Now that Tyler Bowen is Ohio State’s new offensive line coach, one of his first jobs will be building relationships with top prospects on the recruiting trail.
The former Virginia Tech offensive coordinator brings a wide variety of offensive knowledge and recruiting chops to Columbus. He successfully recruited players such as Olu Fashanu, Tyler Warren, Theo Johnson and Rasheed Walker to Penn State when he was an assistant coach for the Nittany Lions a few seasons ago.
Offensive line recruiting misses have stood out the most of any other position Ohio State has recruited the past few recruiting cycles, though to Justin Frye’s credit, the development at the position was clearly sufficient enough to win a national championship despite two massive injuries up front. Nonetheless, Bowen will try to rectify some of the recruiting misses from the past, particularly with highly touted out-of-state tackle prospects.
While Bowen is well-known for being a personable recruiter, he will likely be working at a small disadvantage very early in his tenure. Considering he’s been at Virginia Tech the past few seasons, the Buckeyes and the Hokies often don’t recruit the same caliber of players. Long story short, Bowen likely won’t have a lot of established relationships with OSU’s top offensive line targets in the 2026 class right away. That’s nothing that can’t be overcome within the next few months, but it’s a point worth considering.
Eleven Warriors spoke to five offensive linemen heavily recruited by Ohio State to gauge their reactions to Bowen’s hiring. Four of the five didn’t have much of a prior relationship with Bowen and ranged from cautiously optimistic to a complete wait-and-see mindset. On the positive side, the hiring also may have boosted OSU in the eyes of a five-star prospect.
Maxwell Riley has been one of the earliest and most crucial targets for Ohio State’s offensive line class in 2026. The Avon Lake product is down to OSU and Clemson in his recruitment, and the Buckeyes will certainly make a strong push to land the standout in-state prospect.
“I personally don’t know him or a lot about him, but if Coach Day is hiring him he must be the real deal,” Riley told Eleven Warriors of the Bowen hire.
Another top-priority offensive tackle prospect in the 2026 class is in-state standout Adam Guthrie, who has been a frequent visitor to Columbus over the past year. Reached Wednesday about the hire, Guthrie didn’t want to comment too much on it since he and Bowen don’t have a relationship. It’s probably a safe bet he’ll be one of the first linemen Bowen reaches out to once the hire becomes official, though.
Ohio State also has a real shot at landing the No. 1 offensive tackle in the 2026 class. Five-star Missouri prospect Jackson Cantwell included OSU in his recent top six despite the absence of an offensive line coach at the time, but Cantwell is intrigued by playing for Ryan Day and the championship pedigree of the Buckeyes. He looks forward to getting to know Bowen as well.
“Well, I don’t know much of anything about him, but I’m excited to learn and excited to build a relationship,” Cantwell said.
One day before Frye left for the Arizona Cardinals, he visited Texas prospect Zaden Krempin. Once Frye’s departure was announced, OSU’s coaching staff reached out to Krempin to let him know he was still a priority to them. As for the hire, Krempin and Bowen will be building a relationship from the ground up.
“I don’t know about the new guy,” Krempin said. “I liked Coach Frye a lot and the day he left my phone blew up from the rest of the Ohio State staff. Just telling me they are going to get a solid coach in there real soon.”
There was one top target the hire openly moved the needle for. Five-star Virginia offensive lineman Darius Gray was pumped upon hearing Ohio State was hiring Bowen, as Bowen recruited him plenty while at Virginia Tech. Any help Bowen could bring to Columbus in trying to secure Gray would be welcomed, considering he’s set six official visits to schools not named Ohio State already, one of them being Virginia Tech.
“So excited! That’s my guy,” Gray said of Bowen.
