I have been waiting to write this article. I have been licking my chops, excited to see how Ryan Day and the Buckeyes would retool and reload for 2025. And for the most part, I'm happy with the new coaches on Ohio State's staff for this fall.
I try to handle things with a "wait and see attitude." Especially with the offseason when it comes to both college and pro football. Players declare for the NFL Draft. Or if they're in the pros, they leave or get traded. But now that the smoke has cleared, and things have settled a little bit in Columbus, here's your 2025 Ohio State football coaching staff!
Head Coach: Ryan Day
2024 was definitely a season for Ryan Day that could be summed up in five words: "Put up or shut up."
Fans were expecting a win over Michigan for the first time since 2019. They were expecting a Big Ten Championship. And they were expecting to compete for, and win the National Championship for the first time since 2014.
Unfortunately for Coach Day, the Wolverines defeated the Buckeyes in Columbus 13-10, he dropped his fourth straight game to Michigan, and Ohio State was kept out of the Big Ten Championship Game. Penn State went in their place, and lost to Oregon.
This left Coach Day with just one way of really getting the half-ton gorilla off his back: leading the Buckeyes to the National Championship as an at-large team. And that's exactly what he did. He led Ohio State on what some are calling the most historic run in college football history.
I'm not going to break down each of the four games. We all saw the run Ohio State went on, and you can read past articles here on the CLE-BUS. But convincing wins over Tennessee, Oregon, Texas and Notre Dame (including a pair of blowouts in the first two rounds), not only netted Coach Day his first National Championship ring, but finishing the year like that also led new Ohio State AD Ross Bjork, to ink him to a massive contract extension.
Seven years. $12.5 Million per year. Coach Day will be in Columbus through the 2031 season if all goes according to plan. And hopefully he'll have a few more National Championship appearances and victories under his belt before that run ends. But now that we know he can win the biggest game under college football's brightest lights, one nagging question remains: Can he finally beat Michigan?
He's currently 1-4 against the Wolverines, with his lone win being a 56-27 blowout in Ann Arbor, largely with Urban Meyer's roster. Winning the National Championship certainly gave Coach Day some job security. Now if he REALLY wants to be the man in Columbus for the foreseeable future, he needs to swing the rivalry back the other way, starting on November 29th, 2025 in Ann Arbor. And he'll have some help to hopefully make that happen.
Let's take a look at the new hires on his coaching staff!
Offensive Coordinator: Brian Hartline
After Chip Kelly decided to leave Ohio State to join Pete Carroll's Las Vegas Raiders staff, Coach Day was forced to look for his replacement. But I wasn't really surprised with this one. Coach Hartline has been part of the Ohio State staff since 2017, whether it's as a recruiter, wide receivers coach, or offensive coordinator.
Hartline was the team's offensive coordinator in 2023, but I think he served more as a "sounding board" than an actual play caller. Coach Day still called the plays that season. But now Coach Hartline will finally get the chance to see if he can replicate, or even surpass the offensive explosiveness the Buckeyes showed under Chip Kelly last season. Ohio State averaged over 36 points per game, and over 430 yards per game in the regular season.
The main thing I'll be watching though, is how much Coach Hartline will develop Ohio State's next quarterback. Chip Kelly was instrumental in helping shape Will Howard once Howard transferred to Ohio State for his final season. If Hartline can help develop Julian Sayin or whoever else wins the starting job in a few months, look out!
But for as solid as Coach Hartline is as a playcaller and offensive mind, he's even better as a recruiter. Ever since he's been at Ohio State he's helped recruit several superstar players for the Buckeyes, including:
Marvin Harrison Jr.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba
Garrett Wilson
Chris Olave
Not only that, but Ohio State's most dangerous weapon from this past season, Jeremiah Smith, will be around for at least two more seasons. The freshman phenom was the best wide receiver in the country, and is extremely talented. If you think he was great in 2024 as a 19-year-old kid, under Hartline's watchful eye, he could be even more terrifying for opposing defenses in 2025 and beyond!
While Coach Hartline is a recruiter who seemingly specializes in finding the nation's best wide receivers, having him call the plays for another explosive offense could keep Ohio State in the mix to possibly repeat as National Champions.
Another new key hire on the staff seems underrated, but no less important.
