Ohio State is searching for a new offensive coordinator for the third time in two years.
When Ryan Day decided to give up offensive play calling last season, he initially hired Bill O’Brien to run the offense and coach the Buckeyes’ quarterbacks. When O’Brien left just three weeks later to become the head coach at Boston College, Day hired Chip Kelly to fill both roles. After one successful season on the job in which he helped the Buckeyes win a national championship, Kelly is now headed to the NFL to be the Las Vegas Raiders’ offensive coordinator.
Assuming Day plans to continue operating as a CEO rather than going back to calling offensive plays himself, he must now find someone else he trusts to lead Ohio State’s offense in 2025. The importance of getting that hire right is only increased by the fact that the Buckeyes will have a first-time starting quarterback in 2025 as well as a new offensive line coach and a new defensive coordinator.
Fortunately for Ohio State, the opportunity to coordinate the Buckeyes’ offense should be appealing to candidates throughout the country given that they just won a national championship and that they have a ton of offensive talent, starting with superstar wide receiver Jeremiah Smith. And the list of candidates to replace Kelly could start with a couple of familiar names.
While there could certainly be other candidates who emerge as the search to replace Kelly officially commences, we take a look at six coaches who could be logical options to lead Ohio State’s offense next season.
Kevin Wilson, former Ohio State offensive coordinator
We’ll start this list with the same coach who started our list of candidates to replace Justin Frye as offensive line coach. While Wilson would be a great choice to replace Frye, he’d be an even better choice to replace Kelly given his successful track record as an offensive coordinator, including six years working alongside Day at Ohio State from 2017-22.
Ohio State could potentially fill two vacancies with one hire by hiring Wilson to be its offensive coordinator and offensive line coach – or it could hire Wilson just to be the coordinator and hire someone else to coach the offensive line. Wilson has experience coaching quarterbacks during his tenures as the offensive coordinator at Miami (Ohio) and Northwestern, though a more likely option to coach the quarterbacks if Wilson is hired as offensive coordinator might be promoting Billy Fessler, with Ohio State having the option to hire more than 10 full-time coaches (though only 10 can go on the road as recruiters) after the limit on on-field coaches was eliminated last offseason.
While Wilson wasn’t the primary play-caller during his previous tenure working alongside Day at Ohio State, he has plenty of play-calling experience from his previous jobs. And the Day/Wilson partnership leading Ohio State’s offense generated consistent success in their previous six years working together. Ohio State ranked in the top 11 nationally in both total and scoring offense in all six of those seasons.
Given that Wilson remains in the job market after his tenure as Tulsa’s head coach ended last November, this seems like it would be an obvious match for both sides.
Brian Hartline, Ohio State co-offensive coordinator
Hartline held the title of offensive coordinator for the 2023 season after Wilson left for Tulsa, and a promotion back into that role for 2025 could go a long way toward Ohio State’s efforts to keep him in Columbus long-term. That factor by itself makes the option of promoting Hartline one worth considering, given his immense value to the Buckeyes as college football’s preeminent wide receivers coach.
The question surrounding this option is whether Day is ready to trust Hartline with offensive play-calling responsibilities after choosing not to delegate those duties to Hartline in 2023. One option could be to pay Hartline like a full-fledged offensive coordinator and give him more game-planning authority in 2025 but pair him with a veteran coordinator with more play-calling experience.
Jason Candle, Toledo head coach
Candle was one of the first names connected to Ohio State’s offensive coordinator search last year, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see him garner consideration for the job if he’s interested. Day’s hires of O’Brien and Kelly last year showed that he valued head coaching experience in hiring an offensive coordinator, and Candle would bring eight years of that from Toledo.
A native of Salem, Ohio, Candle has spent his entire coaching career in the Buckeye State. He was Toledo’s offensive coordinator from 2012-15 before becoming the Rockets’ head coach in 2016. His offenses at Toledo have consistently ranked among the best in the MAC, though the Rockets dropped to fourth in the MAC in scoring offense and sixth in the conference in total offense in 2024 after leading the MAC in both points and yards per game in 2023.
Candle has never coached in a major conference, but his head coaching experience, track record of successful offenses and Ohio roots all make him a candidate worth considering nonetheless. And he’d be significantly cheaper to hire away from his head coaching job than Kelly was a year ago.
Joe Moorhead, Akron head coach
Sticking with the theme of current MAC head coaches with a track record of leading successful offenses, Moorhead would be another strong choice to replace Kelly. He was regarded as one of the best offensive coordinators in the country during his tenures leading the offenses at two of Ohio State’s top Big Ten competitors (Penn State in 2016-17 and Oregon in 2020-21), and he’d also bring power-conference head coaching experience from his time as Mississippi State’s head coach in 2018 and 2019.
Moorhead would have good reason to consider taking a top offensive coordinator job after going just 8-28 in his first three years as Akron’s head coach, and Fessler could help ensure a smooth transition to Ohio State for Moorhead as Fessler worked for Moorhead at Akron in 2022 and 2023.
Moorhead never clearly emerged as a candidate in last year’s searches, but he’d still check a lot of the boxes Ohio State wants in an offensive coordinator.
Jeff Nixon, Syracuse offensive coordinator
Should Day want to hire a coordinator with NFL coaching experience like he did with both O’Brien and Kelly last year, Nixon would be an intriguing option.
Nixon was an NFL position coach for nearly 15 years before he became the offensive coordinator at Syracuse last offseason. In his first year at Syracuse, Nixon helped former Ohio State quarterback Kyle McCord break the ACC’s single-season passing record as the Orange ranked seventh in the FBS with 467.6 yards of offense per game.
Nixon previously worked alongside Day in 2016 when both of them were members of Kelly’s offensive staff for the San Francisco 49ers.
Will Stein, Oregon offensive coordinator
Stein was the first name I included on my initial list of offensive coordinator candidates before Ohio State hired O’Brien 13 months ago, and there’s just as much reason to consider hiring him now as there was then. He led another explosive offense at Oregon in 2024 that had by far the most success – though only in Oregon’s first game against Ohio State – of any offense against the Buckeyes’ No. 1-ranked defense this past season.
Whether Stein or Ohio State would have interest in each other is uncertain – there was no confirmed contact between them a year ago – but his salary ($1.4 million) remains one Ohio State could surpass if it was interested in poaching the offensive coordinator of one of its top Big Ten competitors.
