Kerry Coombs, formerly head coach at Colerain High School, has been on the coaching DL at Ohio State football for months, stripped of most of his powers this season, and was finally expelled from Ohio State's college football program on January 13th. He was accepted into the coaching lineup at UC today.
The football gods were merciful. For team continuity, they let him finish his contract, serving generally as the "water boy" throughout most of the 2021 season. Ardent fans knew - and kept their mouths shut.
Call it respect for a stellar career in the high school arena, not to mention deep friendships with reporters formed over the course of that career.
The firing was kept a secret from fans by all news outlets in the Greater Cincinnati area for nearly a week while his demise was broadly known - yet, it was unreported. His downfall went undocumented, locally.
Where was WLW? WCPO? Anybody?
Nope.
The only NEWS outlet that reported that Coombs was riding the bench was right here on The Cincinnati Post and on multiple sports blogs - and boy, did we take some hits for daring to report on Coombs' slow Fall from Grace in the football arena. Like many of his former players, he just wasn't prepared to make the cut in the big bowl.
Ryan Stamos of ScarletandGames.com was one of those few true news voices calling it like it is:
"I have been critical of Coombs’ performance on the field as a DC and as a recruiter lately. Clearly, it was time for him to go. He didn’t have the ability to do the job that Ryan Day wanted him to. That doesn’t take anything away from how good of a secondary coach he was and how good of a man he is."
Well, he's back home and that's good news for hometown football!
Welcome home, Kerry Coombs, welcome home.
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