The Urban Meyer lesson that helped Ohio State’s Ryan Day move past Chip Kelly, Brian Hartline losses
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Ohio State football is arguably the best program in all of college football, and the Buckeyes are just one year removed from a national title under Ryan Day. Of course, there are plenty of perks from being a program like Ohio State, but there are still some drawbacks as well.
One of the biggest catches of being a contending team every year is the brain drain off of your staff after each season. The Buckeyes have been no stranger to that in recent years. Following the national title in 2024, offensive coordinator Chip Kelly made the leap back to the NFL. Following the 2025 season, Brian Hartline took the job as the new head coach at South Florida. Defensive coordinator Jim Knowles also departed after the 2024 season and was replaced by Matt Patricia.
It’s difficult for any team to replace elite assistant coaches at any time, especially year after year, but Day has become a pro at it. He recently revealed a lesson form former Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer about the mindset of replacing great coaches on the Buckeyes’ staff, via On3 Sports.
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“When you’re at Ohio State you get to go hire the best,” Day said. “I remember one of my first recruiting meetings, I was the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator and Urban Meyer was the head coach here. And we walked in and the recruit and the family says, ‘Well, we really like coach Day, but what happens if he leaves?’
“I thought coach was going to say, ‘He’s going to be here for a long time, you don’t need to worry about that.’ He just said, ‘We’ll just go get the next best guy out there.'”
Recently, Day and the Buckeyes have gone the NFL route to replace those coaches. Patricia was an example of that, and it has been a great hire so far. Ohio State went that route once again this offseason, as it hired former NFL head coach Arthur Smith to replace Hartline as the offensive coordinator.
Smith had his ups and downs as a play-caller in the NFL, but he will bring a bit of a different look and a pro feel to Columbus. Based on the recent track record of Day hiring assistants at Ohio State, the safe bet is that Smith will be another home run hire.
Related: Quinn Gray speaks on Florida A&M rebuild with Paul Finebaum