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Joel Klatt defends Ohio State & Ryan Day’s hiring Arthur Smith as OC

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Joel Klatt defends Ohio State & Ryan Day’s hiring Arthur Smith as OC


Ohio State hired former Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith in late January, and the move drew plenty of pushback almost immediately. For a lot of fans, Smith is still defined by his time as head coach in Atlanta, where the Falcons went 7-10 in three straight seasons. After being fired, Smith resurfaced as the Steelers’ OC, where the offense finished 23rd in total offense at 319.4 yards per game and 16th in scoring in 2024, then slipped to 25th in total yards at 305.6 yards per game in 2025.

Still, Ryan Day clearly saw something he liked and moved quickly to bring Smith to Columbus after Pittsburgh’s playoff loss to the Texans. Smith replaces Brian Hartline, who has since taken over as the head coach at USF.

On Monday, Fox Sports analyst and top college football voice Joel Klatt broke down Ohio State’s decision to hire Smith as offensive coordinator.

“I don’t think [OSU head coach] Ryan Day wants to have to worry about, look over the shoulder of, the offense,” Klatt said. “I really don’t. I think that he wants to be able to give the keys to the offense to a guy like Arthur Smith, just like he gave the keys to the defense to a guy like [OSU defensive coordinator] Matt Patricia.

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“Now, he can be CEO, and he can worry about evaluating and valuating talent, and then fixing a problem here or there that arose. He was able to do that two years ago when Chip Kelly was the offensive coordinator, and he jumped in on the defensive side and allowed them to make some changes that ultimately led to a national championship. Last year, he was never really able to do that.”

Klatt makes some strong points, and with Matt Patricia returning in 2026, he sees Smith having a similar immediate impact on the Buckeyes’ offense. The idea is simple: Day doesn’t have to step in and help. Being a head coach is hard enough, and when one side of the ball demands more attention than it should, things can start slipping elsewhere.

Now, I’m not going to sit here and say the Ohio State offense was bad last season, because it wasn’t. There were, however, some growing pains and small details that needed to be cleaned up. Hartline is an elite recruiter and helped guide Ohio State to a top 26 finish in total offense, but it still felt like there was another level to reach. Because of Hartline departing for USF, Day stepped in to call plays during the CFP game against Miami, and it wasn’t all that inspiring. With Arthur Smith coming in, you get stability. You get a coach who has been around the block and won’t flinch when the lights are brightest, even if his NFL numbers don’t jump off the page.

Klatt sees it the same way.

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“[Ryan Day] knows what the blueprint looks like, and he can free himself up to be the CEO of the organization. In that respect, this all makes a lot of sense,” Klatt said. “Arthur Smith is going to have a veteran quarterback in Julian Sayin, the best wide receiver in college football in Jeremiah Smith, a 1,000-yard running back, most of his offensive line back—should be a really good offense. And, an offense that, in theory, could control the line of scrimmage and really do some damage up front.”



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Woman dies after Monday morning crash in Columbiana County

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Woman dies after Monday morning crash in Columbiana County


PERRY TWP., Ohio (WKBN) — The Ohio State Highway Patrol is investigating a Monday morning crash involving a semi-truck that resulted in a woman’s death.

Yolanda Medina Matos, 58, of Campbell, died at the hospital Monday as a result of injuries from a crash around 10 a.m. Monday. The two-vehicle crash happened on state Route 344 at the intersection of Cunningham Road.

A release from authorities states the other driver, a 51-year-old Salem man, was taken to the hospital as a precaution with no apparent injuries.

The release states a car driven by Matos failed to yield at a stop sign at the intersection and was hit by a semi-truck.

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In its news release, OSHP reminded drivers of the importance of coming to a complete stop at stop signs and only proceeding through an intersection when it is clear of traffic.



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St. Peter’s student places third in Ohio coloring contest

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St. Peter’s student places third in Ohio coloring contest


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Antonio Brent, a second grader at St. Peter’s School in Mansfield, has won third place in the 2026 Imagine Engineering Coloring Contest.

Brent’s drawing was selected from a record-breaking 10,269 entries from second graders across Ohio, according to a community announcement. He will be recognized at an awards luncheon June 13 in Columbus.

Brent’s drawing depicts an engineer visiting a construction site. The central figure, wearing personal protective equipment, reviews plans and specifications while a crew works with heavy equipment in the background.

As a third-place winner, Brent will receive a National Geographic Mega Science Lab with 75 STEM experiments.

Imagine Engineering program introduced in 1999

The Imagine Engineering program was founded by the Engineers Foundation of Ohio in 1999. Since then, the Ohio Society of Professional Engineers has enlisted its members to visit local classrooms and explain what engineers do for a living.

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The program is designed to help second graders understand what engineering is and how it impacts their everyday lives. It also aims to inspire students to consider careers in engineering by introducing them to real engineers and hands-on experiments.

In 2021, EFO updated the program by adding an educational resource video titled “Imagine Engineering.” The video features Ohio professional engineers who explain engineering at a fundamental level and demonstrate hands-on experiments that support the second-grade curriculum.

In 2023, EFO received a grant from the P&G Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation to expand the program to include Ohio’s Spanish-speaking second graders. The Spanish translation of the video includes a Spanish-speaking engineer to narrate the lesson and subtitles for the experiments.

“Imagine Engineering is a children’s program that is unique to Ohio, having been created by the Engineers Foundation of Ohio in the late 1990s,” EFO President Joe Cherry said in the announcement. “Over the last quarter of a century, Imagine Engineering has helped ignite the imaginations of tens of thousands of children statewide, encouraging them to focus on math and science – and perhaps a career in engineering.”

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For more information about the Imagine Engineering program, visit ohioengineer.com.

This story was created with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, review, editing and publishing process. Learn more at cm.usatoday.com/ethical-conduct.



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Miami moves past Ohio State, climbs in national team recruiting rankings

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Miami moves past Ohio State, climbs in national team recruiting rankings


Miami has moved up in the Rivals Industry national team recruiting rankings.

The Hurricanes added a big piece to the puzzle when Top 100 Dothan (Ala.) High cornerback Ai’King Hall flipped his commitment from Oregon to Miami on Sunday afternoon.

With Hall now in the fold, Miami jumped up one spot from No. 7 to No. 6 in the rankings.

Miami surged past Ohio State and boasts the No. 1 recruiting class in the ACC.

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The Hurricanes are less than a point behind No. 5 ranked Notre Dame.

At 5-foot-11, 190 pounds, Hall is ranked as the No. 7 cornerback and No. 39 overall prospect nationally, per Rivals. He is also ranked as the No. 1 overall recruit in the state of Alabama this cycle.

Miami now has 12 commitments in the 2027 recruiting class — Hall, five-star Long Beach (Calif.) Poly cornerback Donte Wright, five-star Miami (Fla.) Carol City wide receiver Nick Lennear, Top 100 Lombard (Ill.) Montini Catholic quarterback Israel Abrams, , Rivals300 Houston (Texas) Langham Creek defensive lineman Ezekiel Ayangbile, Rivals300 Poplarville (Miss.) High running back Ty Keys, Rivals300 Fort Pierce (Fla.) John Carroll offensive lineman Sean Tatum, four-star Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Cardinal Gibbons tight end Demarcus Deroche, four-star Davie (Fla.) McArthur defensive back Jaylyn Jones, three-star Gainesville (Ga.) High offensive lineman Tyler Ford, three-star Key West (Fla.) High defensive lineman Josh Johnson and three-star Davie (Fla.) McArthur defensive back Sherrod Gourdine.

Miami will have a chance to keep moving up the rankings as it gears up to host several top targets for official visits this summer.



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