Brian Hartline takes over as the Ohio State Buckeyes’ offensive coordinator for the 2025 season as his successor, Chip Kelly, has moved on to an NFL role.
On3 analyst J.D. PicKell wonders how easy a job it will be for him to get the Buckeyes’ offensive attack going, a season removed from a national championship run fueled by offensive firepower.
Analyst J.D. PicKell Believes Brian Hartline Will Have a Tough Job Early On
Having proven himself as one of the best recruiters in the nation, especially when it comes to receivers, new Ohio State offensive coordinator Brian Hartline finds himself with more responsibility this upcoming season.
“Brian Hartline gets a well-deserved promotion. He’s gonna be your play-caller here,” PicKell said Tuesday on “The Hard Count with J.D. PicKell.”
“Brian Hartline has just made a living pretty much putting Ohio State receivers in the first round, it feels like, every single year. With him being the OC now, it’s important to remember the pieces he’s working with are very different than what Chip Kelly was working with,” he explained.
“As Chip Kelly walks in, you’ve got Will Howard, who’s played a lot of college football. You had Emeka Egbuka. You had Jeremiah Smith. Yeah, true freshman, but still, that’s some pretty good raw ingredients. You had Quinshon Judkins, who was an all-everything back in the SEC, and TreVeyon Henderson,” PicKell continued.
“Like, you see what I’m saying. There was a lot of, ‘Oh, we know what they are on the roster.'”
Ryan Day’s crew won the College Football Playoff National Championship with the guys PicKell mentioned. Now, the Buckeyes have to field a new starting passer to throw to the likes of Smith, Carnell Tate, and Brandon Inniss. The team’s tailback situation looks a lot different, as well.
“There’s a lot of ‘Oh, I think we know what we are’ on the roster,” PicKell said. “There’s a lot of, ‘Oh, they’re really talented.’ But, you still have to, I think, make it go together. So my point on all of this is Brian Hartline’s job, I think, in a lot of ways, is gonna be more difficult than Chip Kelly’s job was a year ago.”
The largest part of that will be bringing a new quarterback along. As of right now, the two passers that appear to be vying for the starting spot are Julian Sayin and Lincoln Kienholz. Howard, who transferred in from Kansas State, set records with Ohio State.
PicKell wonders what the offensive scheme will look like as Hartline tries to make his signal-caller comfortable.
“Because a comfortable quarterback is an efficient offense,” PicKell said. “Does comfortable for Julian Sayin, who I’m assuming is gonna start, does that look like, ‘We’re gonna start the game in a lot of tempo and try to get the ball out of his hands quick?’,” he asked.
Does that look like, ‘We’re gonna run the football early on and let James Peoples run the ball and then C.J. Donaldson get a little bit of a dose and then eventually we’ll ease Julian Sayin into the game?’ How does that look?”
PicKell predicted it’ll be a pass-first attack, which relies on the unit’s strength—its receivers.
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