Three Thoughts On The Ohio State Assistant Coaching Announcements

A couple weeks ago, I wrote a post asking Ohio State fans, myself included, to be patient with Ohio State head coach Ryan Day when it pertained to the hiring of the new assistant coaches for the upcoming 2025 season. That patience was rewarded, as Coach Day publicly announced the promotions and additions to the coaching staff on February 20th.

With Ohio State in the midst of winter workouts, and spring football set to begin on March 17th, I thought this would be an appropriate time to offer up some thoughts on the 2025 coaching staff below.

Several Of The Assistants Are “Movin’ On Up“: I have to admit that I deliberately placed that phrase in as an earworm so now that memorable theme song is in your head. But I digress.

Brian Hartline, Keenan Bailey, Matt Guerrieri, and Tim Walton were all given promotions and additional responsibilities with the team. Without a doubt, the Hartline announcement as Ohio State’s offensive coordinator and primary playcaller this upcoming season has drawn the greatest scrutiny, as Hartline will be expected to maintain the high standard demonstrated by his predecessor Chip Kelly, who left for the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders.

Coach Day has been effusive in his praise of Hartline, saying, “Brian did some of his best coaching this past season…His loyalty and patience are going to pay off, and I think he’s going to be the best coordinator in the country.” With the first game versus Texas on August 30th, Hartline will certainly be under scrutiny immediately from a demanding Ohio State fan base.

Tyler Bowen Has Been Bounteous In His Buckeye Scholarship Offers: I am sure that @TonyGerdeman will correct me if I am mistaken, but I believe this may be the first instance of the adjective “bounteous” in a Buckeye Huddle column. Regardless, new offensive line coach/run game coordinator Tyler Bowen has hit the ground running in his new role, extending scholarship offers to players all across the country. It is a dramatic philosophical shift from his predecessor Justin Frye, who was often criticized for not being as aggressive on the recruiting front as observers of Ohio State’s football recruiting efforts wanted. Bowen will not face the criticism for not casting a wide net, but it remains to be seen if he will have better luck than Frye did in bringing the quality offensive line recruits to Columbus. Mark this down as a true work in progress that will be fairly evaluated next December on Signing Day.

(Matt) Patricia Was A Puzzler: For an Ohio State fan base still smarting over the depature of Jim Knowles to Penn State in the aftermath of the 2024 national championship celebration, the eventual hiring of Matt Patricia as the new defensive coordinator was somewhat of a surprise. Patricia was well-regarded in the NFL as the defensive coordinator of the New England Patriots under Bill Belichick from 2012-2017, but it would be fair to say that Patricia’s reputation took a substantial hit after his performance as the head coach of the NFL’s Detroit Lions (2018-2020). Throw in the fact that Patricia has not been a coach in the college ranks since the 2003 season, and the confusion is amplified.

The promotion of Tim Walton as co-defensive coordinator, announced with Patricia’s hiring, has Ohio State fans understandably curious as to how this new defensive staff will mold a unit that is losing several starters to the NFL. It will not take long for fans to be singling out Patricia if the defensive performance declines noticeably in 2025.