Ohio State fires special teams coordinator Robby Discher, Digi Mart USA News: Ohio State made a major hire to strengthen its special teams operation this offseason, bringing in Robby Discher from Illinois. That move did not produce improvement, and according to sources who spoke with On3’s Pete Nakos, head coach Ryan Day has fired Discher after just nine games.
Discher spent only nine months with the Buckeyes’ program. Ohio State had three special teams penalties and allowed a long punt return to USC in a road loss last week.
It followed that with a poor performance against Oregon, allowing a fake punt, a throw from a defensive end up-back to another defensive end down the field, that sparked a comeback by the Ducks.
Now the Buckeyes will start over on special teams again, a unit Day has struggled to stabilize throughout his eight-year tenure as head coach. The decision is especially puzzling given Discher’s background before arriving in Columbus.
Before his time at Illinois, when the special teams units were dominant, Discher was the special teams coordinator at Tulane. Earlier, he worked as a special teams quality control coach at Georgia, Louisiana, Toledo, Oklahoma State and Sam Houston State.
He has worked almost exclusively with special teams throughout his career.
Under Discher’s leadership, Illinois special teams units ranked 16th and 30th nationally by ESPN’s special teams efficiency metric in 2024 and 2025, respectively. His kicker at Illinois, David Alano, was an All-Big Ten selection this past season before entering the transfer portal.
Alano nearly came to Ohio State but chose Texas A&M instead.
During Discher’s first season at Illinois in 2023, PFF ranked the Illini’s overall special teams unit seventh-best in college football. That season, Illinois led the country in blocked kicks and punts with seven and had three more than any other team in the nation during the regular season.
Ohio State made special teams a priority this offseason, adding former Baylor kicker Conner Hawkins to address long-running problems in that phase of the game. The Buckeyes also added former UCF long-snapper Dalton Riggs and former Houston Christian punter Brady Young.
No addition was as significant as Discher’s hiring, which was expected to help Day solve the special teams issues. Instead, the unit struggled further, and Day is now starting over after nine months and nine games.
