Former Ohio State star linebacker James Laurinaitis returns to alma mater as graduate assistant

Ohio State is adding a legendary former player into the rankings of the coaching staff, hiring James Lauranitis as a graduate assistant. Ohio State football appeared to confirm the move with a tweet celebrating Laurinaitis captioned “Back to the Brotherhood” with a picture of the linebacker from his playing days.

Laurinaitis comes back to his alma mater after coaching alongside one of his former defensive teammates, Marcus Freeman, at Notre Dame. Laurinaitis was also a graduate assistant on the Notre Dame staff.

After finishing his career at Ohio State, where he was a three time All-American, Laurinaitis turned pro and had a successful NFL career. He played six seasons with the then-St. Louis Rams before one year with the New Orleans saints in 2016 before retiring from playing.

Joel Klatt gives prime reason Ryan Day promoted Brian Hartline to Ohio State OC

The Ohio State Buckeyes go into 2023 with a new offensive coordinator: Brian Hartline.

Head coach Ryan Day promoted his wide receivers coach to a bigger role on staff, opening up new possibilities for Ohio State. FOX Sports’ Joel Klatt pointed out a prime reason why Day reportedly relinquished calling plays and handed them to Hartline, who is one of the program’s best resources as a recruiter and developer of wide receivers.

By doing this, Day and Ohio State could set themselves up for a better shot at winning a national title, according to Klatt.

“I don’t believe that this is just a title,” Klatt said on his podcast. “I do believe that this is more along the lines of Ryan Day starting to evolve in his career and move away from being the play caller potentially. And give Brian Hartline that opportunity to grow as a play caller and teach him and mentor him and grow him as a play caller. Now, why would Ryan Day do that? 

“Well, first and foremost, you have to understand that’s a tough decision for a guy like Day because he’s the lead play caller, one of the best play callers in all of college football. It gives him an advantage right? And anytime you have an advantage as a programmer or a coach, boy, you hold on to that with white knuckles.” 

Klatt went on to say this could be the necessary move needed to put Ohio State over the top.

“So this is a big moment for Ryan Day,” Klatt said. “And yet, it’s something that I feel like he thinks is necessary. Well, let me run through some of the reasons why he might think that. First and foremost in modern college football, let’s just call it the last 20 years, 25 years, it is exceedingly rare to crown a national champion, whose offensive plays are called by the head coach. In fact, in 25 years I can only count one. Jimbo Fisher called the offensive plays for Florida State and Jameis Winston when they won the national championship. 

“Outside of that Chip (Kelly) came close with Oregon. Gus Malzahn came close and by the way that game it was gonna be either Florida State or Auburn, so we were going to have one that year. You gotta go back to like the guy who really did it was Tom Osborne. Tom Osborne was his own offensive coordinator basically his entire career he won those three titles in the 90s.”

Hartline joined Ohio State on staff in 2017 following his playing career with the Buckeyes and seven seasons in the NFL with the Miami Dolphins and Cleveland Browns. He started as an offensive quality control assistant before being promoted to wide receivers coach in 2018 and added passing game coordinator to his roles this season.