Per GoBearcats:
Cincinnati football head coach Scott Satterfield announced on Friday that Kerry Coombs will remain on the Bearcats coaching staff.
Coombs signed a new three-year deal. He will serve as UC’s secondary coach and special teams coordinator.
Coombs was named interim head coach last month following Luke Fickell’s departure. He will lead the Bearcats into the Fenway Bowl on Dec. 17.
“We’re excited to keep Coach Coombs on our staff,” Satterfield said. “His energy is contagious. He’s an excellent motivator and developer of young men on and off the field. His resume here in Cincinnati, but also in the NFL and at Ohio State, speaks for itself. He’s respected throughout the country. Interacting with him this past week and watching him serve as the interim head coach, I’ve been very impressed, and I know he will be a perfect fit for what we are building here.”
The Cincinnati native’s 40-year coaching career has been highlighted by stints in the NFL as the secondary coach for the Tennessee Titans, two separate tenures as an assistant coach and defensive coordinator at Ohio State as well as two stops as an assistant at UC. Prior to collegiate coaching, he served as the head coach at Colerain High School in Cincinnati, where he went to 10 state playoffs and five state semifinals over 16 years, including an undefeated state championship season in 2004.
Coombs rejoined the Bearcats in February 2022 following a two-year stint as Ohio State’s defensive coordinator from 2020 to 2021.
Tasked with replacing a pair of All-American cornerbacks and NFL draft picks at both cornerback spots, Coombs developed first-year starter Ja’Quan Sheppard into an All-AAC First Team selection and moved nickel back Arquon Bush to cornerback where he also earned all-conference honors.
Coombs also oversaw one of the nation’s top special teams units. Sophomore Mason Fletcher proved to be one of the nation’s top punters. He was named a finalist for the prestigious Ray Guy Award and collected All-AAC Special Teams Player of the Year accolades.
Additionally, UC ranked second nationally in net punting (44.69), 14th in kick return defense (16.9), No. 17 in punt return defense (3.5) and No. 21 in punt return average (11.4).
Coombs coached the Buckeyes from 2020 to 21 and from 2012 to 2017 with a two-year stint with the Titans from 2018 to 2019.
At Ohio State, Coombs served as the defensive coordinator (2020-21) and the cornerbacks coach/special teams coordinator (2013-2017), adding assistant defensive coordinator duties in 2017. In his six-year tenure, every starting cornerback he had coached made it to the NFL. Ohio State won the national title in 2014.
Coombs began in college coaching on Brian Kelly’s Cincinnati staff in 2007 as defensive backs coach. He was promoted to associate head coach/defensive backs coach/special teams in 2009 and stayed in that role until 2011.
Starting in 1991, he compiled a 161-36 record as the head coach at Colerain, his alma mater.
Coombs and his wife Holly are the parents of three grown children. They have a son Brayden, a daughter Cortney and son Dylan, who is a former cornerback for UC and was in the Lindner Honors Plus business program.
