Chris Holtmann stood off to the side Monday morning inside Value City Arena, clad in a scarlet and gray suit and donning an Ohio State pin. His wife, Lori, and daughter, Nora, sat in the front row alongside Holtmann’s parents and brother.
Hanging high above him in the rafters were the banners that line the ceiling at the home of Buckeyes basketball. It serves as a permanent reminder of the program’s successes. Seated in the stands, directly behind Ohio State’s current team, were former players such as Jared Sullinger, Scoonie Penn and others.
And after Holtmann was introduced by athletic director Gene Smith, he stepped to the microphone. The first word out of his mouth told much of this story.
“Wow,” he said.
Not even Chris Holtmann could believe where he was.
Being the head coach at Ohio State is not like being the head coach at Kentucky or Duke. It’s not that type of program and it never will be. This is a football school and it will always be that here. That needs to be said.
But at the same time, this job is widely viewed as a top-15 or top-20 job nationally. It’s one of the best in the country and now it belongs to Holtmann.
And that’s why Holtmann’s first word Monday was what it was. Not even he predicted all of this would happen so quickly.
“Obviously, I didn’t envision this and I don’t know that most people when they arrive to a place like this know how it’s going to happen,” Holtmann said. “I think you’re focused really on trying to do quality work and whatever comes out of that comes out of it.”
“I've had people ask me about that a lot and I don’t think you ever know exactly what it’s going to look like. Each guy’s path is different. I think you really just try to put in quality work and honestly see where that takes you.”– Ohio State Coach Chris Holtmann
That Holtmann is now the head coach at Ohio State is a bit crazy. His rise — and path — to this position is certainly unique.
Holtmann’s first head coaching job came in the 2010–11 season at Gardner–Webb. Prior to that, he was an assistant coach at Geneva, Taylor University (his alma mater), Gardner–Webb and Ohio.
He coached the Runnin’ Bulldogs for three seasons before he opted to leave to take a job at Butler — as an assistant coach. It was an unusual move, going from head coach to assistant by choice, but one Holtmann made because he wanted to be part of Butler.
Holtmann made that switch prior to the 2013–14 season. Then, all of a sudden, after one year back as an assistant coach, Holtmann was thrust into a difficult situation as Brandon Miller, the man the Bulldogs hired to succeed Brad Stevens, took a medical leave of absence. Holtmann was named interim head coach and Butler was projected to finish near the bottom of the Big East.
But Holtmann overachieved that year and got his team to the NCAA tournament and, along the way, had the interim tag removed from his job title and became the Butler head coach. Two more successful seasons — and NCAA tournament appearances — followed and on Friday, Holtmann was named the head coach at Ohio State.
A rapid rise, for sure, and an unusual path.
“I’ve had people ask me about that a lot and I don’t think you ever know exactly what it’s going to look like,” Holtmann said. “Each guy’s path is different. I think you really just try to put in quality work and honestly see where that takes you.”
Well, he’s here in Columbus now and the early returns have been nothing but positive.
“He’s given us a great impression,” Ohio State redshirt junior forward Keita Bates-Diop said. “Even from that first day, that first meeting, when he said he flew back just to meet us, that gave us a great impression that he’s trying to get a connection with us early.”
Added senior forward Jae’Sean Tate: “I definitely just wanted to know what his goals were for the team, what kind of coach he was. Everything he said in the meeting, I was excited to be able to be coached by him this year.”
Every coach has a vision for how he or she wants their career to go, a final destination they would like to reach. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a specific school or team, but there’s a level most want to get to — whatever that may be.
For Holtmann, the path to Monday was anything but ordinary. But no matter how he got here, one thing is for certain.
The Chris Holtmann era at Ohio State is officially underway.
“As I was working through this decision, I kept coming back to this,” Holtmann said. “While we know we have some work ahead of us, the combination of this university with its world class education and this athletic department with one national championship, 10 Final Fours, 14 Sweet 16s, 27 NCAA tournament appearances, 20 Big Ten championships, 51 draft picks in a location where there is a rich pool of talent to recruit beginning with this state.
“That whole combination supported by Buckeye Nation, a passionate fanbase that absolutely loves and craves a winner. That combination was simply too hard to pass up.”
