The Ohio State football team made the decision to promote Brian Hartline to offensive coordinator before the season started. After losing Chip Kelly to the NFL, Hartline was given the car keys to the offense. Ryan Day previously put him in charge of calling plays briefly in 2023, but eventually started calling plays again.
So far, the offense has been pretty good. Julian Sayin looks like one of the front-runners for the Heisman. Jeremiah Smith is still the best player in college football. Against Wisconsin, Hartline seemed to finally open up the playbook and let his guys really go loose.
There has been some buzz about Hartline getting consideration for Penn State's head coaching job. Reports are that he has had at least an initial conversation about it. Now, the chances of him getting that job have increased now that Matt Rhule is off the board.
The Ohio State football program has a bigger chance to lose Brian Hartline with Matt Rhule off the board
According to multiple reports, Rhule has signed a contract extension to stay with Nebraska. That means that one of Penn State's biggest targets is now off the table. Curt Cignetti did the same thing by signing a massive deal to stay with the Indiana Hoosiers not long ago.
Hartline doesn't have any head coaching experience, and having him become a first-time head coach at Penn State seems like a big step. While Day took over the Ohio State Buckeyes with no head coaching experience, he had multiple years of experience as an offensive coordinator and calling plays.
This is the first time that Hartline has called plays in his coaching career. Penn State likely wouldn't choose him to lead its entire program, even if he is the best recruiter in the country. Still, the Buckeyes can't feel great that other candidates seem to be pulling themselves out of the running.
At the very least, this is shaping up to be an offseason in which the Buckeyes give Hartline a huge raise to keep him. If the Buckeyes go back-to-back with winning a national championship, they will be doing everything they can to keep Hartline.