Ohio State Offensive Coordinator Hot Board: Ryan Day has a decision on his hands with Brian Hartline’s exit
Ryan Day will soon be hiring a new offensive coordinator once again after the Buckeyes finish their season.
As the Ohio State Buckeyes prepare for the Indiana Hoosiers in the Big Ten Championship, it’ll be one of the final games for offensive coordinator Brian Hartline with the program.
Hartline has accepted the job to be the next head coach at USF, and he will finish up the postseason with the Buckeyes before making the jump. Ryan Day replaced Chip Kelly with Hartline after Kelly jumped back to the NFL last season, and Ohio State’s head coach now has another decision on his hands.
Potential Ohio State offensive coordinator names to know
Chip Kelly (Former Ohio State offensive coordinator/NFL coach)
Kelly was the play-caller for the Buckeyes last season, and that run ended with a national championship. He’s a veteran offensive mind who made the jump back to the NFL after just one year in Columbus.
Kelly’s stint with the Las Vegas Raiders didn’t go as planned, as he was fired after just 11 games. He has already shown he can work well at Ohio State, and he should be a call Day makes simply to gauge his interest in returning.
Brian Daboll (Former NFL head coach)
Daboll has spent most of his career at the NFL level, but after being fired by the New York Giants, it’s hard to tell what’s next for him. The 50-year-old from Canada had great success with the Buffalo Bills as offensive coordinator from 2018 to 2021 and played a key role in developing Josh Allen.
His last college stop was Alabama in 2017, where he served as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. His name has surfaced for the Penn State head coaching job, but we all know Day values NFL connections.
Keenan Bailey (Ohio State tight ends coach)
Bailey has continued to grow as a coach during his time at Ohio State, where he has been since 2016, when he started as an offensive intern. Since then, he has taken over coaching tight ends and now serves as co-offensive coordinator alongside Hartline.
If there’s an in-house name to watch, it’s Bailey, whom Day has clearly valued enough to retain from Urban Meyer’s staff. If Bailey were the choice, it would be interesting to see whether Day handed him play-calling duties or took them back himself.
J.T. Barrett (Former OSU QB, Chicago Bears QB coach)
To replace a guy with NFL-caliber success, you have to get a guy with NFL success. The former Buckeye serves as the Chicago Bears’ quarterback coach, but is a hot riser up NFL boards. He joined the Detroit Lions in 2022 before becoming their assistant QB coach in 2023. He was a trusted advisor to Ben Johnson in Detroit, designing their trick plays and becoming a key figure in their offensive game plans, which is why Johnson didn’t hesitate to bring him to Chicago as Caleb Williams’ quarterback coach. Plus, the Bears currently hold the 1-seed. Coincidence?
Barrett has never called plays before, which could be a holdup, but neither had Hartline. Bringing back the former record-setting Buckeye with multiple years of NFL success under one of the hottest offensive minds in the NFL has to be an appealing option, regardless of his experience.
Dave Brock (Rutgers wide receivers coach)
It perhaps isn’t the most inspiring name for Ohio State. Still, Dave Brock has a long history of experience coaching multiple positions at every level of college football and in the NFL. He’s already called plays at numerous schools, from Hofstra, Temple, Kansas State, and Rutgers, and he has a history with Day, as the two coached together at Boston College under Frank Spaziani.
Brock coached wide receivers and running backs with the Atlanta Falcons from 2017 to 2021, working with Steve Sarkisian and Charlie Weis Jr there, before following Sarkisian to Texas in 2022 and serving as Rutgers’ wide receivers coach since 2023. He’s up for FootballScoop’s Wide Receivers Coach of the Year after coaching KJ Duff, Ian Strong, and DT Sheffield, who are all on NFL radars. If Ryan Day is looking for an experienced, familiar option to plug in quickly, Brock has the background.
Mike Brown (Notre Dame wide receivers coach)
Brown might not be a name many know, but he’s well-respected across the country, and particularly throughout Ohio State’s backyard. Currently serving as Notre Dame’s wide receivers coach, Brown has built strong relationships with coaches throughout the Great Lakes region and is a strong talent developer despite limited experience.
His first job coaching wide receivers came in 2019 at Cincinnati under Mike Denbrock (alongside Marcus Freeman), and he developed Alec Pierce and Tre Tucker into the pros they are today. After just three years, he ascended to be the passing game coordinator alongside Denbrock before following Fickell to Wisconsin in 2023 (where he coached Skyler Bell and Chimere Dike) before reuniting with Freeman and Denbrock at Notre Dame in 2024.
He doesn’t have a lot of experience calling plays, but he’s a strong recruiter and developer with immense ties throughout the Buckeyes’ primary recruiting area. He should no doubt be a contender for the wide receivers coach position at least.
Jordan Davis (North Texas offensive coordinator)
Let’s take a gamble on a rising star, even if he has no ties to Day. One of the most intriguing young offensive minds out there, Davis played for and coached with Kliff Kingsbury at Texas Tech, working alongside prominent names like DeShaun Foster, Jabbar Juluke, Emmett Jones, Zach Kittley, Zac Spavital, and Eric Morris.
He followed Morris to Incarnate Word as his wide receivers coach in 2018 before quickly being promoted to assistant head coach/wide receivers coach in 2020. He’s been with Morris at every stop since, including serving as his offensive coordinator at North Texas, where he has turned the Mean Green offense into one of the most potent units in the country.
He is also up for FootballScoop’s Wide Receivers Coach of the Year this season. While Davis is green (pun intended), he could be just the breath of fresh air Ohio State needs to inject into the program and is a hot riser across the college coaching world.
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