The Ohio State Buckeyes have nailed their coordinator hires over the past decade, with Urban Meyer nailing the Ryan Day offensive coordinator hiring that would define the team's future in the modern era.
ESPN, On3, and Yahoo Sports contributor Josh Pate gave the Buckeyes love for how OSU has handled the past two years on both sides of the ball, making good hires with Chip Kelly in 2024 and Jim Knowles in 2022, but replacing them with equally or more effective hires, with Brian Hartline and Matt Patricia in 2025.
Pate didn't mention Hartline by name, but mentioned how Day promoted Hartline from WR coach to lead play-caller before the former NFL receiver ended up getting a head coaching job with the USF Bulls.
Pate praised every aspect of Day's program, calling what the Buckeyes do, "supreme organizational structure."
"You lose Chip Kelly, who was a foundational piece of that [title] run, and then you elevate from within. But then also, you go and get Matt Patricia because Jim Knowles moves on, and if anything, they improved defensively, which is just really hard to do. That is supreme organizational structure there," Pate said on his show.
"Ohio State is here [in CFP contention] as long as Ryan Day is there. And even above and beyond Ryan Day — not to overlook him, one of the best doing it right now — but to move beyond him, Ohio State as a program has been resilient over the past several head coaches they've had.
"They are a top-five recruiting program in the country. They are a very, very high-value portal program — translation: they don't need to flood themselves with a bunch of transfers because they recruit and develop very well, but when they do need to, they can be very selective and very effective in the transfer portal."
Arthur Smith hire can prove Ryan Day is a genius
If Day and Co. can find yet another football guy who can come in from the NFL and outscheme a much lower caliber of opponent with Arthur Smith, just as he did with Patricia, the Buckeyes will prove to be a potentially immovable object at the top of the sport indefinitely.
Ohio State will always lose coaches. With so many NFL players coming through the program, there will always be coaches that franchises can hire away from the college ranks to pair with their ex-Buckeye rookies.
If they can just keep identifying and hiring good on-field fits who can get the job done in short order before continuing that cycle, the Ohio State University will remain the biggest and most successful brand in the sport's modern age.