Ex-Ohio State football QB Kenny Guiton receives coaching promotion

Former Ohio State football quarterback Kenny Guiton has been named as the Interim Offensive Coordinator at Arkansas. Guiton, who has been on the staff at Arkansas since 2021 as the wide receivers coach, received the promotion since the position became available following the firing of Dan Enos.

Enos was removed from his duties following a 7-3 loss this past Saturday to Mississippi State. As for Guiton, his collegiate coaching career began as a Graduate Assistant on Tom Hermon’s staff in Houston back in 2015. He spent four years with the Cougars program, spending the last two as a wide receivers coach. Guiton spent the 2020 COVID season with Colorado State as their WR coach before landing a job in the same position with Arkansas in 2021.

After announcing that Enos was removed from his duties, Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman offered the following statements to the media when asked why Guiton was chosen for the promotion.

"“Obviously I thought he (Guiton) was the most intelligent guy in the who offensive package, so that’s why I went with him. He’s very intelligent, and you can tell that in yesterday and today’s meeting that I felt like he’ll do a really good job…. Well, I know he’s been really good at handling his room and that’s a guy that’s respected. He has a lot of motivation. He was excited when I talked to him about it. The guys in the room were excited for Kenny. I thought about it a lot Saturday night, which way I was gonna go, how I was gonna go and things of that nature. And bringing somebody in from the outside right now didn’t make a lot of sense to me.”"

Guiton’s experience as a quarterback with the Ohio State football program offered him a little different perspective on the wide receiver position that has obviously been successful. Now he will get the opportunity to put both experiences together as a play caller and coordinator.

If successful, one would think that Ryan Day would definitely have his eye on Guiton. There are advantages to having former Buckeyes on staff. If the opportunity to bring Guiton back to Columbus were to present itself, the experience Guiton will get in Arkansas as an OC for at least the remainder of this season could be invaluable.

Guiton, who was given the nickname Smooth Jazz by the Buckeye faithful, was a fan favorite. His come-from-behind win against Purdue in 2012 was a thing of beauty and gave him legendary status as he saved the perfect 2012 season.

The very next season in 2013 in his first-ever start, Kenny Guiton set a single-game touchdown passing record throwing for six touchdowns on the road against Cal as starter Braxton Miller was unavailable due to injury. That record has since been tied by J.T. Barrett, Dwayne Haskins, Justin Fields, and C.J. Stroud.