FootballScoop Exclusive: All-Access With Ohio: A Brick-worthy start to the Brian Smith era

ATHENS, Ohio – A program in myriad ways a model for college football – nay, all college athletics – because of its consistency, stability and, of course, winning now finds its roots growing from the asphalt and concrete of a Florida amusement park.

Some 900 miles from the historic, brick-lined streets and stately buildings of Ohio University, the present and future roots for the Bobcats football program trace to the asphalt and scream-filled sidewalks beneath a superhero roller coaster inside Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla. 

Here, Brian Smith learns he is going to be offered the opportunity to Tim Albin’s successor and a full-time FBS head coach for the first time in his two decades of college coaching, long on offensive innovation.

And here, John Hauser – the first-ever defensive coordinator to deny the opposition a single touchdown in a MAC Championship game – learns Albin is exiting for Charlotte, Smith is next man up for an Ohio U. program that’s Krispy Kreme steady – only two losing seasons in the past 19 and Hauser is a desired linchpin for both Albin and Smith.

“There was so much going on at that time, that it was really kind of hard to slow down and take it in,” Smith tells FootballScoop. “”We were in Orlando, prepping for a bowl and all the bowl activities are going on. I think the day that I found out, the day the team goes to Universal Studios and I’m doing media stuff in the hotel and actually trying to find a chance to meet my family so that I can ride a ride with my daughter.

“Very appreciative of the opportunity; something I understand is how hard it is to become a Division I head football coach and how hard it is to get those opportunities. I am extremely appreciative of the faith that our athletic director (Julie Cromer) and our president (Lori Stewart Gonzalez) have in my abilities to lead the football program.”

Hauser, like 23-year MAC coaching veteran and Bobcats offensive coordinator Scott Isphording, is as Midwest as White Castle sliders, Skyline Chili dogs or Athens’ own turn-of-the-20th-century brick history, hailing from Columbus and Cincinnati, respectively.

“At the time, I kinda assumed I was gonna go with Tim, honestly. But I had the opportunity to interview here for the head job, me and Smitty and a couple other guys. So I just didn’t let myself think what other options were going to be until this (Ohio U) got settled.

“For me, immediately, I definitely contemplated Charlotte. But I got a pretty good offer to stay. We’ve got four kids, mom lives and I’m from an hour from here. For family, it just made a lot of sense if not difference money-wise to stay here and keep doing what we’re doing.

“I’ve not changed jobs a lot unless I’ve had to. I’ve recruited a lot of these guys, love this place and the mentality it brings with it. Smitty was very bought in to the same blueprint. He was OC, I was DC and we always got along. I knew he would do a good job, try to keep this together and the same premise; love coaching the kids we have here. Blue-collar mindset.”

There’s metaphor when all this stability is marked by time amidst the Incredible Hulk coaster.

“The day all the wives and kids went to Universal Studios is the day we found out,” says Isphording, known simply as Izzy and a veteran of four different MAC programs. “We get back from practice, I called my wife and said where you at, we need to talk. Go to Universal Studios, we sat underneath a roller coaster in the Marvel Comics part and weighed things out.

“I knew toughest part was going to be calling Tim Albin back, I got choked up. I lived down the street from him and Jimmy Burrow for 10 years. I’ve got a fire pit in my backyard and it was nothing for me to see (Albin) wheeling a wagon full of firewood and stacking it in my backyard. That’s the kind of guy he is.

“But I also think that’s the confidence level and the man that is Brian Smith is, too. That the best thing for our family was to feel comfortable enough with the man that is Brian Smith to the man that is Tim Albin.”

A GREAT UBER DRIVER

Ohio General Manager Logan Meyer, entering his 10th season in collegiate football and with experience stretching deep in to SEC territory at Auburn and at Cincinnati around the likes of Luke Fickell, Marcus Freeman, Mike Mickens and Chad Bowden among others, has microwaved experience beyond his quick decade in the sport.

He knows what works, which details matter, why consistency in approach and the way a head coach sets the example of how to treat players and staff matter so much. 

In short, Meyer knows why Smith is a living out a damn-good example for everyone in his program.

Smith doesn’t want “desk pirates,” and the head coach is a pretty reliable Uber driver of sorts.

See, every week, Smith drives his daughter, Chloe, to competitive volleyball club action some 75 miles in Columbus. Meyer equips his boss with a call sheet; recruits, primarily, but whomever Smith needs to speak with to boost Ohio football, he does.

“I think it’s important so much to have balance in what you do in life, and you invest so much in the players here, at work, and I think it’s a shame if you’re not investing in your family at home and your children at home as well,” Smith, receiving a few ‘Hey, Coach!’ greetings on a walk for lunch in downtown Athens, tells FootballScoop. “I want John to be able to watch his son play baseball and his daughter play soccer. Those things are important to me, and I think when you have those opportunities, the assistant coaches are in a better frame of mind, they’re happier, and when they’re happier and their families are happier, they’re going to be productive; you’re going to get their best.

