Buckeye rewind: portal, staff changes and Spring Game info
COVER PHOTO: Head coach Ryan Day sends the offense a play call during the second half of the Peach Bowl semifinal against Georgia. Picture by Ken Tishenkel/Columbus Wired.
All’s quiet on the midwestern front.
At least for now.
It’s been a little while since any pertinent information has come out about Ohio State football so we at Columbus Wired thought we’d catch you up on what’s been the haps since the Peach Bowl semifinal against Georgia.
Spring game
The latest news to come out is the announcement of this year’s LiFEsports spring game. It will start at noon on Saturday, April 15 and is presented by Union Home Mortgage.
Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 10, and you can click here to purchase starting then.
General admission begins at $7 and there will also be a limited number of reserve seats available between $15 and $30.
The university is also joining up with the Ohio Beef Council, Raising Cane’s and Union Home Mortgage for the Ohio State “4 Miler”, which is returning as a springtime event. The run/walk event will be held the day after the spring game and those who would like to participate can click here. According to a press release by the school, participants will receive a ticket to the spring game in addition to a Nike race shirt and an official finisher’s medal.
Also according to the release, registrants can sign up for the Diamond Cellar VIP Experience and those that do, will “receive an Official VIP Jacket or Quarter Zip, VIP Packet Pick Up, free parking and admittance into the Diamond Cellar VIP Tent on Race Day. The tent features catered breakfast and lunch, open bar and a Meet & Greet with Buckeye Greats.” More info on that can be seen here.
Staff changes
With the departure of offensive coordinator and tight ends coach Kevin Wilson to become head coach of the Tulsa Golden Hurricane, Buckeye head coach Ryan Day was left with a decision to make. Hire an experienced offensive coordinator and possibly an additional tight ends coach, add additional duties to current wide receivers coach Brian Hartline to also coach the tight ends or mix up roles on the staff and promote from within?
Day chose the latter and anointed Hartline as the team’s new offensive coordinator, bumping him ahead of current offensive line coach and associate head coach for the offense, Justin Frye, and running backs coach Tony Alford, who also held the distinction of being the assistant head coach for the offense.
Day said this about Hartline when the announcement was made on Jan. 13:
“Brian has been successful in every football capacity for which he has been engaged,” Day said. “He has progressed incredibly well from college to NFL receiver, and then from quality control coach to wide receivers coach to passing game coordinator. He figures things out quickly and he is more than ready to now transition to offensive coordinator.”
An interesting decision considering Alford has been a coach in some form of the college ranks since 1995 and Frye has 16 years tucked under his belt including the title of offensive coordinator at UCLA for three seasons before making the trip to Columbus.
But it’s not like Hartline is a complete newbie. He’ll enter his eighth season of coaching this upcoming season (all at OSU) and he’s got his own bragging rights to tout.
In 2019 he was named by the American Football Coaches Association as one of its “35 Under 35” honorees, which is an honor they bestow upon 35 different college coaches under the age of 35 that show promise for a bright future.
@on3sports named Hartline its 2022 national wide receivers coach of the year last month and FootballScoop gave him their 2021 award for receivers coach of the year.
And it’s no secret that he’s been at the helm for some of the best receivers in the country since being named a quality control coach for Zone 6 by former head coach Urban Meyer in 2017. “Rumors” have been flying the last couple of seasons that if Day doesn’t continue to pull the trigger promoting Hartline, the former standout OSU receiver is going to pack his bags and head for greener pastures.
One can only surmise that was the reason for the bump over both Frye and Alford.
“Brian has also developed his receivers at an unprecedented level and he has recruited as well or better than anyone in the country,” Day said. “Now he’ll be recruiting for our entire offense and I think that is something that will be really positive for our program.”
Hartline will also remain the wide receivers coach for 2023.
Alford and Frye will continue to hold their current titles with Frye joining Alford as a run game coordinator. Nine-year college coaching veteran Keenan Bailey, including his first two seasons as a recruiting analyst at Notre Dame, will replace Wilson as the new tight ends coach. In February of last year, Day elevated him to the position of Senior Advisor to the Head Coach and had been a quality control coach on offense for the past three seasons.
He spent his first season with Ohio State as an offensive intern coaching the running backs before moving over to the wide receivers in 2017 and to the quarterbacks in 2019.
Transfer portal
The Buckeyes really aren't on the losing end in this regard. After seeing only nine guys since Dec. 5 throw deuces towards OSU - only one of which had starting time this year and two others that had starting experience but none this season - the Buckeyes got three transfers to throw their own deuces towards their former schools and commit to play for the scarlet and gray.
To Ohio State
On Jan. 18, Oregon State quarterback Tristan Gebbia announced he was transferring to Columbus after entering his name in the portal on Jan. 3. This will be his third team after enrolling at Nebraska in 2017, then transferred to Oregon State in 2018 but had to burn a season of eligibility after redshirting for the Cornhuskers his true freshman year.
However, he still has one season of eligibility remaining thanks to the free 2020 COVID season as well as gaining another year after being approved for a medical redshirt due to sitting out the entirety of 2021 because of a hamstring injury.
According to the Beavers’ official athletics website, Gebbia was a three-year captain, appeared in 12 games in his five-year Beaver career and started once as a redshirt sophomore in 2019 as well as all four games in 2020. He threw for a total of 1,250 yards, five touchdowns and four interceptions while rushing 31 times for 17 yards and three scores.
