Even though he wasn’t yet ready to identify Arthur Smith by name, Ryan Day didn’t hide his excitement about Ohio State’s new offensive coordinator during Friday’s episode of The Ryan Day Show.
Although Ohio State’s addition of Smith was widely reported last weekend, Ohio State hadn’t yet made the hiring official. That announcement ultimately came in a Saturday afternoon news release, in which Day said Smith “will bring immediate value to our program and was exactly what we were looking for as we set out to find our next offensive coordinator.”
Welcome to Buckeye Nation, Arthur Smith pic.twitter.com/5MaoAB7E7X
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) January 31, 2026
“His track record in the NFL, experience as a coordinator, play caller and a head coach checked every box during the search. He’ll do a great job in helping our players reach their potential on the field while also connecting with them as people,” Day said in Ohio State’s news release.
During his radio interview on Friday, Day made it clear just how optimistic he is that Smith is the right fit to lead Ohio State’s offense.
“I think we've hit a home run here when you look at all the different things,” Day said. “I can't get into the details of the background and all that, I think I will at some other point, but I think it's easy to see when you talk to people who know football.”
Day says he’s received text messages from people throughout the coaching profession over the past week telling him he made a great decision by hiring Smith.
“I just got so many text messages that, ‘Hey man, what a great hire,’ and all those things. So we're very, very excited,” Day said. “In even a short period of time, you can already see some of the connections that are being made here.”
As Day began his search for a new offensive coordinator to replace Brian Hartline, he weighed the possibility of making another promotion from within. Co-offensive coordinator Keenan Bailey has been with the Buckeyes since 2016 and has turned down opportunities to be an offensive coordinator elsewhere. Offensive line coach Tyler Bowen was the offensive coordinator at Virginia Tech from 2022-24, and quarterbacks coach Billy Fessler was the offensive coordinator at Akron in 2023.
Ultimately, though, Day felt it was important for at least the 2026 season to hire a more proven offensive coordinator, like Ohio State had with Chip Kelly when it won the national championship in 2024. While Day was more involved in Ohio State’s offensive operation last season because Hartline was a first-time play caller, Day plans to hand the keys to this year’s offense to Smith, allowing him to split his time more evenly with all units rather than spending most of his time with one side of the ball.
“Coming out of the season, I felt like, OK, with (Hartline) leaving, do we want to elevate somebody within the room? And I thought long and hard about that, because I really have a lot of respect for the guys in that room,” Day said. “I feel like Keenan is right there. I mean, he has had opportunities to go other places. He's been loyal. Billy and Tyler both had opportunities to go other places, but they're loyal as well. And so it's a good group of guys.
“But I just felt like going into this season in particular, we needed somebody with some play-calling experience that really could kind of take over that room and allow me to kind of step back. A couple of years ago with Chip, it was that way. And then also, mention the guys in the room, so that if there is another transition down the road, those guys would be ready to really take that over.”
“I just got so many text messages that, ‘Hey man, what a great hire,’ and all those things. So we're very, very excited.”– Ryan Day on the positive feedback he’s received for hiring Arthur Smith
Like Kelly, current defensive coordinator Matt Patricia and Bill O’Brien (who was briefly Ohio State’s offensive coordinator before Kelly in 2024 until Boston College hired O’Brien as its head coach), Smith is a former NFL head coach. The head man for the Atlanta Falcons from 2021-23, Smith has called offensive plays at the NFL level for the past seven years, also serving as the offensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans (2019-20) and Pittsburgh Steelers (2024-25).
Day said it was his preference to hire an offensive coordinator who had been a head coach and who had coached at the highest level of the sport. At the same time, Day wanted someone who truly wanted to be at Ohio State, as evidenced by Smith accepting the Ohio State job despite interest from the Titans and Philadelphia Eagles for their offensive coordinator openings.
The Philadelphia Eagles and the Tennessee Titans had been having conversations with Smith, but in the end he decides to take the job as OC at Ohio State. https://t.co/LtAPBf6NhQ
— Dianna Russini (@DMRussini) January 24, 2026
“As you imagine, we looked at a lot of different guys. And for me, wanted to have somebody that had been a play-caller at a high level, had been a head coach,” Day said. “Not that it was a prerequisite, but those are the kind of things you're looking for. But then also find somebody that really wants to be here. And that's the thing you really work to find. And then whatever makes sense in terms of contracts and all those things.”
Smith’s reputation within the coaching profession is evidenced by the coaches who trusted him to run their offenses, as he worked for a Super Bowl-winning coach (Mike Tomlin) in Pittsburgh and an NFL Coach of the Year who led the New England Patriots to this year’s Super Bowl (former Ohio State star Mike Vrabel) in Tennessee. Day said he talked to numerous coaches who have previously worked with Smith, and they told Day everything he needed to hear to feel comfortable hiring Smith.
“If you can do the math on it and connect the dots, you can imagine where the calls were coming from and how that worked. And yeah, just got a lot of great feedback,” Day said. “When you go through the résumé, the first thing you can do, as you imagine, is you call people that they've worked with, and say, ‘OK, give me some feedback here. What do you think? What's he like? How's he to work with? What's the innovation? What's the scheme? What's the relationship with players?’ All these different things. And then also the background. ‘Is there really a want to coach college football?’ Because that has to be a part of it as well. And so all those boxes were checked.”
