Brian Hartline is a guy that’s emerged as a candidate in the Penn State coaching search, but is he ready for the job?
NSN discussed this with one of Ohio State football’s top insiders.
Patrick Murphy of Bucknuts, which is 247Sports’ Ohio State site, has been covering the Buckeyes full-time since 2015.
Hartline started his coaching career at Ohio State in 2017, two years after his NFL career ended.
He spent the 2017 season as an offensive quality control assistant, then became the wide receivers coach the next season. As they say, the rest is history.
In Hartline’s time as Ohio State’s receivers coach— which is still ongoing—, he’s recruited and developed players such as Marvin Harrison Jr., Emeka Egbuka and, most recently, Jeremiah Smith.
His success as WR coach led Ryan Day to promote him to offensive coordinator in 2023, and then again in 2025.
With Hartline running the offense, Ohio State has dominated the Big Ten, with QB Julian Sayin becoming a Heisman Trophy candidate in his first year as starter.
All of this— plus the fact that Hartline is only 38 years old— has put him in the mix for the Penn State job.
But as Murphy pointed out, there are a few drawbacks, both for Hartline and Penn State.
For one, Murphy feels Hartline loves coaching receivers, which he wouldn’t directly be able to do as head coach.
“You’re not just going to be a wide receivers coach,” Murphy said. “I mean, I guess you could be, but how often do you see a guy just stay a wide receivers coach? You really don’t. If he’s good enough, he obviously moves up to offensive coordinator, like Brian Hartline has this year. But, while he is doing that and he’s working with the offense significantly more, he still is with the wide receivers a lot. So I do wonder if he actually has interest in going and, hey, let’s be a head coach where I’m even further removed from the position I enjoy coaching the most.”
Although Hartline’s time as offensive coordinator has been successful, it’s essentially only been a seven-game sample.
“He’s technically, by title, been Ohio State’s offensive coordinator or co-offensive coordinator for the last two years prior to this one,” Murphy said. “But this is the first time he’s calling plays. Ryan Day did it in 2023, wasn’t ready to give him the playcalling, and obviously Chip Kelly comes in, they were co-offensive coordinators, but obviously Chip Kelly’s the one calling the plays. So, for all intents and purposes, this is his first year as a true offensive coordinator. I think he needs some more time to go through that.”
Murphy pointed out that Hartline wasn’t somebody who dreamed of being a coach.
He came back to his alma mater in 2017 in a small capacity, and it snowballed from there.
So hardline could benefit from working more with Day to find out everything being a head coach would email.
“Not only learn about everything, but learn about what it takes,” Murphy said. “Working even closer with Ryan Day than he has. The stuff off the field that you have to manage and things like that. You have to know all about that. You have to know the right people, and certainly people in the sport, but the longer you are an offensive coordinator, and assistant coach, whatever, the more people you know.”
“So, for me, and I don’t want to speak for Brian Hartline here, obviously, but I think it would make sense for him to be an offensive coordinator for a little bit.”
Ohio State isn’t only the job Hartline is most known for, it’s the only place he’s ever worked.
So although that means he knows what a national championship culture looks like, it also means he hasn’t worked for a wide array of places.
“Brian Hartline has fast-tracked his career at one of the top jobs in the country,” he said. “While it’s worked out well, is he ready to, that quickly, make the jump to being a head coach, and a head coach somewhere else, where he’s only been at one place, right? So, for those reasons, I would be skeptical.”
So is Hartline ready for a head-coaching job as big as Penn State?
For Murphy, it isn’t time yet.
“I think Brian Hartline’s probably not ready for that at this point,” he said.
“But I think he knows ball, and I think given the time, he could be a really good head coach if that’s the path he wants. The question is, is Penn State willing to give a young, inexperienced head coach that kind of time? Based on this year, probably not.”
