The Ohio State football team has to replace Brian Hartline as the offensive coordinator. Hartline has decided to become the new head coach at South Florida. He will stay with the Ohio State Buckeyes throughout the duration of the College Football Playoff run.
With Hartline gone, the Buckeyes are having some issues closing their 2026 recruiting class, especially at the wide receiver spot. Regardless, the Buckeyes are going to have to replace Hartline when this season is finished. There are three candidates that they should look at.
1. Keenan Bailey
If the Buckeyes decide to promote internally, Bailey is the coach who is most likely going to get the call. Bailey has been the tight ends coach for Ohio State for the last couple of seasons. He has been with the program in general since 2019, which was Ryan Day's first season as head coach.
Bailey has been learning how to become a leader and has a good relationship with the current players on the offensive side of the ball. If Day decided to promote internally, he would be a popular pick with the players. He does not have any play-calling experience, though.
2. Chip Kelly
The architect of the 2024 national championship offense, Kelly is back on the market. He was fired, not even a full season into his tenure with the Raiders. Now, he is looking for a job. It looks like his time in the NFL is likely over. If he wants to continue coaching, it would have to be at the collegiate level.
It's pretty clear that Day trusts Kelly. Kelly did a great job of running the offense last season when Day gave up play-calling duties. Thanks to Kelly, the Buckeyes were able to have an explosive offense that other teams could not stop, especially when the College Football Playoff run started.
This would be the ideal hire for Ohio State once the season ends. Kelly left UCLA as the head coach so that he could be the OC in Columbus. Doing so allowed him to just worry about coaching football instead of dealing with all of the other things outside of the game that are required while leading a program.
3. Joey Halze
If Day wants to go out of the box, he could try to hire away Halze from Tennessee. The Vols have the sixth-best offense in the country, and he has been at the helm of it since 2023. With that being the case, he could keep Ohio State's offense rolling at a high level.
While Day doesn't have any ties to Halze, he could make Halze a higher-paid coordinator than he is currently with the Volunteers. That might persuade him to make a move to the Big Ten and coach the Buckeyes.