I immediately thought that Ohio State's co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach Brian Hartline should have been promoted to full-time offensive coordinator the moment Chip Kelly’s pen hit the contract in Vegas. Coach Ryan Day seems to concur. I’m surprised that a portion of Buckeye Nation is expressing doubts about Hartline getting the keys to the offense. There are no good reasons to doubt Hartline and every reason to believe he will thrive.
Let’s do a quick recap of Brian Hartline’s career. He was a wide receiver during Jim Tressel’s time leading the Buckeyes from 2005 through 2008. Hartline was in the NFL from 2009 through 2015, where he started 73 games and had 344 catches for 4,766 yards and 14 touchdowns.
He left the NFL in 2016 and became a graduate assistant at Ohio State in 2017. In 2018, he was named interim wide receivers coach, and the position was made permanent in December of that year. He has held that position ever since.
In January of 2021, the passing game coordinator job was added to his duties. In 2023, he was Ohio State’s offensive coordinator, though head coach Ryan Day was the play caller that season.
During the Buckeyes' 2024 National Championship season, he was co-offensive coordinator with Chip Kelly. Brian Hartline has developed and recruited the wide receiver corps at the highest level of any position coach in college football. The accolades racked up by his players speak the loudest in his favor.
He’s had four players (soon to be five) be first-round NFL Draft picks in Garrett Wilson, Chris Olave, Jaxon-Smith Njigba, Marvin Harrison Jr., and likely Emeka Egbuka this April. He’s had seven receivers reach 1,000 yards in a season, while it had only been done four times in all of Buckeye history before them.
Hartline coached wide receivers own the Ohio State record books. They have the OSU record for receptions in a game, a season, and a career. They hold the Buckeye records for receiving yards in a season and in a game. They also have the record for receiving touchdowns in a career.
The top five seasons with the most passing yards in Ohio State history have been Ryan Day’s quarterbacks throwing the ball to Brian Hartline’s wide receivers. So have six of the top seven seasons in passing touchdowns.
Along with all these accolades is the fact that Day and Hartline have been working together on the Ohio State offense since Day was a co-offensive coordinator and Hartline was an offensive analyst in 2017.
Hartline has been working with Day on the passing game since January 2021 and has been working with him on the entire offense since January 2023. He’s spent the last two seasons seeing how Day wants the offense to run and helping him develop the proper schemes for the players they have.
Brian Hartline has worked hard for this chance. And if you don’t believe the numbers, the accolades, or me, believe the head coach who just won a national championship and has turned over his offense to the man.
Day had previously only trusted himself and his mentor and old friend (who is now the highest-paid offensive coordinator in the NFL) with the offense. Trusting Brian Hartline that much and in that role is an emphatic acknowledgment of a job well earned by Ryan Day.