Ryan Day takes another huge gamble with his decision to hire Arthur Smith as the next Buckeyes' offensive coordinator
Ohio State Buckeyes' head coach Ryan Day made headlines by hiring Arthur Smith as his next offensive coordinator late on Saturday night.
He was right last year by taking a huge risk in hiring Matt Patricia as his defensive coordinator, and he is back to take another huge swing for the leader of his offense.
I was publicly against the hire of Patricia last year and was proven wildly wrong, but now, I'm here to say the same thing.
This hire makes zero sense.
Smith's career began in 2006 when he was the graduate assistant at the University of North Carolina. Then, he went to Washington as a quality control coach for the Redskins before coming back to Ole Miss in 2010. This would be his final year in college, as after that, he was hired by the Tennessee Titans in 2011 and stayed there until 2020.
In his time with the Titans, he climbed the ranks from a quality control coach to the offensive coordinator of the second-best offense in the NFL.
Because of his success, he was hired as the Atlanta Falcons' head coach in 2021, where he lasted just three disappointing seasons before he was fired. The next step in his journey led him to Pittsburgh, where he led the Steelers to a bottom-third offense in his two seasons with the Steelers.
The crowned jewel of Smith's career was his 2020 season, when he had prime Derrick Henry, who rushed for a career high 2,027 yards and 17 touchdowns. He had Ryan Tannehill playing some of the best quarterback in the league, and he was a big reason why the Titans were the one seed.
The rest of his NFL career leaves a lot to be desired.
Not only that, but this will be his first time back in the college ranks in 16 years. Similar to Patricia, he has little experience in college football and zero experience in this era of college football.
This hire is so confusing to me because this was a prime opportunity for Ryan Day to inject some life into his offense that was stale and disconnected at the end of last season, and this hire doesn't do that.
The Buckeyes became a victim of their own style, and it cost them in the College Football Playoff.
Beyond that, they lost so much from a skill position standpoint this offseason that they could have used a hire that inspired some confidence in their team and in the fanbase that they were going to get back to the powerhouse offense that they used to be.
Instead, Day hires another question mark, and here's to hoping that I'm eating my words again 12 months from now.