Top 5 Ohio State defensive coordinator candidates for 2025

Randy Bates

Bates isn’t a household name across college football but the 64-year-old has a lengthy coaching resume and ties to Ohio State that make him an interesting candidate. Bates is an Ohio State grad who began his coaching career in 1982 at Muskingum University in New Concord, Ohio. He eventually became a defensive assistant at the Division I level, with one of his stops coming in the mid-1990s at New Hampshire – Day’s alma mater – where he worked on the same staff as Ohio State offensive coordinator Chip Kelly. Bates also has familiarity with the Big Ten as he worked under Pat Fitzgerald at Northwestern for over a decade, and has been a defensive coordinator at Pittsburgh since. The Panthers’ defense wasn’t great in 2024, but Bates’ unit has finished as a top-25 defense nationally on multiple occasions.