Offensive Line Coach: Tyler Bowen
Admittedly, I initially didn't know much about Tyler Bowen when the Buckeyes hired him. But after reading up on him, it seems like he could be the Swiss Army Knife of coaches.
In addition to being chosen to lead Ohio State's offensive line, Bowen also has experience as a tight ends coach, offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach and recruiter. Bowen has had several previous stops since his playing days for the University of Maryland from 2007-2009.
He's coached at Towson, Penn State, Fordham, and Virginia Tech. He even had a brief stop in the NFL as the Jaguars' tight ends coach in 2021.
But Bowen made arguably his biggest impact so far at Penn State, where he was the team's co-offensive coordinator, and was one of their strongest recruiters.
He has a natural eye for finding offensive line talent, but time will tell if he can actually develop and coach the linemen he recruits for Ohio State. The offensive line will be one of the weakest spots for the Buckeyes going into 2025. Or at the very least it's a big question mark. Ohio State loses four of its five starting offensive linemen from last year. How Coach Bowen does when it comes to coaching the replacements, will say a lot about whether he's the right man for the job going forward into this season and beyond.
And the last new hire on Ohio State's staff could also be considered a big question mark. But if it works out, it could be a home run hire.
Defensive Coordinator: Matt Patricia
When the news broke earlier today that Coach Day had chosen Matt Patricia to be his new Defensive Coordinator, I was neither upset nor excited. I'm trying to have a wait and see attitude with everything until I make a judgment call on him.
Matt Patricia hasn't coached a defensive down or called a defensive play for the Silver Bullets yet. He'll get a chance to do that soon enough. Until he does that, and does it often enough, I'm trying to hang back and refrain from getting either too excited or too upset.
That's the one problem with the most passionate Ohio State fans. They either get too high or too low based on knee jerk reactions. I've been guilty of both in the past, and I'm trying to be better at letting things play out first.
Anyone who knows football knows Matt Patricia is a defensive mastermind. He called the defensive plays under Bill Belichick as his defensive coordinator from 2009-2017, winning a pair of Super Bowls (2014, 2016).
But Patricia hasn't coached in college since he was a grad assistant at Syracuse in the early 2000s.
I personally think this could be a solid hire, but my main questions are: What system will Matt Patricia run at Ohio State? And will he have the personnel to make it work?
According to Bucknuts, Matt Patricia favors the 3-4, but can often shift to the 4-3 and other looks. He prioritizes situational football and playing bend but don't break defense. He also uses heavy man to man coverage, and loves to disguise his blitzes.
Jim Knowles loved generating pressure from everywhere last year, and it looks like Patricia loves to do some of the same stuff. But I'm just concerned about Patricia straying too far away from what worked last offseason.
I know every coach has their own brand of football they like to implement. They have their own philosophy. But as the old saying goes: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. The 3-4 is a bit of a switch from the system Jim Knowles ran last season.
The 4-3 and 4-2-5 defenses both have four down linemen, which really enables a defensive coordinator to generate a ferocious pass rush up front. This in turn generates playmaking opportunities for talented defensive backs in the back end of the defense.
But if a team primarily runs a 3-4 defense, the linebackers take a more prominent role. Usually only three defensive linemen engage the opposing team's offensive linemen, and the defensive coordinator is then free to use his four linebackers however he chooses.
What kind of system Patricia will decide to run and how he'll do, is obviously still up in the air. But whenever I hear that a coach is making a defensive switch with his base scheme, that makes me a little nervous.
But the one good thing for Patricia going into his first season as Ohio State's defensive coordinator, is that he'll be joining a room full of returning defensive coaches from the Buckeyes' National Championship-winning team. Defensive line coach Larry Johnson, Tim Walton, Matt Guererri, and James Laurinaitis will all be back. Tim Walton will also be splitting duties with Patricia as co-DC.
All in all, I'm okay with Ohio State's new coaching hires. I'm most excited about Hartline being the new OC, and I'm curious about Patricia and how he'll do as the new DC. But for the most part, I'm cautiously optimistic. I'll give the new guys a chance until they give me a reason not to. Keep the faith!
Go Bucks!
Sources
Eleven Warriors
Bucknuts
Picture Credit
Eleven Warriors
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