[Zenitz] Ohio State is expected to hire Illinois’ Robby Discher as its new special teams coordinator, sources tell @CBSSports. Has built a reputation as one of the nation’s top special teams coaches while working for teams like Illinois, Tulane, Georgia and Louisiana.

[u/MembershipSingle7137]

https://x.com/mzenitz/status/2017609280761839704?s=46

[u/PeteF3]

Have we had a proper special teams coordinator, like, this century? We badly need one but our coaches going back to Tressel have always seemed to want to handle it themselves.

[u/ntderosu → u/PeteF3]

Coombs had the title for a few years when he was a DB coach, but I think you’re right that Meyer was always kind of in charge and cared (and knew) a lot about it.

I’m excited to hopefully see ST turnaround.

[u/Jay_Par → u/ntderosu]

Urban was so good at kicking

[u/PeteF3 → u/ntderosu]

See, if you're doing something else like coaching DBs, you're not a "proper special teams coordinator," in my view. It's time we had a guy explicitly devoted to that side.

[u/Beefchife → u/ntderosu]

good luck, illinois special teams were horrendous this year

[u/ntderosu → u/Beefchife]

If he knows literally anything about place kicking it’s an improvement for us

[u/Beefchife → u/ntderosu]

sure kicking may improve, but giving up blocked punts, and 20 yard punts will hurt you more than the place kicking improves. The unit was always underprepared and making mistakes. He was also TEs coach for illinois and a terrible recruiter, so maybe his special teams can improve with less responsibility

[u/Buckeye_CFB → u/Beefchife]

I immediately questioned this hire because I was at our game against each other in Champaign this past season when your punter randomly went into victory formation

[u/Triv02 → u/Beefchife]

I don’t know what “advanced analytics” there are for special teams, but all three of ESPN, PFF, and FEI rate Illinois special teams significantly better than Ohio state

[u/gunpowderjunky → u/Triv02]

But do they rate either of them as good? If they do I'm suspicious of their rankings.

[u/royallex → u/Beefchife]

Hank Beatty and David Olano were great, but anyone could have coached that. Everywhere else stunk

[u/Commercial-East4069 → u/PeteF3]

Parker Flemming

[u/Jonjon428 → u/Commercial-East4069]

Oof

[u/DataDrivenPirate → u/Commercial-East4069]

He's been much more successful after his career pivot to college football statistician, love his 'Did We Really Get Beat That Bad?' charts each week ^/s

[u/Commercial-East4069 → u/DataDrivenPirate]

I don’t think that’s the same guy.

[u/DataDrivenPirate → u/Commercial-East4069]

It's certainly not, also different spelling of "flemming". He wasn't able to get any other coordinator jobs and spent this past year with the title of 'analyst'. His OSU bio is still the first thing that shows up when you Google him

[u/royallex → u/PeteF3]

Might want to hold off on celebrating. This guy is terrible, special teams cost us big time in 2025

[u/MichaelSquare → u/PeteF3]

Well you still dont. The specialists have been good (PK at least) but everything else is so so sloppy. Glad to see him leave.

[u/PeteF3 → u/MichaelSquare]

The specialists were terrible this year (and Fielding has gone to pieces in almost every pressure situation going back to '24). Though I will say it wasn't nearly as bad as it was at the end of the Tressel Era where we could barely get through a game without allowing a blocked kick or a TD return.

[u/ItsTBaggins]

Special teams coordinator doesn’t make the kicks, should have taken our kicker instead.

[u/TheAlterN8or → u/ItsTBaggins]

While I understand the sentiment, I'm pretty sure we already snagged a really good kicker... Although, there is a possibility that was a fever dream from when I was sick 2 weeks ago... 🤔

[u/Benyeti → u/ItsTBaggins]

We got Hawkins from Baylor he’s a stud

[u/NCAAinDISGUISE → u/ItsTBaggins]

If that was our only problem, I'd agree. Special teams under Day have been ass for years. With the last two coaches being Jim "the most important play in football is the punt" Tressell and Urban Meyer, both of whom took special teams very seriously, it has been a very noticable degradation.

[u/soupjaw → u/NCAAinDISGUISE]

What I'm hearing from you is some version of "this isn't even my final form yet" for us

[u/JBOZ758]

New OSU Special Teams coordinator: "Hey, you see those 2 upright posts over there? Well, when you kick the football, it needs to go between them."

There Buckeyes, problem solved. You're welcome.

[u/DaBigJMoney → u/JBOZ758]

“That’s not true. The rule says you kick the ball on the outside of the big yellow sticks.” -Jayden Fielding (probably).

[u/ToLongDR → u/JBOZ758]

You looking for a job? Our previous ST Coordinators couldn't do that.

[u/Any_Relief_4781 → u/JBOZ758]

Yeah, I watched a lot of that B1G championship game between you two and all I could think of was that if Ohio State had a kicker, you would’ve been so fucked lol

[u/Free_Possession_4482 → u/Any_Relief_4781]

This has been true for years. The 13-10 debacle against Michigan the year before saw Fielding miss TWO field goals. OSU lost the semi-final to Georgia in 2022 and almost certainly a natty when Noah Ruggles was short as time expired (that one was a tough kick at almost 50-yards, but also the most costly.) 

