Ed Terwilliger joined the Ohio State football staff in 2015 and will be entering his fifth season with the Buckeyes in 2019. He is the program’s director of high school relations and recruiting assistant.
With Terwilliger’s help, Ohio State has had the top-ranked recruiting class in the Big Ten six of the last seven years, according to the 247Sports composite rankings.
Terwilliger was a veteran Ohio high school football coach, leading the Olentangy program for 24 season while winning 138 games. The Braves qualified for the state players eight times, advancing as far as the regional final in 1999. He coached former Buckeye linebacker Joshua Perry from 2008 through 2011. His final season with the Braves, in 2012, resulted in Olentangy making the postseason in Division I for the first time. Terwilliger coached 100 players who went on to play in college and was the Division III Coach of the Year, a three-time Division II Coach of the Year in Central Ohio, the Division I Central Ohio Coach of the Year and the Ohio Capital Conference Coach of the Year during his tenure. He also coached 100 players who went on to play collegiately.
Terwilliger was an officer in the Ohio High School Coaches Association for 16, serving as president in 2004. In 2018, he was inducted into the Central Ohio Coaches Hall of Fame.
A 1975 graduate of Nelsonville-York High School, Terwilliger played at Ohio University before immediately entering coaching in 1979. He had assistant coaching stints at Glouster Trimble (1979), Westlake (1980-83) and Groveport (1984-88) before taking over Olentangy in 1989.
Terwilliger is a 1980 graduate of Ohio University with a bachelor’s degree in education. In 1988, he earned a master’s in sport administration from Ashland University. He and his wife Debra has two adult children: Andrew, who is the director of football operations at Toledo, and Megan, who is an assistant principal at Thomas Worthington High School.