COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The career elevator is still on the rise for Ed Warinner.
The newly promoted Ohio State offensive coordinator just won’t need a literal one to get to his job on game day.
Warinner has a different title, more responsibilities helping run the system and perhaps more pressure to keep the Buckeyes and their high-scoring attack rolling along heading into his fourth season with the Buckeyes. But he’s going to do all that from exactly the same place he has for the last three years -- on the sideline instead of upstairs in the press box.
“I went through that thought process,” coach Urban Meyer said. “But his value, to pull him away from that group, the whole offense goes to him before they take the field the last three years and you can’t change that right now.
“I’m going to keep him down. He’s too good. He’s the one, you pull him out now, you’ve got a problem.”
The Buckeyes clearly haven’t had any issues putting up points with Warinner at field level, and they’re in no hurry to fix something that isn’t broken, even as the offensive staff undergoes a bit of a facelift.
The loss of former coordinator and quarterbacks coach Tom Herman to Houston is certainly the most noticeable difference for Ohio State after his wildly successful three-year stint with the program, and losing running backs coach Stan Drayton to the Chicago Bears created both another vacancy and a chance to reorganize on game days, if Meyer wanted.
Warinner’s track record as a coordinator at Kansas before arriving at Ohio State, his encyclopedic knowledge of multiple systems and his invaluable work with the offensive linemen over the last three seasons as a position coach and co-coordinator all but guaranteed he would be getting a more prestigious title after Herman left, and Meyer wasted little time giving it to him. But the Buckeyes also had to consider how crucial his presence on the sideline has been to their recent success when putting together a plan for the reconfiguration of the staff, and while there’s still plenty of time to adjust, if need be, it’s now quite clear how much they value it.
“We’re still working through that, but right now I’m on the field because the offensive line is on the field and I can take care of adjusting 11 guys and because we have some new coaches,” Warinner said after practice Thursday morning. “Coach [Meyer] and I are real comfortable down there. It’s been a pretty good deal for three years down there with him and me on the sideline, and we talk and make our adjustments.
“We’ll be good with that. I knew that was the way we wanted to go, and I don’t see that changing. It works.”
The offensive system does too, and Warinner also stressed that there was no reason for him to try to change it much or to try to put his own mark on the playbook just because he’s now in a slightly higher-profile position.
He might now be taking his “perfection and toughness” message to a larger audience than just the offensive linemen, and he admitted there is more on his plate this spring than in previous seasons. But it’s not just Warinner’s spot near the bench that is going to remain unchanged.
“You have to be careful with that,” Warinner said. “It’s not my offense, it’s coach Meyer and Ohio State’s offense. It’s my job to make sure that we continue to operate at a high level and then to enhance the offense as we move forward. I’m not going to try to do anything other than continue to carry the banner of execution. We’re based on toughness, execution, fundamentals; we want to continue to do that.
“[Meyer] sets the tone for that and he’s in a lot of offensive meetings, so I’m not going to steer this thing in a different direction. I’m going to steer it down the path that he wants, which has been a real successful path.”
The Buckeyes obviously have had to make a few changes over the offseason, and Warinner is certainly part of that overhaul. But taking a few elevator rides at the stadium won’t be one of his new duties.