OT: Ohio State promotes WR coach Brian Hartline to "Passing Game Coordinator"
Unfortunately, it looks like Marcus Freeman/Notre Dame's play at getting Brian Hartline to come over to the Irish failed.
Hartline has been far and away the Buckeyes's best position coach and one of their best recruiter the last 2-3 season since taking over as the WR coach, so it would have been a big blow to them.
Although with Day promoting Hartline to PGC, it will be interesting to see how that affects the "recruitment" of UCLA"s OC/OL coach Justin Frye. Would their offense have 3 coordinators between Kevin Wilson, Just Frye, and Hartline?
January 9th, 2022 at 2:04 PM ^
"Here is my plan. Have a bunch of super-athletic, 6'5", 5-star WRs run around the field randomly. Then, we have some QB throw the ball out there against 5'8" CBs with no hope of covering our WRs. Then, we score points. BOOM!"
January 9th, 2022 at 2:07 PM ^
I think if we score more points than the opponent, we win.
January 9th, 2022 at 2:24 PM ^
I know you’re just joking, but surprisingly none of the “big 3” this year were huge: Garrett Wilson (6’0”), Chris Olave (6’1”) and Jaxon Smith-Njigba (6’0”).
I wouldn’t be surprised if Olave measures closer to 6’0” at the Combine either.
January 9th, 2022 at 2:50 PM ^
Are you really a Latina OSU fan posting on a UM message board? Asking for a friend...
January 9th, 2022 at 3:47 PM ^
Um..it’s Scarlatinx
#offended
January 9th, 2022 at 6:21 PM ^
Nope, google "Scarlatina." Just made the name one day after a microbiology lecture.
January 9th, 2022 at 5:20 PM ^
Correct, they aren’t the tall WR types with massive wing spans….they were professional route runners with elite body control and ball skills. Michigan’s closest guy like that is Antrel Anthony. We need big things out of him next year.
January 9th, 2022 at 2:04 PM ^
I don’t know, but I do know 42-27
January 9th, 2022 at 2:07 PM ^
That is my new pin
January 9th, 2022 at 6:58 PM ^
That should be easy enough to remember, RedRum, especially since you'll only have to learn a new combination of numbers once every 10 years.
January 9th, 2022 at 9:42 PM ^
59-51-6, long way to go! And you’re moving in the wrong direction grant ?
January 10th, 2022 at 9:33 AM ^
And don't I know it, Indy! Well, I'm planning to stick around for a while, so we'll see... ; -)
January 9th, 2022 at 2:16 PM ^
Agree about Hartline being their best position coach but Larry Johnson - DL (minus this year) has been a close 2nd. The rest of their defensive assistants have SUCKED and that's being kind. The downside with Larry Johnson for OSU fans - he's all set to retire and that would leave a massive dent in their coaching staff
January 9th, 2022 at 4:38 PM ^
It appears that he had retired prior to 42-27 and nearly 300 rushing yards.
January 9th, 2022 at 5:26 PM ^
I think OSU's problem on the DL was the lack of Zach Harrison and Tyreke Smith living up to their super high potential out of HS at DEs. They were both pushed at the end of the year by 2020 and 2021 players. I think Johnson retires after the 2021 - 2022 season
January 9th, 2022 at 2:36 PM ^
Credit where it's due: Hartline is a great coach, and even though he's given loads of talent, he's been able to translate that to actual production unlike some of OSU's other positions.
Honestly, OSU promoting him was yet another case of one of them stumbling into gold, as he was promoted thanks to his predecessor's buffoonery. Not only has he been an upgrade from a coaching and recruiting standpoint, he's also far less of a jerkoff than the last guy.
I personally can't wait until he's receiving HC offers for other schools. When he leaves, he'll be a tough guy to replace for them.
January 9th, 2022 at 3:58 PM ^
Promoting Hartline to PGC may just a way to give him a more impressive job title and a raise to keep him from jumping to ND. His actual responsibilities may stay the same. Co-cordinators titles are like vice presidents titles at a bank.
January 9th, 2022 at 5:32 PM ^
Ah, yeah, agreed the move to PGC is basically a title upgrade to keep him happy, with maybe a bit more say in the offensive game plan. Probably doesn't change much.
The "lucky" promotion I'm referring to is actually when he became first got the intern Wide Receiver coach role. He was a Quality Control assistant until Zach Smith's meltdown forced Urban to let Smith go and promote Hartline. While he probably was in line for a bigger role eventually, this was clear cut win for OSU in bad situation that should have hurt them.
January 9th, 2022 at 3:58 PM ^
Hartline has arguably been one of the best recruiters in the country the last few years. That WR room is insanely loaded with recruiting ranking stars.
I have seen Hartline say that he is comfortable being a position coach and hands on but out of the spotlight - with no real ambition to move up the coaching ranks. Obviously helps to have NFL money in the bank. We will see how that plays out as other schools come knocking.
