Ohio State co-offensive coordinator/wide receivers Brian Hartline has garnered some head coaching interest in recent years, most recently landing an interview with West Virginia earlier this month for the program’s now-closed head coaching vacancy.
Despite this interest, though, it appears the longtime assistant is — at least at the time being — fully committed to the Buckeyes.
“Being a head coach is not really on my mind,” Hartline told Eleven Warriors at Ohio State’s Rose Bowl media day held in Los Angeles on Monday. “Year-to-year you always have people who reach out and want to speak to you about opportunities. I’m never in a situation where I’m never going to talk to someone or anything about an opportunity, but my focus is – I love being at Ohio State. It’s well-documented, and I see it as such.”
Since being named Ohio State’s full-time wide receivers coach in 2019, Hartline has firmly established himself as one of the top assistants and recruiters in all of college football.
The former NFL wideout has turned Ohio State into a rich NFL wide receiver pipeline, molding pros such as Marvin Harrison Jr., Chris Olave, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Garrett Wilson while also putting current players such as Emeka Egbuka, Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate on paths to becoming potential early-round draft selections.
Hartline’s efforts at Ohio State, which also has the program in line to sign 2026 five-star prospect Chris Henry Jr. (6-5, 205) of Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei and 2027 five-star Jamier Brown (5-11, 170) of Dayton Wayne, not only earned him the previous head coaching interview at West Virginia — one which he declined to comment on when asked about it by Eleven Warriors — but also a reported interview with Cincinnati in 2022 after Luke Fickell left the program for Wisconsin.
“Just focused on the Rose Bowl,” Hartline said when asked about the interview process with the Mountaineers.