No doubt, Day brought him in to be an experienced guy in the locker room and add some depth as well as maybe push a little healthy competition in this year’s quarterback battle which looks to be solely between sophomore Kyle McCord and freshman Devin Brown. It might also send those two a message that the keys to the offense aren’t being automatically handed to either of them.
Day and defensive coordinator Jim Knowles also got a boost when third-year safety Ja’Had Carter announced via Twitter he was leaving Syracuse to play for the Buckeyes, providing relief to departed starters Ronnie Hickman and Tanner McCalister.
Carter comes in with 31 games played in his three-year career with the Orange and started 28. He was an Honorable Mention All-ACC safety last year after leading the team with three interceptions and was named a Freshman All-American by Rivals in 2020 where he finished second on the team in both tackles (67) and interceptions (2). He finished his SU career with 138 tackles (97 solo), five interceptions, seven pass breakups, two fumble recoveries, a defensive touchdown and a forced fumble.
His arrival could be interesting given his experience and apparent nose for the football. Current third-year safety Lathan Ransom should return as the starting bandit after starting 11 games last season at the same position and finished as a semi-finalist for the Jim Thorpe Award, which is given to the nation’s best defensive back.
And with true freshmen Sonny Styles and Kye Stokes contributing a good bit last year, and undoubtedly both are vying for the other two available safety spots, Carter should at the very least give them some depth after safeties Jantzen Dunn and Jaylen Johnson both bid OSU adieu.
Also returning, at least for now, is fifth-year safety Josh Proctor who (kind of) announced he is returning for one last season. He “kind of” announced he’s coming back because he wasn’t actually the one to announce it, safeties coach Perry Eliano did the talking for him. According to an article by the Columbus Dispatch’s Bill Rabinowitz, Eliano told the reporter that Proctor was returning for a sixth season.
Granted, Proctor could still tell the Buckeyes “peace” after the spring game and have an entire month to enter the portal.
A third addition was offensive lineman Victor Cutler from the University of Louisiana-Monroe. The fourth-year player was brought on after third-year center Luke Wypler, third-year left tackle Paris Johnson, Jr. and fourth-year right tackle Dawand Jones all announced they were leaving for the NFL. After redshirting in 2019, Cutler played in 29 total games with 21 starts, including all 12 this past season for the Warhawks at left tackle.
A versatile lineman, Cutler could potentially come in and start at either tackle or center. According to ULM's official website, he made seven combined starts at three different positions in 2021, including the first four games at center, two at right tackle and one at left tackle. He ranked sixth among Warhawk offensive linemen with 432 snaps, played more than 50 snaps in four games and tied for fourth on the team with 12 pancakes last year.
From Ohio State
Two curiosity-piquing transfers out of Columbus were cornerback Jakailin “J.K.” Johnson and defensive end Javontae Jean-Baptiste.
As a redshirt freshman, Johnson saw a good amount of time on the field this past year, playing in all 13 games and starting in five. He figured to be an integral cog in the rotation opposite Denzel Burke with either fellow second-year CB Jordan Hancock or true freshman Jyaire Brown. Johnson entered the portal on Jan. 3 and chose LSU six days later. He ended his OSU career with 20 tackles.
Jean-Baptiste decided to enter the portal the day before J.K. Johnson and, interestingly, felt Notre Dame was the best fit for him. After coming in as a four-star linebacker in 2018, Jean-Baptiste never seemed to completely find his footing after switching to defensive end early in his career.
He started six games in his five years with the Buckeyes, although none this season, playing in a total of 47. However, he had season-highs in 2022 with 19 tackles, 4.5 for-loss which included four sacks, and had one forced fumble. He’ll get his chance at redemption against his former school when the Buckeyes travel to South Bend, Ind. on Sept. 23 for their fourth game of the season in a home-and-home rematch versus the Fighting Irish.
According to Douglas Farmer of Inside the Irish on NBC Sports’ website, “the Irish need new starters at both (defensive end) positions to replace Justin Ademilola and Isaiah Foskey, respectively. Rising senior Rylie Mills worked some as a “Big” end, but he may be wanted back on the interior to supplement the suddenly shallow position there, as well. Thus, Jean-Baptiste’s edge-rushing skills should fit well opposite (defensive end Jordan) Botelho’s natural aggression.”
Other transfers
Linebacker Teradja Mitchell. A fifth-year with one more year of eligibility, he played in 43 games and totaled 63 tackles (31 solo, 32 assisted) with seven tackles for-loss and one pass break-up. A captain in 2021 with all eight of his career starts that year, he was relegated from a starting role at the beginning of the year to only seeing special teams by the 11th game of the season versus Michigan State and didn’t travel to Ann Arbor the next weekend against Michigan. He appeared in only four games this season and didn’t register a single stat. He entered the portal on Dec. 5 and committed to Florida on Jan. 2.
Safeties Jaylen Johnson and Jantzen Dunn. Both were scholarship redshirt freshmen but injuries hampered their careers. Johnson played in two games in 2021 and had one assisted tackle against Nebraska, however neither played this past year. Johnson entered the portal on Dec. 5 and committed to Memphis on Jan. 10; Dunn entered on Dec. 13 and committed to Kentucky five days later.
The remaining four transfers were all walk-ons: wide receivers Corban Cleveland and Blaize Exline, defensive back Lloyd McFarquhar and long snapper Mason Arnold.