Ohio State has reportedly added a new hire to help coach its secondary.
According to multiple reports, Cincinnati cornerbacks coach Perry Eliano has accepted a position with the Buckeyes to help bolster the back end of a defense that ranked 96th in the country against the pass in 2021.
Sources: Perry Eliano has accepted the safeties coaching job at Ohio State. Hes the Cincinnati corners coach, where he tutored Thorpe winner Coby Bryant and first-team All-American Sauce Gardner. Hes the former DC at Bowling Green and has worked at New Mexico and UTSA.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) January 13, 2022
Cincinnati cornerbacks coach Perry Eliano has taken the position of safeties coach at Ohio State, sources tell @TheAthleticCFB.
Eliano played a major role in the development of consensus All-American cornerback Sauce Gardner and Jim Thorpe Award winning cornerback Coby Bryant.
— Justin Williams (@Williams_Justin) January 13, 2022
Eliano helped develop All-American cornerback Sauce Gardner at Cincinnati this past season, and the Bearcats had the second-best passing defense in the country with an average of 169.2 passing yards allowed per game.
The move comes in the aftermath of defensive play caller Matt Barnes accepting the defensive coordinator job at Memphis following the Rose Bowl. Barnes had previously been a safeties coach with the Buckeyes in 2020 before earning the title of secondary coach (and eventually defensive play caller) in 2021.
But with the hire of new Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles in December, the addition of Eliano to the defensive staff suggests that there may be more change to come on the Buckeye staff. Ohio State is now one over the limit of 10 assistant coaches, and Lettermen Row’s Austin Ward reports that the Buckeyes are also pursuing Jacksonville Jaguars cornerback coach Tim Walton to coach in the secondary, while former defensive coordinator Kerry Coombs and linebackers coach Al Washington both appear to be on their way out.
Ohio State has not yet confirmed the hiring of Eliano or any additional departures from the staff.
Eliano coached cornerbacks at Cincinnati for two seasons after spending three years at New Mexico as special teams coordinator, cornerbacks coach and eventually interim head coach in 2019. Eliano has also coached at Bowling Green, UTSA, Central Arkansas and Sam Houston during a 19-year coaching career.
A native of Killeen, Texas, Eliano was a defensive back at Stephen F. Austin from 1996 to 1999, and served as a graduate assistant at the program in 2001 and 2002.
Earlier this week, Ohio State officially announced the hire of new offensive line coach and associate head coach for offense Justin Frye, who came aboard after the Buckeyes parted ways with Greg Studrawa. Frye’s was the second new coaching hire for Ohio State prior to Eliano since the end of the 2021 regular season.