“I think Tim did a great job taking care of the staff; Nick Rolovich [at Hawaii and Washington State] was great to work for. You have the ability with technology that you can take your work anywhere with you; you can be present with your family and at the same time, if you have to step away to talk to a recruit, you can do that.”

Coursework is making coaches of two Bobcats who expect to figure prominently in the program’s quest for a fourth-straight season of 10 or more wins and a chance to repeat as league champions.

Smith, then, is adding a youth soccer schedule to a task list that includes closing out Bobcats spring practice, continuing to fine-tune the program and roster for a 2025 season that opens on the road against Big Ten foe Rutgers Aug. 28 and further paying homage to the past – Albin, Frank Solich especially – while stamping the program his own.

Ohio senior secondary members Jaylen Johnson, formerly of Memphis and Ohio State, as well as Michael Mack II, previously with Wisconsin and then Air Force, are developing their leadership skills this spring with an area soccer squad.

“You get kids from all walks of life, all backgrounds, and you’re trying to develop the full person. The goal that we talk about when they leave here is that they’re ready to be great fathers, husbands; leaders in their communities,” Smith says. “To see the model of happy family together and the relationship of a father and daughter or son, I think it’s extremely important.

“Those guys are coaching a youth soccer team for one of their classes and sent me some pictures of them out doing that, and I told them to make sure to send me their schedules so that I can make sure to see them out there coaching.”

The approach translates to recruiting.

“We can look a parent in the face and say there are no guarantees that we’re going to be here, but the track record is pretty good and probably better than anybody else you’re talking to,” says Izzy, his 2024 MAC Conference Champions Olympic-style medal on his desk. “When Mom or Dad hears that, there’s a good chance the same standards are going to be taught throughout that young man’s time here.

“I think as parents that’s probably going to help let you sleep at night after the drive home from dropping them off for their first day.”

BRICK-SOLID STABILITY

Bricks in the lockers of Ohio players denote a level of trust and responsibility earned; a reliability as a teammate, on and off the field. They stay in the lockers of the players who earn them throughout their careers, and they come with certain extra benefits. 

A program as rigid as, well, a brick in its hardscrabble approach nonetheless affords the option of utilizing the elevators inside Peden Stadium when arriving for team meetings, pre-practice work and similar activities.

No bricks? Hit the stairs.

And it’s notable that in the most transient era of college football – of arguably any major sport, college or pro – the Bobcats return seven coaches, including Smith, from their 2024 staff.

Matt Butterfield is new; he’s the special teams coordinator with Pac-12 and Big 12 experience, among other stops. He’s leading a special teams meeting this Monday morning before a full-team lifting session. Every coach, analyst, staff member joins all the players.

Cohesion and unity on display, teamwide and scarcely just the special teams units.

“Attack, step! Attack, step!,” Butterfield intones. “Punch, strike, release.

“The right shield sets the pace. Gain ground with your steps. Don’t click your heels. And if it’s over 20 (yards), we win with speed. Sprint to them.

“If it’s under 20, we will win with violence.”

Leader of the Bobcats strength and conditioning program for football, Tyler Shumate is an eighth key staff holdover. From a transition some 18 months ago at FCS program Northern Arizona to where he is now, Shumate similarly knows what stability -- or lack thereof -- breeds.

"I think probably, I don’t know if stoicism is the right word but that dude, Coach Smith, is unrattled, ever," Shumate tells FootballScoop moments after the team's full lift. "I thought he was very deliberate and intentional in the way he moved as the OC, and I had just moved here, had only been here six months and I thought, ‘I’m not trying to move again.’ He asked me if I would stay if he got the job and I was like, ‘Hell, yeah! Hell yeah!’.

"I think the transition in a lot of ways has been pretty seamless, in terms of we were able to keep a lot of pieces. So I feel like that was pretty seamless in terms of the transition itself, but now you’re seeing that he is making it his."

The bricks are here to stay. Some coaches also have the bricks. They figure prominently into their offices.

 In the Smith household? The brick’s at their home. It belongs to Liane Smith, first lady of Ohio U. football.

 “I think the thing I’ve been trying to do the most is really protect what has made it so successful for so long. The traditions that started with Coach Solich, the understanding of the culture here and how we treat our players and how we get them to believe in each other and how it’s based in love for our players,” Brian Smith says. “I’m going to have my own way of doing it, my own voice, but really protecting what’s made it so special here.

“The brick is an important part of the culture and an important part of the core values. It’s something that’s earned. One of the things I’m very appreciative, after our first year here, Coach Albin presented all the coaches’ wives with a brick. There’s one in our home; it’s hers and not mine. She earned it. I didn’t. At some point, I’ll earn mine, but I definitely appreciate him doing that and including the wives into the culture of the team. They do sacrifice a lot being a coach’s wife.”

All that's left now? Hang on for the ride.