Ohio State Fires Special Teams Coordinator Robby Discher After Nine Games

Ohio State fired first-year special teams coordinator Robby Discher on Monday, November 9, nine games into the season. The program announced the move two days after a 41-28 home loss to Oregon, a game in which the Buckeyes allowed a critical conversion on a fake punt. Head coach Ryan Day has begun making changes to his staff, and Discher is the first to go.

The firing is the first midseason staff change Day has made since he succeeded Urban Meyer as head coach in 2019, according to The Columbus Dispatch. Ohio State is 6-3 overall and 4-2 in the Big Ten, and its special teams have struggled all season. The Buckeyes rank 102nd nationally in special teams efficiency this season in the ESPN metric, out of 138 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision. Through nine games the unit had collected 14 special teams penalties, already more than the 10 Ohio State committed in the whole of the 2025 season, The Silver Bulletin reported.

The mistakes added up

The Oregon loss was the latest in a run of costly errors. Oregon caught Ohio State off guard with a trick play from its punt unit, a fake punt on fourth and nine from the Ducks' own 31-yard line that picked up 30 yards. A week earlier, in a 30-18 loss to USC on October 31, Ohio State committed three special teams penalties and allowed a 44-yard punt return that set up a Trojans touchdown, Eleven Warriors reported. The kickoff return unit has struggled too. USA Today reported that Ohio State ranks 118th in the country in kickoff returns, averaging 17.4 yards per return.

Hired to fix the problem

Discher was hired from Illinois in February to repair a unit that has troubled Ohio State for years. He was the first full-time special teams coordinator on Day's staff since Parker Fleming was fired after the 2023 season. At Illinois, where he coached special teams and tight ends from 2023 to 2025, his units ranked 16th nationally in special teams efficiency in 2024 and 30th in 2025. He had earlier run special teams at Tulane in 2022, when the Green Wave went 12-2 and beat USC in the Cotton Bowl, and he has also worked at Georgia, Louisiana, Toledo, Oklahoma State and Sam Houston State in a coaching career that dates back to 2010.

The change of plan will cost Ohio State money. Discher signed a two-year contract that paid him 400,000 dollars in 2026 and was due to pay 450,000 dollars in 2027. The Dispatch reported that he could be owed more than 500,000 dollars in severance, subject to Ohio State's obligation being reduced if he is hired elsewhere. An Ohio State spokesperson told Eleven Warriors that Day will address the move at his Tuesday press conference. Ohio State plays Northwestern at home on Saturday, November 14, as it tries to end a two-game losing run.