Ryan Day addresses why he gave promotions, new titles to offensive assistants

Brian Hartline and Tony Alford are both important parts of Ohio State‘s team – especially when it comes to the Buckeyes’ offense. A pair of successful assistant coaches, Hartline and Alford have helped build Ohio State’s offensive unit into a high-powered machine over the years – and head coach Ryan Day is rewarding them for the job they’ve done.

While Day has made plenty of changes to his coaching staff this offseason, he gave promotions to both Hartline and Alford – adding the title of passing game coordinator to Hartline and run game coordinator to Alford. With the new titles, Hartline is now Ohio State’s passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach, while Alford is the Buckeyes’ assistant head coach for offense, run game coordinator and running backs coach.

In a recent press conference, Day was asked about Hartline and Alford’s promotions and discussed why he decided to give the two coaches the elevated titles.

“I think when you’ve had the success that we’ve had on offense, there’s a lot of guys who get poached by other programs,” Day said. “They’re highly marketable. Brian and Tony are two of them. With the success that we’ve had, we’re giving them more responsibility, we’re giving them a bump in raise, we’re doing a lot of things to try and make sure that they feel like they’re being compensated for what they’ve done.

“We’ve had a lot of success – and that’s a good thing. That’s part of the process and landscape of college football right now.”

Ohio State is coming off a 11-2 season in 2021, which included a 48-45 win over Utah in the Rose Bowl. The Buckeyes went 8-1 in Big Ten play – dropping a 42-27 decision to Michigan on Nov. 27.

Ohio State announces plans for updates to football field

Ohio State is upgrading the field at the horseshoe just in time for the 2022 season, as the Buckeyes plan on updating their home stadium with a few subtle changes. However, fans of the traditional scarlet and grey Buckeyes look should have no fear, as all the updates were done in good taste and stick close to the traditional look.

Ohio State is going to update the trim on its football field from white to grey. Along with that, the outlining of the end zone lettering and midfield “O“ will change to grey, as well.

Additionally, the font used for the yard line numbers will now match the numbers used on the players’ uniforms, while the x’s designating the kickoff locations at the 35-yard line have will be replaced by buckeye leaves.

The Buckeyes’ new look comes complete with a brand new turf field, which they will break out after the scarlet and grey spring ball game.

On3’s Justin Rudolph contributed to this report.