At 27, Corey Dennis takes over as Ohio State’s quarterbacks coach

Ohio State made official its promotion of Corey Dennis to quarterbacks coach on Friday.

In an announcement, Buckeyes coach Ryan Day touted Dennis as “a talented young coach and someone I’ve worked closely alongside for three seasons.”

Dennis takes over for Mike Yurcich, who served as quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator for one season. Yurcich was hired as Texas’ offensive coordinator a day after Ohio State’s season-ending loss to Clemson in the College Football Playoff semifinals.

Plans of Dennis’ promotion were first reported on New Year’s Day by multiple media outlets, including The Dispatch.

Though it will be the 27-year-old’s first on-field assistant coaching job, Dennis has been a part of the support staff at Ohio State since 2015, first as an intern and graduate assistant. He has been lauded for his help with the team’s quarterbacks.

For the past two seasons, Dennis had been a senior quality control coach, also assisting with wide receivers.

Day was the quarterbacks coach in 2018, when he worked closely with Dennis, who is previous coach Urban Meyer’s son-in-law.

“He knows our system and he knows how we teach,” Day said. “I think he is going to allow us to develop some continuity in the quarterback room, and that’s important. I also believe that he is going to be an excellent recruiter for us.”

Recent seasons have seen prodigious production from Buckeyes quarterbacks.

Dwayne Haskins Jr. set multiple single-season school passing records in 2018, numbers that were nearly matched by Justin Fields last fall.

Fields will return for his junior season, and the Buckeyes have also brought in two early-enrollee freshmen, Jack Miller and C.J. Stroud, who could compete to succeed Fields as the starter as soon as 2021.

Along with preparing Fields, developing Miller and Stroud ranks high on the to-do list for Dennis in his first season as their position coach.

In the lead-up to Friday’s announcement, Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Joe Burrow became one of the most high-profile people to endorse Dennis. Burrow spent three seasons at Ohio State before transferring to Louisiana State.

Burrow said during a teleconference with reporters last week that he texted Dennis when he caught wind of reports about his impending hire.

“He's worked for that for a long time, and there's nobody more deserving,” Burrow said. “He's going to be a really good coach.”

Dennis was a graduate assistant when Burrow was with the Buckeyes.

“I think the best thing for Corey was learning under Coach Day for a couple of years,” Burrow said. “I think that really helped him.”

Last month, Dennis had been expected to be named an assistant at Colorado State. Then Yurcich left Columbus.

Dennis was a wide receiver at Georgia Tech from 2011-14.

jkaufman@dispatch.com

@joeyrkaufman

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