It was easy to tell what attracted Ohio State to Tyler Bowen and what attracted Tyler Bowen to Ohio State on Friday.
The former Virginia Tech offensive coordinator proved personable in his first interview with the Buckeyes’ media, showcasing why he’s developed a reputation as a top-tier recruiter. A coach’s candor with reporters isn’t always an indicator of future success, but it’s easy to see why players might relate to him.
“I think, number one, to be at a premier program in college football,” Bowen said of why he came to Ohio State. “I think the way the games go on and the way this place has been for decades and decades, that's obviously attractive. But the second reason, maybe even a bigger part of it, is getting back to my roots. I’m an O-line guy. Being a coordinator for the last three years, that's where my eyes are going. To be able to coach a position like that that's my roots, at a place like this, that was all attractive. Coach Day's vision for the program, all those things align with what I want.”
Ryan Day has brought Bowen aboard to better the results of Ohio State’s notoriously lackluster recruiting efforts along the offensive line in recent years and support offensive coordinator Brian Hartline – particularly in the running game – as the superstar wide receivers coach takes his first shot at calling plays.
“He played the position. He's a very, very good coach, he understands it,” Day said. “Even in a short period of time, you can ask our offensive linemen, he's on it. And then we have a really good support staff behind him that we hired that I think are excellent. And they've got a lot of energy. You can feel them when they come into the building, the coaches. And so we'll work through the spring and kind of see and evaluate how that goes, but I think that he's going to work tremendous with Brian.”
Bowen played offensive line for Maryland from 2007 through 2009 before getting his first shot to coach with the Terrapins in 2010, a year after his playing career ended. His first full-time assistant job came as tight ends coach at Towson in 2013, then he donned his offensive coordinator hat for the first time at Fordham in 2016.
A three-year stint at Penn State from 2018 through 2020 brought Bowen some of his greatest successes. He served as the Nittany Lions’ offensive recruiting coordinator for all three seasons, and became co-OC in 2020. He landed a line of four-stars and hidden gems, including first-round NFL draft pick Olu Fashanu, superstar tight end Tyler Warren and two-time All-Big Ten tackle Rasheed Walker.
“When you're at certain programs, you're not gonna compete against a program like this, right,” Bowen said. “But when you're at this program, you compete nationally with other programs, right? So it's all the same level of difficulty. It goes back to what we talked about with the trust with the offensive line, it is a people business. And the first thing, and no different than we did with our individual players, but with the recruits that have been on Ohio State's radar for a while, and our radar for a while, but also new ones, is try to build that relationship and bridge it quickly.”
Bowen’s hiring drew a positive reception from some of Ohio State’s key 2026 offensive line recruiting targets. He’s had to hit the ground running on the trail, especially as in-state star Adam Guthrie has committed to Clemson.
“You guys can probably already see he's making an impact,” Day said. “He's getting guys here. He works hard at it. He makes connections. He builds relationships. He can evaluate at a high level, and I think he with some of the guys that we have on the offensive staff together, you're starting to see group recruiting there. And so again, we're Ohio State. We should have the best players in the country. He understands that.”
The brain trust assembled to help Bowen in development and recruiting includes two analysts with more than 40 years of offensive line coaching experience, Charlie Dickey and Marcus Johnson.
Day added that Bowen’s personality “jumps out at you” and players already love being around him. Camaraderie is essential to quality offensive line performances, getting “five guys playing as one,” as Bowen put it.
“The most important thing is to try to build trust with a group and you've got to do it in a short amount of time,” Bowen said. “And trust, it's not easy to build. It's very easy to lose. So the first thing that I tried to attack here, before you even get into the X's and O's and talking about inside zone and gap schemes and all the things that go into it, six-man protection, is I wanted to meet with each player individually and get an idea of their story.”
While former offensive line coach Justin Frye had his shortcomings as a recruiter, there’s no denying he had one of the best developmental performances in recent Ohio State memory in 2024. Two of his three best players, Josh Simmons and Seth McLaughlin, suffered season-ending injuries and the other of his top three, Donovan Jackson, had to move from guard to tackle to replace Simmons.
Bowen hasn’t coached offensive line specifically since 2017, and his developmental abilities will be tested as the Buckeyes replace Simmons, McLaughlin, Jackson and starting right tackle Josh Fryar from last year’s unit. He has a strong foundation to work with on the interior as guards Luke Montgomery, Tegra Tshabola and Austin Siereveld all got valuable experience during Ohio State’s College Football Playoff run alongside center Carson Hinzman.
Rice transfer Ethan Onianwa has been hand-picked to take over at left tackle while Minnesota transfer Phillip Daniels is likely to start at right tackle, though he could have competition from redshirt freshman Ian Moore.
“Being here the last three-and-a-half, four weeks, whatever it's been, and diving into the cut-ups and seeing how many different guys came in and played integral roles on the way to the championship, I think it's a very unique situation,” Bowen said. “We got a lot of guys, particularly on the interior, that have played a lot of football, rotated through. So that should help us as we go into spring.”
Bowen’s schematic input will be an important tool for Hartline as well. Day will remain heavily involved in game planning as well, but it was important to him to get someone with a coordinator background to bolster Hartline’s strengths.
“Brian will be a first-time play caller for us and wanted to make sure that we had somebody in the room, in the run game that had coordinator experience,” Day said. “And I think Tyler, when you look at his past and his background, it's pretty diverse in terms of, he's coached the O-line, he's coached the tight ends, he's obviously been a part of the run game, coordinator.”
One of the core philosophies of Bowen’s run game schemes is diversity. He feels it’s important to threaten defenses with an array of runs for every gap and on the perimeter, whether they be zone or gap concepts.
“In today's college game, to play and particularly run the ball at a high level, you better have a diverse scheme,” Bowen said. “So that's gonna look very multiple at this time of the year, then as we go, we're funneling that down to what does this team do well, what does this offensive unit do well in the run game?”