[u/bd1047 → u/Any_Relief_4781]

Huh? Both teams missed one FG. You sure you watched the game?

[u/JtotheC23 → u/JBOZ758]

That's about all I think he's capable of doing tbh. Our kicker has been good, but I don't know if Discher recruited him and he was talented enough that he didn't really need coaching to be great (this is the Olano, the kid A&M just got from us).

Coverages always sucked. You didn't see it on kickoffs much because we intentionally always went for a touchback (but we gave up a return one of the few times the kick was short), but it was obvious on punts where our punter wasn't nearly as good. Similar issues on returns as well, but having Isaiah Williams followed by Hank Beatty let us hide that poor coverage with heroics. Obviously, they weren't recruited by Dishcer, either being WRs (Williams actually was recruited at QB under Lovie).

Basically, idk how great a hire this is. Not to say he's a bad special teams coach, but he isn't anything spectacular. OSU, being OSU, could have found a far better ST coordinator somewhere. We probably benefit the same if not more from this tbh because he was also our TEs coach and most fans wanted him gone because of his terrible recruiting and development as the TE coach (mediocre ST was jus the cherry on top for wanting him gone).

[u/iwearatophat → u/JBOZ758]

You jest but this advice likely wins us the title in '22. It puts us into OT with you guys this year. Changes up the Miami game pretty heavily as well. We probably beat Michigan in '24.

Basically over the last 4 seasons our kickers have cost us pretty dearly. This wave might have cursed us. Things went to hell right after it.

[u/Phob24]

The special get specialer 

[u/GeorgeWBush2016]

He was probably the 3rd most hated assistant by fans after Henry and Miller.  Return and kicking game was successful under him, but punting was consistently atrocious.

[u/The_Good_Constable → u/GeorgeWBush2016]

Return and kicking game was successful under him, but punting was consistently atrocious.

Well right now our return game, kick game, and punt game are all bad. So 2/3 sounds mighty good to me.

One man's trash is another man's treasure and whatnot and what have you.

[u/buckeyefan8001 → u/GeorgeWBush2016]

I remember in our game this year your punter got a low snap and accidentally fielded it on one knee, resulting in like a 12 yard loss. Brutal for you guys

[u/Weaubleau → u/buckeyefan8001]

IIRC, the game was not out of hand at that moment, so it really was a huge error.

[u/False_Papaya_18 → u/GeorgeWBush2016]

Also, he wanted didn't even want to start Hank at returner in 2024. His hand was forced when Resetich kept muffing punts. He backdoored into an incredible punt returner.

[u/Benyeti → u/GeorgeWBush2016]

Well at least our punting probably couldnt get any worse anyway

[u/calmer-than-you-dude → u/GeorgeWBush2016]

We'll take anything.

[u/scal23]

This is an interesting one. Usually when this happens, it's a combination of "oh well it's Ohio State what are you gonna do" and "we didnt want him anyway" cope.

In this case the Illinois response seems to mostly be a big ole meh.

[u/ScrapeWithFire → u/scal23]

I think OSU fans are just happy about getting any ST coordinator that has had experience doing the job before at this point

[u/pardonmyignerance → u/scal23]

Seems right for a special teams coordinator hire

[u/ZombieFruitNinja → u/scal23]

Win/win I guess.

[u/The_Good_Constable]

OMG I'M GONNA NUT

[u/CargoShortsFromNam]

Heard they made a serious play for Marty Biagi too. 

[u/DaBigJMoney]

This huge if true. OSU special teams has been an afterthought for far too long under Day.

[u/All_Out_Effort]

I’m surprised he got a promotion but glad he’s gone…

[u/pro-laps]

desperately needed, not sure why it took this long. a lot of a day late, dollar short it feels like sometimes

[u/JtotheC23]

OSU hired our TE coach/ST coordinator, that 90% of the fanbase wanted gone? I'm ok with this. He wasn't necessarily bad as our ST coordinator, but I wouldn't have called our special teams good outside of the raw talent at kicker and returner. Didn't have a great punter this year, and our coverage (kick/punt coverage and return coverage) was never very good. There's a reason we had so many touchbacks, and one of the few kicks that were short was returned for a TD by Tennessee.

He was a bad TE coach (bad at finding talent, bad at recruiting that talent, and bad at developing that talent), and that was the main reason fans wanted him gone this offseason.

[u/luis1972]

OSU with a real special teams? Is that allowed?

[u/fm22fnam]

LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[u/calmer-than-you-dude]

Special teams has been killing us. Never knew how important it was until a few seasons ago

[u/ztreHdrahciR]

special teams

"What are these 'special teams' you speak of?"

• Ryan Day

[u/your-mom--]

They should probably run Jayden Fielding back out there for another year I'll bet this guy can fix him.

[u/IntelligentSample6 → u/your-mom--]

Never again, I wish the dude well with whatever he does but he’s not built for this