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Best assistant in the country? Work of Ohio State’s Brian Hartline on the recruiting trail speaks for itself
By Paul Harvey
Published:
Brian Hartline is still in the running for this year’s Broyles Award, and it is not hard to see why with a quick look at his recruiting results.
On Friday night, the Buckeyes pulled in a commitment from wide receiver Emeka Egbuka. Egbuka is a receiver out of Washington and is a five-star prospect rated as the No. 1 wide receiver for the 2021 class. Egbuka is also the No. 9 player nationally for 2021.
Though Egbuka is impressive, he is just the latest in a long line of receivers that Hartline is bringing to Columbus. Since his promotion to WRs Coach in 2018, the steady stream of four- and five-star receivers to join or commit to the Buckeyes speaks for itself.
Ohio State has already benefitted big time from the work of Garrett Wilson and has seen flashes of other young receivers such as Jameson Williams, Julian Fleming, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba.
A brief look at the other receivers set to join Ohio State over the next few years is also impressive. Here’s a look at that list by Tony Gerdeman with Buckeyes Scoop:
Brian Hartline was nominated for the Broyles Award this past week as the nation's best assistant coach. If there's a recruiting award, he should probably be nominated for that as well. Here are the wide receivers who have committed to Hartline since he was hired in 2018. pic.twitter.com/cUSvEkzHs6
— Tony Gerdeman (@TonyGerdeman) December 12, 2020
The big challenge at this point will be for Hartline to keep a high number of these players in Columbus. With the transfer portal era in full swing and a limited number of touches to go around, it seems unlikely that all of these players will stick with the Buckeyes.
The big key, however, is that Hartline is getting them to start with. Once he gets them in the program, Ohio State should have no issue keeping the best around to put in the work on the field. The early results are certainly impressive.
Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.