Brian Hartline pressed for comment on interview process for West Virginia job

The West Virginia Mountaineers open head coaching job was one of the more intriguing jobs this coaching cycle. Not only was it one of only a handful of Power Four jobs to open, it was one that has a history of success. That attracted plenty of candidates, including Brian Hartline.

Hartline, a wide receivers coach and co-offensive coordinator at Ohio State known for his recruiting pedigree, didn’t earn the job. However, he did appear to be a serious candidate and now he’s been pressed for comment on the process of interviewing for the West Virginia job.

“Just focused on the Rose Bowl,” Hartline initially said.

On top of that, when asked about how much thought he gives to coaching, Hartline insisted it’s not on the top of his mind. However, opportunities do sometimes present themselves.

“No, being a head coach isn’t really on my mind,” Hartline said. “I think that year-to-year you’ll always have windows where people reach out and want to speak to you about opportunities. I’m never in a situation where I’m never gonna talk to someone or anything about an opportunity, but my focus is — love being at Ohio State. It’s well documented and I see it as such.”

Brian Hartline played his college football at Ohio State where he was a wide receiver before becoming a fourth-round selection in the 2009 NFL Draft. He would spend time with the Miami Dolphins and Cleveland Browns before ending his playing career in 2015. During his career he did have two seasons with better than 1,000 receiving yards.

In 2017, Hartline would return to Ohio State as a quality control assistant and by 2018 he was the team’s wide receivers coach, consistently adding more responsibilities to his plate throughout the years. During that time, he’s developed an excellent reputation among assistant coaches.

Notably, in April of 2023, Hartline did share some details about his future ambitions while on Bussin’ With The Boys. There, he shared that he feels like his future is going to be in the NFL, despite never having coached at that level before.

“In my soul, I’m an NFL guy,” Hartline said at the time. “I love the NFL. I think it’s the all-star league of college football. I don’t care where you’re from, what school. Small, big. Like, it’s the best players in the world. There’s no better other players. I love the degree of separation being so small. So, I love my alma mater, Ohio State. My heart is in the NFL. One day, I think I will want to coach there. That’s the reality of it.“

Despite his impressive reputation, Brian Hartline didn’t end up getting the West Virginia job. Instead, the Mountaineers chose to hire Rich Rodriguez, a former player who found tons of success in Morgantown during his first stint as a head coach there.