What Will Ryan Day Be Looking For In a Coaching Staff?

Ryan Day has said he will wait until after the season to address his coaching staff and any prospective changes.

It makes sense, as to do it before the Rose Bowl in public isn’t exactly the way to keep everyone focused on the task at hand.

While some coaches may have an inkling as to their fate, next week’s Rose Bowl is still what matters and that is their collective focus at the moment.

After the season, however, expect things to move quickly.

And regardless of who stays or goes, there is one thing that they will all have to do at an elite level.

“In terms of putting your staff together, the number one thing that we have to do as a staff is recruit,” Day said. “That’s by far and above the number one thing as an assistant coach that you need to get done is recruit.”

Once you get those recruits onto the roster, however, then you better be able to coach them up.

“The second thing we talk about is power the unit,” Day explained. “Which is getting your guys to play hard, making sure that your unit is accountable to everybody in the room. And then the last thing is we start talking about scheme and what you’re going to put running on the field. So having the right pieces in your staff is very, very important.”

Despite wanting to wait until after the season to make staff changes, there was apparently no point in waiting to announce the full-time addition of Brian Hartline to Day’s staff.

In just three years, Hartline went from volunteer to quality control coach to interim receivers coach when Zach Smith was fired. Both Day and Urban Meyer were extremely pleased with the performance of the receivers, as well as Hartline’s performance on the recruiting trail.

The Buckeyes landed a pair of talented receivers in the 2019 recruiting class in 5-star prospect Garrett Wilson and 4-star prospect Jameson Williams. Day said on signing day that he expects both players to make an impact in 2019, especially with Hartline as their position coach.

“We’re very excited about Brian,” Day said. “He did a great job stepping in this year, and he’s doing a nice job here in recruiting, so that’s a big hire for us. To get him elevated like that means a lot to our program. He’s done a nice job with that. Other than that, the focus right now is this bowl game and just recruiting because it takes every ounce of your energy every day. So that’s the focus.”

When the focus does turn back to the staff, Day will have everyone preaching the same message, and he believes it is one that will lead to success.

“In terms of our program, like I said, we’re going to put together a staff of great recruiters, and then we’re going to do a great job of loving them up,” he said. “And understand that the culture we’re going to have here is one of love where we’re going to love our kids, they’re going to enjoy coming into the building every day, they’re going to have great energy, and they’re going to be developed at the highest level.”