Reported Ohio State football OC hire Arthur Smith earns huge praise from ex-Buckeye star

Reported Ohio State football OC hire Arthur Smith earns huge praise from ex-Buckeye star originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

This past Saturday, reports surfaced from several NFL insiders, including Ian Rapoport and Adam Schefter, that Arthur Smith would be succeeding Brian Hartline in Columbus to become the new offensive coordinator at Ohio State.

Barring official confirmation from Ohio State, Smith is already receiving great feedback from former Buckeye stars, including former linebacker Bobby Carpenter.

Carpenter spoke about the reported Smith to Ohio State development during a new episode of his podcast, "The Bobby Carpenter Show," Monday.

"The one thing I know that Arthur Smith is very good at is he’s very good at the run," Carpenter said of his play-calling abilities. "You go back and look at his time, he was in Tennessee for a number of years…they had a hell of a run game there with Derrick Henry. I think that is why Ryan [Day] targeted him."

Given where the Tennessee Titans are now, they probably wish they still had Smith. Smith was previously with the Pittsburgh Steelers as the offensive coordinator for a season this past year and served as the coach of the Atlanta Falcons from 2021-23.

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But, according to Carpenter, Smith is in a good situation under Day's guidance.

“If you look at this, I think they want to try and get the run game going," Carpenter said. “That’s what Chip [Kelly] was so good at, and I think [Day] is hoping that Arthur Smith will bring that same level of detail to that run game.”

It's unclear whether the rushing attack is what Day will help Smith offensively, but with quarterback Julian Sayin and wide receiver Jeremiah Smith returning, the offense will be much more fluid.

Come August, we'll have a better idea of how Ohio State looks.

But, for now, it remains to be seen on the eve of the Buckeyes' Big Ten schedule release.

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Only time will tell.

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