whole thing.