Ryan Day Promotes Ohio State Assistant James Laurinaitis to Linebackers Coach

Former Ohio State Buckeyes linebacker James Laurinaitis will now find himself coaching the position that he once played.

Just one year after returning home to Columbus to serve as a graduate assistant for the same school he once captained as a player, James Laurinaitis has been promoted to a full-time coaching position for the Ohio State Buckeyes. 

The former Buckeye has been named Ohio State's linebacker coach, a position that was supervised by defensive coordinator Jim Knowles last season. 

Nov 4, 2023; Piscataway, New Jersey, USA; Ohio State Buckeyes graduate assistant James Laurinaitis walks onto the field at a timeout during the NCAA football game against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights at SHI Stadium. Ohio State won 35-16 :: Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK

However, after coach Ryan Day decided to change his staff this offseason, letting go of special teams coordinator Parker Fleming and safeties coach Perry Eliano, the linebacker room will have a former Butkus Award winner coaching them. 

Following his seven-year playing career in the NFL, Laurinaitis has stuck around the game of football via coaching. The former second-round pick started coaching at Notre Dame in 2022, working under then-new coach Marcus Freeman as an assistant linebackers coach and graduate assistant. 

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From there, he moved back to Columbus, where he worked in the same role with the Buckeyes this past season.  

This necessarily won't surprise some, as Laurinaitis was on the recruiting trail for the Buckeyes recently as their staffing vacancy allowed him to be one of the 10 coaches allowed off campus.

Now, after a playing career where he became one of the most decorated defensive players in Buckeyes' history, he will look to lead an Ohio State linebacker room that lost both starters, Tommy Eichenberg and Steele Chambers, from last season.