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Ohio State hires former Steelers, Falcons assistant Mateo Kambui to offensive staff

Spencer-Holbrookby: Spencer Holbrook03/06/26SpencerHolbrook

COLUMBUS — Ohio State is beefing up its coaching staff ahead of the beginning of spring practice: the Buckeyes have hired former NFL assistant Mateo Kambui to their offensive staff, multiple sources tell Lettermen Row.

He will work with the offensive line, filling the open spot left by offensive line assistant Marcus Johnson, who left the Buckeyes program after one season to take a job on the new Arkansas coaching staff.

Kambui was an assistant offensive line coach with the Pittsburgh Steelers for the last two seasons. Prior to his time in Pittsburgh, he worked as an assistant offensive line coach for the Atlanta Falcons, earning the Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship in Atlanta. Both of those jobs were under Arthur Smith, who was the Falcons head coach in 2023 and spent the last two seasons as the Steelers offensive coordinator. Smith, of course, is the new offensive coordinator at Ohio State.

Kambui clearly did a good job under Smith at both stops, because Smith is bringing him to a third stop together.

Before his time with Smith in Atlanta and Pittsburgh, Kambui was a coaching fellow with the Denver Broncos from 2021 to 2022. He landed with the Broncos as their first Marlin Briscoe Diversity Coaching Fellow ahead of the 2021 season, a fellowship that aims to have a “commitment to providing coaching opportunities to people from underrepresented backgrounds.”

Before that, he was a graduate assistant at Georgia Southern for one season and running backs coach at Florida A&M, his alma mater, in 2019. Kambui played in 22 games across two seasons with the Rattlers, serving as their center.

Ohio State will return offensive line coach Tyler Bowen for his second season with the program. The Buckeyes also bring back long-time college offensive line coach Charlie Dickey, who will be in his second season helping the offensive line.

But after having Marcus Johnson for one season, Ohio State needed a replacement. And now the Buckeyes have found a name new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith is quite familiar with and fond of. Mateo Kambui is joining the Buckeyes coaching staff to help with the offensive line.