Report: Brian Hartline Promoted to Ohio State OC After Chip Kelly's Raiders Contract

Ohio State reportedly didn't have to look far for its next offensive coordinator.

Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports and 247Sports reported Wednesday that the reigning national champions plan to promote co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach Brian Hartline to the full-time O.C. position.

This comes after former O.C. Chip Kelly departed to fill the same role with the Las Vegas Raiders in the NFL.

That the Buckeyes would promote Hartline comes as no surprise and further guarantees he will remain with his alma mater after he previously interviewed for head-coaching jobs elsewhere.

After all, he is widely considered one of—if not the—best wide receivers coaches and recruiters in the sport who has helped maintain the program's powerhouse status during his eight seasons on the staff.

Hartline has recruited and worked with a long list of star wide receivers, including Jeremiah Smith, Emeka Egbuka, Marvin Harrison Jr., Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson, among others.

He also played at Ohio State before an NFL career that included back-to-back seasons of more than 1,000 receiving yards with the Miami Dolphins in 2012 and 2013.

Ohio State certainly didn't want to risk losing Hartline without a promotion after Kelly left, and now he will have the opportunity to further prove himself in a different role.

However, it remains to be seen if Hartline is given full play-calling capabilities in the offense even after this promotion.

After all, head coach Ryan Day has an offensive background and, as Pete Nakos of On3 pointed out, took over play-calling in 2023 after O.C. Kevin Wilson left for Tulsa. Day called plays that season even though Hartline held the official O.C. role.

Day then took a different approach in 2024 and went out and hired Kelly as a high-profile outside addition. In doing so, the head coach took more of a step back from consistent play-calling and played the CEO and game-management role that many head coaches do.

It was hard to argue with the results, as the Buckeyes went on to win the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff national championship. They were barely even threatened in their four CFP games, winning each of them by double digits and trailing for a grand total of fewer than seven minutes across the four contests.

Perhaps Day will give Hartline more play-calling responsibilities this time around, especially after such a strategy with Kelly resulted in Ohio State winning the national title.

If he does, the new O.C. will immediately be put to the test seeing how the Scarlet and Gray open the 2025 campaign with a home game against Texas.