Brian Hartline shows off NFL standard of Ohio State wide receiver room
Brian Hartline tried his best to relate to his audience.
He stood at a white board next to special advisor Keenan Bailey wearing an Ohio State pullover and blue jeans, talking to a room filled with high school receiver coaches looking to just get an inkling of magic that the Ohio State wide receivers coach was just used to.
To Hartline, it’s as simple as getting open and catching the football. Blocking wasn’t negotiable, but a duty, a responsibility, and example of the love a receiver has for the other members of his room.
It’s not something that any of those coaches could really relate to: the abundance of riches Hartline had acquired over the course of his time at Ohio State. And it’s an abundance of riches that was never more clear than Thursday night at the 2022 NFL Draft.
Garrett Wilson to the New York Jets at No. 10.
Chris Olave to the New Orleans Saints at No. 11.
Jameson Williams to the Detroit Lions at No. 12.
Each receiver was one Hartline recruited. Each receiver was one Hartline developed in his room. It was the trio of receivers that made up Ohio State’s passing game with Justin Fields during the 2020 season before Williams transferred to Alabama and became a Biletnikoff Award finalist.
To Hartline, this wasn’t surprising.
This is what he expected from WRU.
“Everything I teach is always geared for the next level,” Hartline said. “I don’t coach anything at a reduced rate for the college level. I have no interest in that. If you’re going to be an elite NFL receiver, you are going to be more than plenty good enough in college. I do not try and coach them to be a great receiver in college. I’m trying to coach them to be a great NFL receiver. Anything that applies to that, that’s what we coach.
“That’s the standard that we hold to.”
But Thursday night wasn’t just about Wilson, Olave — who the Saints moved up in the draft to take — or Williams. Their time with Hartline was complete. Their bag has been secured.
It was about Hartline and those receivers who are next in line in 2022: Emeka Egbuka, Marvin Harrison Jr. and Jaxon Smith-Njigba, viewed by many as the clear pick to be the first receiver taken in the 2023 NFL Draft.
It was about Hartline and those receivers he’s recruiting: Bryson Rodgers, who became the Buckeyes’ first receiver in the 2023 class April 17, and targets Brandon Inniss and Carnell Tate, who both tagged each other in a tweet, seeing the feat the Ohio State wide receivers coach was able to pull off: “Back-to-back-to-back.”
All Hartline saw was the product of the work put in in his wide receivers room, the work that no one outside of the room could understand.
It starts with talent. But it grows from there.
It’s a room filled with development because development is necessary or the player will get passed. It’s a player forced to compete against other top-tier receivers across the country along with a cornerbacks room that has consistently pumped out first-round talent.
“He’s training us to get to that [level],” Wilson said after his Pro Day. “He’s training us to go up against the best corner we’re gonna face, not the worst corner. He’s training us to face the Pat Surtains and Stephon Gillmores of the world. Just do everything at the highest level.”
It worked.
It gave Hartline the chance to watch Wilson secure his future with the New York Jets, Olave secure his future with Michael Thomas and the New Orleans Saints, and Williams secure his future with the Detroit Lions.
He watched as Ohio State officially gained three more recruiting tools for a room that already had a long list of success stories pointing back to the program and the person that helped develop them into the player that gave them the chance to play in the NFL.
But all of that is too much to explain to that room filled with high school coaches, eager to apply any piece of advice Hartline could muster, even if it was just to get open and to catch the ball.
Thursday night, Hartline didn’t even have to speak. He didn’t have to write anything on a white board.
The New York Jets, New Orleans Saints and Detroit Lions spoke for him.