Ryan Day welcomes former Ohio State star, NFL All-Pro to Buckeyes coaching staff to address major weakness
The Ohio State Buckeyes continue to overhaul its coaching staff in the wake of losing top personnel after winning the National Championship. As spring practices opened on Monday, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day announced that former Buckeye Nate Ebner is joining the program. Ebner made his debut as a Special Teams Quality Control Coach […]
The Ohio State Buckeyes continue to overhaul its coaching staff in the wake of losing top personnel after winning the National Championship. As spring practices opened on Monday, Ohio State head coach Ryan Day announced that former Buckeye Nate Ebner is joining the program.
Ebner made his debut as a Special Teams Quality Control Coach on Monday already. The former safety and special teamer is reuniting with new Buckeyes defensive coordinator Matt Patricia. Patricia coached Ebner in New England.
Ohio State adds Nate Ebner as Special Teams Assistant
One thing that made Ebner such a beloved Buckeye was that he parlayed being a walk-on into being drafted into the NFL. He spent 10 seasons with the Patriots and New York Giants. Ebner played with the Buckeyes as a safety and special teamer. His 30 tackles and one sack in 36 games were nothing special, but his work ethic was legendary.
He was such a good specialist that Ebner accomplished this without playing high school football. The 197th overall pick in the 2012 NFL Draft, Ebner earned Second-Team All-Pro in 2016 as a special teamer. He also won three Super Bowls with the Patriots.
Running the 40-yard dash at 4.48 was part of the momentum that carried into a tremendous NFL career.
Ebner was nicknamed "Leonidas," after a Greek warrior-king hero of Sparta portrayed by Gerard Butler in the movie 300, because of his intense workout regimen and his beard.
Paul Haynes, the Buckeyes' co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach at the time, said: "He has a passion for being great …. He was probably that team's most valuable player last year." Asked which special teams unit he enjoyed playing on the most at Ohio State, Ebner said: "Kickoff, probably. Because … I just enjoy running down as fast as you can. It's just mayhem, it's exciting, it's crazy. It's such a rush…. It's just one big blur, and then it's over…. Maybe I got a screw loose."
Belichick was also incredibly complimentary of Ebner, saying:
His development has really been outstanding. I would probably put him in the, not the all-time top, but maybe in the top-five percent all time of players that I've coached, from where they were in college to how they grew in the NFL. [He] has adapted in a relatively short amount of time to the knowledge of our defense, to the understanding of opponents' offenses, to instinctiveness and reading and recognition at a position that he plays right in the middle of the field, which is among the most difficult – inside linebacker and safety – where the number of things that can happen is the greatest.
This is the first time Ebner is coaching, but adding someone who fought so hard for his career is never a bad move.
It's especially key for Day to continue improving on special teams since much of the 2024 season was spent focusing on winning in the margins. Day recognized he can't overstretch himself in that room as he breaks in new offensive coordinator Brian Hartline, so Ebner will take some pressure off.
