Ohio State entered the playoffs as one of the favorites to win the national championship. That was down to how the Buckeyes played on both sides of the ball throughout the regular season. However, the offense struggled to get going in their losses to Indiana and Miami. The Canes’ loss saw Ryan Day take over the play-calling after Brian Hartline was announced as the USF head coach. The move didn’t work.

Former Ohio State linebacker and running back Steele Chambers stressed that the playcalling was an issue in the playoffs.

“Of course, I’m not an offensive coordinator. I don’t know how to call a game, but I feel like there’s sometimes where Coach Day is a little on his heels as far as play calling,” Steele Chambers said. Then he compared that with how Brian Hartline called plays, “Like you saw against the team up North, he was taking shots like first or second play of the game,” Chambers noted.

Hartline called the plays in Ohio State’s 27-9 win over the Wolverines. Some of those decisions could be down to the kind of defenses the Buckeyes faced in the playoffs. Julian Sayin connected with Jeremiah Smith a few times against Indiana, but the Miami game featured some strange decision-making from both Ryan Day and his quarterback.

However, in hindsight, all of that came down to poor offensive line play. Sayin was sacked multiple times by both Indiana and Miami, and when he was not, he was running to save his life. That calmness we saw in the pocket throughout the regular season was nowhere to be seen. It can also be seen in the throw that led to the pick six, which put them in a hole that Ohio State never really recovered from.

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“The offensive line, I think that just takes time,” Chambers said. “I mean, you can have some of the most talented guys up there, but if they haven’t spent years doing it with one another, it just takes time to kind of develop that relationship… and kind of like that unspoken trust with one another that they know what’s gonna happen.”

Still, there’s some hope. From Chambers’ point of view, this wasn’t just a play-calling problem. Rather, it was a matter of chemistry and timing, all of which take years to develop and may cause problems for even the elite coaches. That’s why OSU now turns its attention to the next chapter of its offensive future.

New name emerges in Ohio State OC search

A new name is buzzing around the OSU coaching staff, and it’s one that has fans and analysts thrilled.

“It is Press Taylor, and I got to tell you I like it,” Fox analyst RJ Young said in the January 20 episode of Adapt and Respond with RJ Young: College Football.

With Ryan Day juggling HC and play-calling duties, many Buckeye fans have been screaming for a dedicated OC.

“I think having a dedicated offensive coordinator to go along with a dedicated wide receiver coach is only going to strengthen the Buckeyes,” Young added.

Taylor’s coaching journey reads like a blueprint of elite offense.

“Off the rip, you should know I love me some Press Taylor. I love the family,” Young said.

Press comes from a football lineage with his brother Zack, who coaches in the NFL, and their father, Sherwood, who played at Oklahoma. Press himself has won back-to-back NJCAA national championships as a starting QB before moving on to Marshall for his Division I experience.

“I got my first dose of Press when I was in college. Press joins up at TU in 2011 and he’s still the grad assistant, offensive grad assistant for a TU team that was really good,” Young recalled, highlighting Taylor’s early success at Tulsa, where he helped guide QB G.J. Kinne to a 3,000-yard, 28-touchdown season and a Liberty Bowl win over Iowa State.

Taylor has spent eight years with the Philadelphia Eagles, coaching QBs like Nick Foles and Carson Wentz, and he was even part of the staff that won Super Bowl LII. Julian Sayin can use the development that comes from a coach with such a high level of experience in the pro game.

His stops in Indianapolis, Jacksonville, and now Chicago have built a track record of top-tier passing units and elite QB development. For Ohio State, he can take the play-calling pressure off Ryan Day while building a high-powered offense ready for the CFP stage.