Where Will Ryan Day’s Coaching Staff Be Stationed On Game Days?

It won’t be hard to find Ryan Day’s coaching staff on Saturdays this season, provided you know where to look.

Some of his assistants will be upstairs, watching the field from the press box. Others will be on the sidelines, able to give face-to-face feedback to their players.

As to where the Buckeye assistants will be next Saturday, that is still being worked out.

“We’re working through that,” Day said on Monday. “I think as of right now on offense, Kevin [Wilson] and Mike [Yurcich] will be upstairs.”

Having the two offensive coordinators upstairs in the press box is not a surprise. It’s what Wilson and Day did last year. It’s also a much different world being upstairs or downstairs. Some coaches prefer the view from the press box because they can see more.

For former quarterbacks like Ryan Day and Mike Yurcich, however, they can do okay from the field because they’ve lived it from their playing days. Still, Yurcich will be upstairs with Wilson, imparting what they see down to Day who will call the plays for the Buckeyes this year.

Running backs coach Tony Alford, offensive line coach Greg Studrawa, and receivers coach Brian Hartline will all be on the sidelines again, just as they were last year.

Defensively, however, the answers aren’t so definite.

Defensive line coach Larry Johnson will be on the field as always. Linebackers coach Al Washington probably will as well. Co-defensive coordinator Greg Mattison was down on the field for Michigan, but he wasn’t a coordinator his last few years.

That leaves co-defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley and assistant secondary coach/special teams coordinator Matt Barnes as the two most likely eyes in the sky.

The question remains, however, should you have both secondary coaches away from the field?

“On defense, we’re still working through that,” Day said. “I know Jeff wants to be upstairs. Whether Matt Barnes is upstairs or not, we’re still figuring that out. We did have a mock game last week, had Matt upstairs with the special teams. Kind of worked through that a little bit.”

If Barnes is upstairs, Day would help out with special teams a bit, but he has other duties as well.

“I’m kind of very much involved now with the special teams,” he said. “I’m going to be able to help a little bit. Call plays. It’s going to be hard for me to do a lot of it. Those are the things that we’re working through. We’ll do another mock game this week, probably make a final decision on Saturday.”