Ohio State Adds Todd Fitch and Paul Rhoads to Football Staff
2/25/2021 5:01:54 PM | Football
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State head coach Ryan Day has added a pair of veterans to his coaching staff with the hiring of Todd Fitch and Paul Rhoads to analyst positions on offense and defense, respectively.
Fitch is an Ohio native who grew up in Bellaire, Ohio and attended Ohio Wesleyan, where he played defensive back for the Battling Bishops from 1982-85. He’s a 34-year coaching veteran who has coached at 12 different schools. He most recently was the offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at Vanderbilt in 2020.
Fitch and Ryan Day worked on the same staff together at Boston College in 2013 and 2014. Fitch was the wide receivers coach/passing game coordinator while Day served as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
Prior to his time at Vanderbilt, Fitch was the offensive coordinator at Louisiana Tech for four seasons. He also coached wide receivers (2016-17) and quarterbacks (2018-19) for the Bulldogs where he helped the program to four consecutive postseason appearances.
Fitch has six different stints as an offensive coordinator after holding similar positions at Louisiana Tech, Boston College, East Carolina, South Florida and Connecticut.
While at Boston College, he guided an Eagle passing attack highlighted by career receptions and receiving yards record-holder Alex Amidon and quarterback Chase Rettig, who finished the season with a 140.6 efficiency rating and the fewest interceptions in the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2013.
Fitch and wife Julie are the parents a son, Curtis, and daughter, and Peyton.
Rhoads, who brings with him 32 years of experience as both a head coach and coordinator, spent the 2020 season as the defensive coordinator at the University of Arizona. In his one season in Tuscon, the Wildcats finished third in the Pac-12 and No. 27 nationally in passing defense (202.4 yards/game).
In 2018 and 2019, Rhoads was the defensive backs coach at UCLA where he helped the Bruins improve statistically in several categories, including total defense, scoring defense and forced turnovers.
Rhoads has served nine years as a defensive coordinator at four Power 5 programs: Arizona (2020), Arkansas (2017), Auburn (2008) and Pittsburgh (2000-07). He also had a seven-year stint as the head coach at Iowa State, where he led the Cyclones to three bowl games and 32 wins. He guided Iowa State to four wins over ranked opponents, including three on the road, which marked half of the school’s all-time road victories over ranked teams at the time. In his first season at Iowa State, he led the team to the program’s first win at Nebraska in 32 years and a win over Minnesota in the Insight Bowl.
During an eight-year run as the defensive coordinator at Pittsburgh from 2000-07, five of Rhoads’ defenses ranked in the nation’s top 30 for scoring, while three finished in the top 12 in the NCAA for fewest yards allowed. He also saw 14 of his defensive players earn All-Big East first-team honors.
Rhoads coached two-time All-American and 2006 Jim Thorpe Award semifinalist Darrelle Revis.
Rhoads is also no stranger to Ohio State: he was a graduate assistant for the Buckeyes during the 1991 season. He played collegiately at Missouri Western, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1989. He and his wife Vickie have two sons, Jake and Wyatt.
