Ohio State promotes receivers coach Brian Hartline to offensive coordinator

Ohio State has promoted wide receivers coach Brian Hartline to the role of offensive coordinator, per Lettermen Row.

The Buckeyes offensive coordinator of the last six seasons, Kevin Wilson, took the open Tulsa head coaching position earlier this offseason.

During his time with the Buckeyes, Brian Hartline has earned a reputation for being an ace recruiter of wide receivers who then backs it up by developing those wide receivers into top-tier talent. Marvin Harrison Jr, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Garrett Wilson, Chris Olave, and Jameson Williams are just a few of the players who he’s recruited.

In 2022, Hartline was also named the team’s passing game coordinator, as well as the wide receivers coach.

Brian Hartline is an Ohio State guy through and through. A Canton native, Hartline played wide receiver for the Buckeyes under Jim Tressel before moving onto the NFL. Most of that NFL career was spent with Miami, before he came back for a season with Cleveland as well.

Once his playing career ended, Hartline joined the Ohio State staff as an offensive quality control assistant. He has worked his way up since then, culminating in being named the team’s offensive coordinator.

What does Ryan Day giving up play calling duties mean?

Under Ryan Day’s leadership, the Buckeyes have consistently had one of the best offenses in the sport. Now, he’s turning to Brian Hartline to run the offense.

Previously, former Buckeye and current ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit spoke about the possibility that Day would relinquish play calling duties. As Herbstreit explained, he has a lot of other responsibilities to get right as the head coach and it all takes a lot of time to manage.

“Ryan Day mentioned in our production meeting that he’s going to stop calling plays next year because he needs to become more of a manager as a head coach,” Herbstreit said.

“And when you’re prepping a game plan, there’s a lot more that goes into it Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to be ready to call those plays on Saturday. He’s thinking about maybe relinquishing those [responsibilities].”