Ohio State Football: Hartline an unlikely candidate for Northwestern job

The Ohio State football team should not worry just yet about losing offensive coordinator Brian Hartline to a head coaching position.

The Ohio State football program will have to prepare to lose its best position coach and offensive coordinator, Brian Hartline, sometime soon. It just won’t happen now. The vacant head coaching position has internet rumors swirling about Hartline possibly moving to the windy city to take over the battered Wildcat program.

And while the top brass at Northwestern would be crazy not to give Brian Hartline a call, Hartline is not foolish enough to sniff around that job just yet. The best plan of action for Northwestern to take place is to make defensive coordinator, David Braun, who recently came over from North Dakota State, the interim coach for the 2023 season.

By doing that, Northwestern will effectively give themselves a full season reset of the program, and come next offseason they could make a run at a guy like Brian Hartline if so desired. It’s really the only option right now for the athletic department. Fall camp is set to start in less than three weeks.

But these rumors started mostly from TTUN fans on message boards wanting to get a rise out of Buckeye fans. Fortunately, most Ohio State football fans are realists who can see this situation for what it is. Ohio State is in no danger of losing its offensive coordinator three weeks before the start of camp.

But as the dust settles and Northwestern plays a full season, this could be an intriguing job for Hartline come next year. If he wanted to pursue it, he could be a slam dunk for recruiting the Chicago area, and of course, he will get his fair share of receivers to follow him. He’s a midwestern guy with Big Ten roots. It would be an interesting match for his first head coaching position.