Pete Thamel said exactly what Ohio State fans were thinking on the Arthur Smith hire

For the second year in a row, Ohio State head man Ryan Day has surprised a lot of people with a coordinator hire. In this case, we're talking about Arthur Smith taking over the offense for Brian Hartline, who is off to USF.

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At this point last year, Day hired Matt Patricia to replace Jim Knowles and people could not believe it. As it turns out, this latest decision from Day even caught ESPN insider Pete Thamel off guard. He made that much clear while talking on the Pat McAfee Show:

Pete Thamel admitted he was surprised Ohio State football hired Arthur Smith

"I was a little surprised by this to be honest,' Thamel said without hesitation. "He was linked to the North Carolina job last year and he had some time early on in his career at Ole Miss, but he's really not a college guy. Arthur Smith has always kind of come up through the pro ranks."

It's pretty easy to agree with what Thamel had to say there. Immediately when this hire was announced, everyone was pretty shocked. It felt like it came in from totally out of the blue too, right? Despite that, there's a reason Day is the one making these decisions.

There was a similar response when Patricia was hired, with people losing their minds over that decision. However, things worked out pretty great for the Buckeyes and Day, with Patricia having the defense looking fantastic from start to finish this past season.

While Ohio State failed in its attempt to repeat as the national champs, that wasn't on the defense at all. Come next fall, there's going to be pressure on Smith to silence all of the haters who are now being incredibly vocal about Ohio State making a 'mistake' in hiring him.

There's no question that Smith is going to have a ton of talent to work with, as Jeremiah Smith and Julian Sayin will be back, while 5-star WR Chris Henry Jr. is also going to want to make a splash. Was the Smith hire surprising? Sure, but let's see how he does first before going after Day.