January 9th, 2022 at 5:33 PM ^
You hit the nail on the head with Hartline. He took the OSU job because of his love for OSU and - like you said - made a ton of money in the NFL and has invested well. And the key to his recruiting is that he is still young at 35 and still has many of his NFL receiving skills which really impress the top HS receivers. With Hartline it comes down to "do as I do " not "do as I say" and the kids just love it
January 9th, 2022 at 3:12 PM ^
Why is Kevin Wilson still there? I'm surprised he hasn't found another HC job.
January 9th, 2022 at 3:16 PM ^
He's 61 years old and may be content to be just an OC.
January 9th, 2022 at 3:29 PM ^
He had that player misconduct thing at Indiana while he was there. That’s all I can think of. If I was a middle Power 5 team, I would hire him in a heartbeat. He was a huge thorn in our side when he was there.
January 9th, 2022 at 3:46 PM ^
It is really absurd that he is at OSU for this long a time.
January 9th, 2022 at 3:56 PM ^
He's earning $1.4M a year at OSU. Would the money be worth it for the stress of being the hc at some random P5 school?
January 9th, 2022 at 5:37 PM ^
Huge thorn = literally never beating Michigan or Osu even once
January 9th, 2022 at 8:38 PM ^
Kevin Wilson's IU never beat Ohio State, but his offense did allow them to keep the game very close several times. When Wilson took over IU, they were quite literally the bottom-feeder of the conference, and would regularly finish seasons with 2-3 wins (mostly non-conference). He elevated them to a 6-7 win program.
Wilson's offense was always in the top half of the conference, but he could never figure out the defense until he hired Tom Allen as his DC.
January 9th, 2022 at 11:25 PM ^
When Jedd Fisch left, and Wilson became available, I wanted him at Michigan so bad I could have spit nails. But he went to Ohio St. Hated it.
January 9th, 2022 at 5:49 PM ^
"player misconduct thing"
I believe these are the "philosophical differences" that the Indiana athletic director spoke of when he accepted Wilson's resignation. It seems that this "player misconduct thing" involved Wilson mistreating players with injuries. Not really sure what school would take on that baggage (well, except some place in Columbus).
January 9th, 2022 at 6:20 PM ^
IIRC, I believe that "player misconduct thing" stemmed from one player's father, who said that his son suffered a concussion in practice, and they rested his son for a week, but after the week they had his son come back too fast.
A multitude of IU players came out in support of Kevin Wilson, and said that he never "forced" them to come back from injury, nor made them feel guilty about being injured. I remember former IU QB Zander Diamont went out of his way to say that during his injury-riddled career, Wilson always made sure he was 150% before asking him to come back after every injury, and that he was personally shocked anyone would accuse his former coach of endangering a player.
January 9th, 2022 at 3:22 PM ^
Congrats to Brian! He is a good dude...went to high school with him (although I am three years older so didn't no him super well then). Freaky athlete and smart man. Wish him the best...except when they play Michigan, of course.
Canton, OH...Glenoak High School
January 9th, 2022 at 3:52 PM ^
Dang! Why can’t bad things happen to them and only good things happen to us??
January 9th, 2022 at 4:03 PM ^
Bad things happening to them...you mean like 42-27? Or 5 TD by H2...or Aidan Hutchinson..or OOOO-JAAAA-BO!!!
But yeah its hard to have bad things happen when you are standing on 3rd base...
January 9th, 2022 at 5:50 PM ^
Well, they did hang 100...
oh, scratch that.
January 9th, 2022 at 4:00 PM ^
Although with Day promoting Hartline to PGC, it will be interesting to see how that affects the "recruitment" of UCLA"s OC/OL coach Justin Frye. Would their offense have 3 coordinators between Kevin Wilson, Just Frye, and Hartline?
Lots of the state/public schools do this with job titles to allow for pay raises. Sometimes they have little to no change is job scope but some extra words in the job title allows for a pay raise to get voted on and approved.
But yeah, potentially lots of chefs in the kitchen.
January 9th, 2022 at 4:04 PM ^
Hard to imagine that he wasn't already doing a lot of this anyway...and its not like their passing game has much room for improvement..so not sure that this really moves the needle much.
January 9th, 2022 at 4:22 PM ^
It's more about him staying, which is huge for them.
January 9th, 2022 at 4:26 PM ^
I guess..but again it can't get much better for them in regards to their passing game. Losing him would be great but at least he's not improving the team.
January 9th, 2022 at 4:11 PM ^
I mentioned in a separate post last month that my connection in the OSU's AD told me that Brian is the HC in waiting. If Day leaves after 2023, don't be surprise if Brian is promoted to HC position.
January 9th, 2022 at 5:12 PM ^
... and so it continues
January 9th, 2022 at 6:55 PM ^
Understand the same thing about Fickell.
January 9th, 2022 at 9:30 PM ^
My guess OSUs next HC is Fickell.
January 9th, 2022 at 11:40 PM ^
Thanks mass. I always appreciate reading your comments.
January 9th, 2022 at 4:21 PM ^
Was hoping Freeman would get him to be OC at ND.
Without Hartline, Day is in trouble.
January 9th, 2022 at 5:11 PM ^
and so the 5*'s will continue,...