The Ohio State Buckeyes suddenly find themselves in a pickle right now on offense, and it all starts with Brian Hartline’s exit. As unpredictable as Ryan Day is, the Buckeye Nation is waiting to see what kind of rabbit Ryan Day is going to pull out of the hat. A few familiar names have been floating around as plausible replacements, including J.T. Barrett, Brian Daboll, and Kliff Kingsbury. And fans have a favorite, but according to a Buckeyes insider, he isn’t the right one to end up with.

On January 19th, Eric Boggs from ‘Ohio Pod’ hopped onto X and gave insiders’ info on who is and who is not going to be the OC next season:

“That being said, it’s not going to be JT Barrett. I’m pretty confident on that one. I could see him being a future QB coach, but he’s not going to be given the O.C. by any stretch of imagination.”

As much of a fan favorite as he is, J.T. Barrett isn’t the guy yet. Barrett did wonders with Caleb Williams at the Chicago Bears this season. But Ryan Day is not going to bet on someone who has absolutely zero play-calling experience. That now brings us to the second, and far more realistic, name on Boggs’ list: Brian Daboll.

“I like Brian DeBall. I think that’s a good one…I think he was really good with Buffalo,” Boggs said. “Honestly, I think Josh Allen’s actually become a little worse since he left, but he’s more turnover-prone, anyway. That being said, I’m not going to say like, oh, I’m on the DeBall train and it has to be him or nobody, obviously, but I would be okay with it.”

Truth be told, this has to be the most sensible pick for Ryan Day. Brian Daboll’s reputation not as a head coach, but as a QB coach, precedes him. Just look at what he did with Josh Allen’s career.

The former Giants head coach turned MVP out of Josh Allen. When Allen entered the big league, he was raw and inconsistent. During their four seasons together from 2018 to 2021, the duo were 34–15 and had 103 passing touchdowns. Since Daboll left in 2022, Allen’s winning has actually stayed just as elite with a 37–13 record, raw passing yardage.

During their peak years together in 2020 and 2021, Allen was regularly slinging it for over 4,400 yards a season. In the four years since, he hasn’t quite hit those same heights in the air, finishing the most recent 2025 season with 3,668 passing yards.

So, getting someone like Brian Daboll is easy money. He can work wonders with Julian Sayin and also call plays as good as anyone in college football, if not better. Plus, his hiring would allow Ryan Day to focus on being a CEO head coach rather than the primary play-caller, which many folks in Columbus believe is when the Buckeyes’ offense is at its best.

Then again, Ryan Day is unpredictable in the offseason. It’s borderline impossible to know what’s with Ryan Day. If someone thinks it’s going to be Cortez Hankton or Tyler Bowen, they couldn’t be any more wrong. Bogg believes Day is waiting for a big-name coach, and he thinks the final hire will surprise a lot of people.

The perfect pick for Ohio State…

Boggs also mentions Kliff Kingsbury as an exciting option, the engineer behind Patrick Mahomes’ career. This is almost as good a hire as Brian Daboll. The only downside with coaches like Kingsbury is that they are short-term fixes. The issue with them is that the minute they do well, someone from the big leagues will call them back. The Buckeyes have already changed OC twice in the last 2 seasons!

The last thing Ryan Day needs to do is hire Kingsbury or someone of caliber for a year, who leaves for an NFL coordinator gig in 2027. This is likely why Day is being so deliberate; it’s harder to keep a former NFL head coach on a leash in the modern college game. But while Day might be preaching patience, a sudden shakeup in the NFL has opened a window for a condition that’s more than just a “fix.”

Enter- Todd Monken!

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The man is walking around free following Harbaugh’s firing in Baltimore. As of now, he hasn’t joined Harbaugh with the Giants. Todd Monken would be a home-run hire for Ohio State because he’s a certified winner. He’s most famous for being the mastermind behind the Georgia Bulldogs’ back-to-back national titles in 2021 and 2022.

More impressively, he did it with game-manager QBs like Stetson Bennett. Bulldogs fans still believe that if Todd Monken had returned to Athens for 2023, they’d have gone for a three-peat. The ceiling with guys like Julian Sayin and Jeremiah Smith would be something special.

There’s already some built-in chemistry on the coaching staff. Ohio State just hired Cortez Hankton as its wide receivers coach, and he and Monken were key partners during those title runs at Georgia.

Having an OC and a WR coach who already speak the same “language” would be a blessing in today’s college ball. As per Brandon Little of AZ Sports, Todd Monken is expected to come back to the college level and Ohio State as the first choice.

Do you think that the final hire will catch a lot of people off guard?