Brian Hartline shares how he approaches transfer portal conversations

In the era of the transfer portal, relationships have become more important than ever for college football coaches looking to retain their players and keep a balanced roster. It’s the number one factor star Ohio State assistant Brian Hartline cited when discussing the issue this spring.

He gave a lengthy response about his approach to the transfer portal on an episode of Bussin’ with the Boys.

“I think that it’s relationship based,” Hartline said. “I think at the end of the day if you sit down and have conversations, ‘Hey, coach Hart, what’s my path?’ and you have an honest conversation with them and they can feel that it probably is OK.

“You can work through all that based on the outside variables that maybe the family or anyone else is feeling, too, in his circle. But the relationship matters. And I think the honesty being like, ‘Hey man, it is going to be tough. It’s a long track. If you need this and this maybe you should, if you want to explore options you can.’ If you keep the interests of the young man No. 1 it always works itself out.”

Hartline isn’t a hard-liner when it comes to transfers.

He believes there are some situations where it makes sense for a player to seek a new opportunity elsewhere via the transfer portal. It just should be something the player considers from all angles first.

“I think that it’s OK if guys find a better path somewhere else,” Hartline said. “I believe that. Like I’m still player oriented and if you keep it in that world I think it always works itself out. So I try to have conversations and I give honest feedback on what I would recommend them doing, and I think, again, based on the relationship, you can have those conversations.”

The real challenge comes in when a player who is close to contributing in a major way decides he’s ready right away. Sometimes that creates friction and can lead to transfer portal decisions that aren’t necessarily advantageous for either party.

That’s why Hartline is careful to let guys know exactly where they stand in their development in his eyes, usually before the transfer portal comes up.

“I would say if you’re that sure of a young man playing in a year or two and him knowing that, that’s OK,” Hartline said. “At the end of the day doing it a year earlier doesn’t ensure you anything. But if coach Hart or any of the coaches are looking at you and telling you with certainty of where I see you’re going to be in a year or two, again, based on that relationship, you ride that out. All your goals, which is probably the NFL, is still there. If you’re telling me you want to speed the clock up, that’s something you have to talk about yourself.

“If you are doing that you’re probably not doing it, I mean where you going? I mean we are blessed and coach (Ryan) Day is a phenomenal coach and we are the best offense in the country over the last five to six years. So if you’re not playing in this offense, where are you going, who’s the quarterback? There’s a lot of variables that you’re now playing with versus being like, ‘All right, I’m going to keep working, coach Hart’s telling me this, this and this, go from there.'”

There’s also one other factor at Ohio State that lends to receivers sticking it out rather than entering the transfer portal, all else equal.

“In the transfer world there’s never been a transfer receiver that comes to Ohio State,” Hartline said. “So you see who’s in the room, you see who you’re competing against, there’s some variables that are under your control versus when you leave variables change.”