Eric Boggs
Ohio State is poised to take a significant step forward on special teams in 2026 by bringing in a proven, full-time coordinator, as the Buckeyes are expected to hire Illinois special teams coordinator and tight ends coach Robby Discher. For Buckeye fans who have watched special teams poorly perform in big moments in recent seasons, this move represents a clear commitment from Ryan Day to fix a phase of the game that has too often lagged behind Ohio State’s championship standards.
Discher arrives in Columbus with an established résumé and a track record of measurable results. Over the past three seasons at Illinois, his special teams units consistently ranked among the best in the country, finishing 30th nationally in ESPN’s SP+ metric in 2025 and an impressive 16th in 2024. In 2023, Pro Football Focus graded Illinois as the seventh-best special teams unit in the nation, highlighted by a nation-leading seven blocked kicks and punts. Individual development was just as evident, with kicker David Olano emerging as one of the Big Ten’s most reliable specialists and punt returner Hank Beatty leading the conference in yards per return in 2025.
That production is not an outlier in Discher’s career. Before Illinois, he coordinated special teams at Tulane, Louisiana, Toledo and Sam Houston State, and also served in a quality control role at Georgia. His reputation in the profession dates back even further to his time as a graduate assistant at Oklahoma State, where he won FootballScoop’s Special Teams Coordinator of the Year award in 2014, becoming the first graduate assistant to ever earn a national coach of the year honor. That season alone featured three return touchdowns and six blocked kicks, including a game-winning punt return score against Oklahoma.
For Ohio State, the hire comes at an important moment. The Buckeyes ranked just 67th in special teams SP+ in 2025, and recent seasons have included costly mistakes in high-leverage situations. Those struggles prompted a shift this offseason toward both coaching and personnel upgrades. Discher is expected to take over a unit that will feature a new kicker in Baylor transfer Connor Hawkins, a new long snapper in UCF transfer Dalton Riggs, and likely a familiar face at punter with Joe McGuire entering his third season. Ohio State also added former Houston Christian punter Brady Young via the portal and secured a future piece with 2026 kicker commit Cooper Peterson.
Hawkins, in particular, represents a major step forward in consistency and range. In his lone season as Baylor’s primary kicker, he connected on over 81 percent of his field goals, was perfect inside 40 yards, and showed confidence from distance with multiple makes beyond 50 yards, including a game-winning 53-yarder against Kansas State. Pairing that kind of leg with Discher’s history of maximizing specialists is an encouraging sign for a Buckeye fan base eager to see reliability return to the kicking game.
Discher also becomes the third new full-time assistant added to Ohio State’s staff for 2026, joining offensive coordinator Arthur Smith and wide receivers coach Cortez Hankton. With this hire, Ryan Day is again leveraging college football’s modern staffing structure to strengthen areas that don’t always grab headlines but often decide games. After two seasons in which special teams responsibilities were handled by quality control and support staff, Ohio State is clearly signaling that mediocrity in this phase is no longer acceptable.
From a Buckeye perspective, this move feels both overdue and well-calculated. Discher brings experience, credibility, and a proven blueprint for creating impact plays while minimizing mistakes. If his past results carry over to Columbus, Ohio State’s special teams may finally become a strength rather than a lingering concern, rounding out a roster and coaching staff built to compete for championships in 2026 and beyond.
