“I can fill in wherever they need a little help,” Schiano said, “and take one of the linebackers who does a different job than the other two. I can help there or at whatever position. It allows me to have a better understanding of where our guys are in their comfort level with things.”
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Ohio State lost one defensive coach, Kerry Coombs, to the NFL after last season and added two coaches. Alex Grinch is the co-defensive coordinator and shares the duty of coaching safeties with Schiano. Taver Johnson is the cornerbacks coach and special teams coordinator.
Schiano nearly left Ohio State to become the head coach at Tennessee in December. Fan backlash forced Tennessee to go another direction. Schiano has said he’ll talk about the situation at some point but declined to do so Wednesday after Ohio State’s seventh practice of the spring.
Schiano will enter his third season at Ohio State with an even better understanding of his defense. He said his new role should effect how he calls games “because if you know a guy’s not really comfortable with a technique, you wait until they get comfortable. Not that you couldn’t do that before, but when you see it with your own eyes sometimes, it helps.”
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In one practice, Schiano may find himself helping Bill Davis with the linebackers or Taver Johnson with the cornerbacks or Grinch with the safeties or Larry Johnson with the defensive linemen. He likes the fact that there are now five defensive coaches and five offensive coaches. In the past, the offense usually had one more coach than the defense.
“I like to be able to see everything,” Schiano said. “The other thing is there are things you don’t see. I get to jump from meeting room to meeting room. Before (practice), we meet for a good amount of time on every detail. I’ll get to jump around and grab kids individually, maybe a guy who’s a little behind, and not burden the position coach with it.”
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