Kerry Coombs is Overwhelmingly Grateful to be a Buckeye

Coombs can't wait to get the season started and is thankful they're playing this fall. Read more about his visit with the media on Tuesday.

There are lots of people associated with Ohio State football that are happy to be back for a fall season, but it may not be a stretch to say that defensive coordinator and secondary coach Kerry Coombs is chief among them.

You can hear the gratitude and passion in his voice. Born and raised on the west side of Cincinnati, Coombs never left the state of Ohio during his coaching career until he earned a chance to coach the Tennessee Titans defensive backs the last two years. He absolutely bleeds Scarlet and Gray football.

“It’s really everything about who I am,” Coombs said. “I’m happy we are playing because it’s been 53 years since I wasn’t on a sideline. This is where I grew up. My wife and I grew up two miles apart, went to the same high school and our kids went there as well. I grew up watching Woody Hayes coach and Archie Griffin run the ball. I love the state and the residents within it. Buckeyes are a special group of people and I’m really glad to be one of them.”

It's been an emotional few months for Coombs and he's had to learn to adjust with all of life's curveballs these days.

“I prefer to be a hands-on coach, but I’ve had to learn to be a zoom coach,” Coombs explained. “The neat part about that is that I probably had more communication with them as opposed to a normal recruiting cycle on the road. It gave us time to talk about other areas than football and have really meaningful conversations. There is no question the absence of practice time was disappointing, but there was nothing we could do. We didn’t cry or put our heads down. I thought we maximized our time as well as anyone.”

Coombs acknowledged the reason he got the opportunity to coach the in the NFL was largely because of the success Ohio State's secondary has had the last decade. Last year, the Titans were one game shy of a Super Bowl appearance and he thinks his unit has a chance to have another good season on Sundays. But he's thrilled to be back coaching on Saturdays in Columbus and made it quite clear with the media on Tuesday that 

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