Manning each of his coordinator spots at Ohio State, Ryan Day has former NFL head coaches in Matt Patricia and Arthur Smith.
Patricia, the former head coach the Detroit Lions and longtime defensive coordinator and right hand to Bill Belichick with the New England Patriots, is set for a second season running the Buckeyes defense and are coming off a year where they were one of the best defenses in college football, constantly morphing and giving offensive play callers fits week in and week out.
On the other side of the ball, Day hired former Titans head coach Arthur Smith as the new offensive coordinator in Columbus after he spent a season as the Steelers offensive coordinator. Smith steps in for Brian Hartline, who spent last season as the Buckeyes offensive coordinator after developing first-round NFL receivers at a clip that we may never see again.
A staff already rich in NFL experience has just added another veteran NFL presence.
Veteran pass rush specialist coach Joe Kim was out at spring practices today working with the Buckeyes defensive line, where he worked alongside universally respected defensive line coach Larry Johnson.
Last season, Kim spent on staff with Bret Bielema at Illinois with the title of Skill Development Coordinator, and has had a number of stops in the NFL as well as a stint developing pass rushers on his own.
His career started in the early 1990s with the Browns, where he worked as an assistant strength coach and pass rush specialist through the 1995 season. From there he went to a number of stops teaching the craft of push rushing to the Cowboys, Dolphins, Packers, Broncos, and Bills before a return to college football at Penn State in 2009-10 followed by a return to the NFL with the Chiefs from 2010-13.
He would go on to work in skill development for the Bears and Redskins in 2014, and 2015, respectively, before returning to the Browns for the 2016 season.
In 2017 he founded Football Combatives, and then joined the Patriots organization in 2018 as a consultant before transitioning to director of skill development for Bill Belichick final handful of seasons leading the team.
Kim, who is also a mixed-martial arts instructor, is well known for bringing taekwondo methods onto the football field, and now gets an opportunity to do that at his third Big Ten program over the last few decades.
Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.