Off-season movements continue to arrive in Ohio. Shortly thereafter, it was reported by Pete Thamel of Yahoo and confirmed by Bucknuts that the Buckeyes would hire the former Iowa State coach Paul Rhoads as a defensive analyst, two more positions were filled.
Head coach Ryan Day will add more scarlet and gray defensive star CJ Barnett to the team as the Player Development Director. This was reported by Tony Gerdeman of Buckeye Scoop. Barnett will replace the recently deceased Ryan Stamper in the same role. Stamper left the Buckeye program to join the former OSU coach Meyer Urbano how director of player evaluation with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
In this role, Barnett will be tasked with being “an administrative resource for players in all areas of their development. “Stamper previously dealt with reaching the community and preparing players for life after football. He helped create the very successful Real Life Wednesday program in Ohio. Barnett will have to perform a similar role on Day’s staff. .
Scarlet and gray are also set to add Todd Fitch as an offensive analyst Bucknuts learned, similar to the role that Rhoads will assume, but on the other side of the ball. Fitch has 30 years of experience as a college coach, including working with Day at Boston College in 2013-14, when he served as a wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator, and Day was the offensive coordinator and quarterback coach.
Barnett played security in Ohio from 2009-13 and was a letterman for four years. He started for the Buckeyes for three seasons, including leading Scarlet and Gray with 75 total tackles in 2011 and finishing second with 85 tackles as a senior in 2013. For his college career, Barnett recorded 224 tackles in total, 12 defended passes, four interceptions and four tackles for a defeat. He was named captain of the team for his senior season.
Since his gambling days, Barnett has spent the past two years working for the Columbus Police Department and has recently been honored as part of Ohio State’s “Buckeyes on the Frontline” stories.
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Fitch, who played on the defensive at Ohio Wesleyan from 1992 to 1985, began his coaching career at Battling Bishop in 1986 as a graduate assistant. He held similar roles in Bowling Green and West Virginia before taking his first full-time position as a wide receiver coach with the Falcons in 1990. Since then, Fitch has held several different positions at schools across the country, including his time in Boston College, training wide receivers, running backs and defenders, for several seasons, in South Carolina and last year as offensive coordinator and defender coach at Vanderbilt, where he also served as interim coach for the team.