Beyond the Box Score: Ohio State got off the coordinator carousel

NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...

Some of the best stories from games come from beyond the box score. Every Wednesday during the season, Land Grant Holy Land will highlight something from Saturday’s game or from within the Buckeyes’ program that stands out beyond the box score.

In both college football and the NFL, there’s a lot of copy and paste that takes place.

When one program or team implements something innovative and cutting-edge, other programs and teams try to copy it. Remember when the spread option came to college football? Every team was running it sooner rather than later.

There’s something else that’s commonplace in college football: the coordinator carousel. Head coaches bounce around college football too, but not as frequently as coordinators. Sometimes these coordinators get promoted to head coaches, but they also sometimes make lateral moves to other programs — including in the same conference. 

In the Big Ten this past offseason, 15 teams made at least one change at a coordinator position. Ohio State was one of those teams. Rather than just searching around college football to replace Brian Hartline at offensive coordinator, they went in a different direction.

They went to the NFL and hired Arthur Smith, a former Pittsburgh Steelers and Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator and former Atlanta Falcons head coach.

This is the second straight offseason the Buckeyes have taken an unconventional approach to replacing a coordinator. They did it after winning the national championship in 2024, hiring Super Bowl-winning defensive coordinator Matt Patricia to replace Jim Knowles.

Ohio State knows what it’s doing. Athlon Sports agrees. In their college football preview magazine that came out back in June, an opposing Big Ten assistant coach had the following to say about Ohio State’s last two coordinator hires:

“It was so innovative what they did with their coordinators because in today’s game, coordinators are being taken out of their college stuff. They thought, why not bring in two NFL guys [as coordinators] who might not— from the outside looking in— be known for their relatability to players and all that other BS, who are just known for being schematic dudes that know what the f— they’re doing from a scheme standpoint, and they’ve executed that really well.”

Both Patricia and Smith are proven NFL coordinators. Patricia won three Super Bowls with the Patriots, two of them when he was their defensive coordinator. Smith was an NFL offensive coordinator for four seasons, two with the Titans and two with the Steelers. Smith’s offenses led those teams to the Playoffs all four seasons and won two division titles.

Don’t just take our word, though. Take Ryan Day and what he said Tuesday at his weekly press conference about Smith.

“All across the board. I think for me, when I first knew of Arthur, I think I thought a lot about his background of being an offensive lineman,” Day said. What he did in Tennessee with Derrick Henry, what he’s done to have seven straight running backs over a thousand yards with different backs.”

Day recognizes exactly what we all recognize. We know what Smith did with Derrick Henry in Tennessee. The hope is that Smith can get similar production from Bo Jackson this season.

The Buckeyes have plenty of resources and money to bring big names into their program. That’s why they took big swings to hire former NFL coordinators to keep the Buckeyes on top of the college football world. Patricia did that last year with the Buckeyes’ defense.

Now, Smith will look to do the same with the Buckeyes’ offense this season, getting them back to the dynamic offenses they have had for so long, especially when it comes to running the football.

More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos