Ohio State is turning special teams back over to a familiar face.
Rob Keys will coordinate the Buckeyes’ special teams for the rest of the 2026 season after Robby Discher was fired, Ryan Day said Tuesday. Keys has been part of Ohio State’s extended coaching staff since 2022 and has spent that time working with special teams.
The setup from here will be a group effort. Day said Matt Guerrieri will handle the punt team, while James Laurinaitis will lead the kickoff team for the rest of 2026. Keys will be in charge of the punt return unit, and several coaches will share responsibilities on kickoff returns.
Keys came to Ohio State in 2022 after 11 seasons as the head coach at Findlay, a Division II program in Northwest Ohio. Over his five years with the Buckeyes, he has worked with special teams in multiple roles and most recently served as senior analyst.
He was already the de facto leader of Ohio State’s special teams in 2024 and 2025, when the program did not have a full-time special teams coordinator. Now he steps back into that central role as the Buckeyes try to straighten out a phase of the game that has been hit by penalties and mistakes all season.
Discher’s firing came after nine games on the job. Day pointed to the number of damaging plays as the reason, and singled out Oregon’s 30-yard fake punt as a moment that changed the game. Ohio State led 14-3 before eventually falling 41-28.
“I'm not gonna get into all the details of it at this point, but to me, that was a breakdown in a big way,” Day said.
Day also said there will be no further coaching changes before this week’s game against Northwestern. He added that he will keep evaluating whether anything else needs to change later on, and said he has not decided yet whether Ohio State will have a full-time special teams coordinator in 2027.
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