The college football calendar isn’t always kind to programs during the coaching carousel and transfer portal windows. The Ohio State Buckeyes have dealt with fallout from both the past couple of years, and it looks like other schools are once again peeping around the idea of hiring a member of their coaching staff.

Ohio State went through this last year with Brian Hartline, who left to become the head coach at South Florida. Now, the Buckeyes’ current offensive coordinator is drawing attention from a Big Ten program with an opening.

Maryland starting a coaching search after firing Mike Locksley

The Maryland Terrapins became the first Big Ten job to open last week when they fired Mike Locksley. The move came after Maryland lost to Rutgers and fell to 2-5.

Ohio State blew out the Terrapins 45-16 in Week 6. It felt then that Locksley could have been fired following that game, and it didn’t take long for Maryland to make the change.

The Terrapins are now in the middle of a coaching search, and Ohio State offensive coordinator Arthur Smith has popped up as a name to know for the job. On3’s Pete Nakos named Smith as a candidate to know for the Maryland opening. Nakos also noted that Smith has interest in becoming a college football head coach, according to his sources.

Arthur Smith’s path to Ohio State

Ohio State hired Smith this past offseason to take over for Hartline, and he’s done a solid job so far. The Buckeyes rank 10th nationally in yards per game at 476.3 and 10th in points per game at 39.3.

Still, the biggest part of Smith’s job is still to come. With Julian Sayin no longer the starting quarterback, what this offense looks like the rest of the way will say a lot about Smith’s first season in Columbus.

Smith is a former NFL head coach who led the Atlanta Falcons from 2021-23, going 21-30 during that stretch. The Tennessee native played his college ball at North Carolina. Outside of some administrative assistant work at Ole Miss in 2010, he hadn’t worked at the college level before this year.

Smith got his start in the NFL as a quality control coach with the Tennessee Titans in 2011. He worked his way up to offensive coordinator in Tennessee by 2019 and held that role for two seasons. From there, he was the Falcons’ head coach through the end of 2023. He then spent two seasons as the Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator before taking the job with the Buckeyes.

Ohio State could face more coordinator turnover

If Smith does leave after one season, Ohio State would be looking for a new offensive coordinator for a third straight year. The Buckeyes replaced Chip Kelly with Hartline, then replaced Hartline with Smith. Having to replace Smith now would continue a cycle that no program wants to be stuck in.

Keeping Smith for multiple years would be the ideal scenario for Ohio State. However, with word now out there that he wants to be a college head coach, that opportunity could come around a lot quicker than a return to the NFL as a head coach would.

Nothing appears to be close at this point, but with a former NFL head coach on staff and an open Big Ten job, you can’t rule anything out. This will be something to watch in the coming weeks, and time will tell if legitimate interest builds between Maryland and Smith.