Bruce Feldman: Ohio State assistant Brian Hartline name to watch for Cincinnati head coach

When Luke Fickell left Cincinnati for Wisconsin, one of the newest Power Five programs found itself with a job opening. Now, instead of having one of the best respected and proven head coaches in college football to lead the Bearcats into the Big 12, Cincinnati needs to find a new coach.

Like in most coaching searches, there are plenty of rumored candidates to take over at Cincinnati. Bruce Feldman reported on several of these candidates, including Ohio State wide receivers coach, Brian Hartline.

“Another hot name to watch is Hartline,” Bruce Feldman reported.

“The 36-year-old is arguably the top position coach in college football for his work recruiting and developing the Buckeyes’ incredibly stacked receiver room. He’s a Canton, Ohio native who spent time in the NFL and is a coach that players gush about. It will take a good situation to pry him away from Columbus, but this one figures to be very tough to pass up.”

Brian Hartline is known as one of the best recruiters and talent developers in the country. The work he’s done at Ohio State speaks for itself. While there, he’s produced players like Chris Olave, Marvin Harrison Jr, Garrett Wilson, and many more.

Brian Hartline knows Ohio, he knows how to recruit, and he knows how to develop talent. He also has strong ties to Ohio State where he’s played and coached. In many ways, he’s like an offensive version of Luke Fickell himself.

Some people might argue that jumping from being a position coach to a Power Five head coach is too big of a leap. However, it’s happened before. Sam Pittman went from being an offensive line coach to a head coach at Arkansas. Dabo Swinney also jumped from wide receivers coach to interim head coach, before getting the Clemson job full-time. Ultimately, that worked out. So, Brian Hartline could easily be in line for this type of job.

Fickell on the timeline of the Wisconsin job

In his introductory press conference at Wisconsin, Luke Fickell was asked about the timeline for taking the new job. For his part, Fickell insisted that the decision was difficult. It also wasn’t something that he was focused on during the season.

“It was hard for me. I knew that there was interest. I’m not a great guy to build relationships with when you’re in the midst of, you know, the battle,” Luke Fickell admitted.

“So, I tried to stay really, really focused and try not to think about it, and my wife and I would take those opportunities, maybe an hour here or there, but I truly couldn’t tell you that I really truly knew exactly what I wanted to do until I could almost finish up what I was doing.”