COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State’s wide receiver room is entering a new era, and two factors will decide whether Brian Hartline’s replacement can continue what’s been one of the most impressive runs ever seen.

There’s what Cortez Hankton can do for the Buckeyes. But also what the Buckeyes can do for Cortez Hankton.

The former brings what might be an underrated resume that takes a little context to completely understand what Ryan Day just hired.

If you are worried about Hankton’s ability to recruit at the level at which Hartline spent the last seven years recruiting, don’t be.” Not just because what Hartline did was unrealistic for anybody to accomplish, but also because Hankton’s track record suggests he might just be the man capable of meeting that unrealistic expectation.

This is a man who got five-star George Pickens to Georgia in 2019 at a time when his home school, Alabama, was also producing elite receivers at a high clip. He originally played a key role in winning the battle for both Dakorien Moore and Bryce Underwood at LSU. Then the business side got involved as Brian Kelly made it a point to make it known the Tigers weren’t willing to ever be the highest bidder. So Moore eventually flipped to Oregon and Underwood stayed home at Michigan. Both were immediate impact players.

He continued that success by winning the battle for 2026 five-star Tristan Keys as the nation’s No. 11 player and No. 2 wide receiver. Then again, the business side got in the way, so Tennessee stole him away.

Ohio State isn’t cheap when it comes to its receivers — just ask its current stars or its most recent five-star signee, Chris Henry Jr. Hankton isn’t going to run into the problem of having the business of college football be the reason he doesn’t close the deal on a target anymore.

Day has emphasized the need for his assistants to be top-notch evaluators, too. Yes, land the nation’s best players, but also go find a guy nobody is looking at. That’s what Jaxon Smith-Njigba was to Hartline early during the 2020 cycle when he committed long before he was a five-star recruit and now arguably the NFL’s best receiver. Well, Hankton’s done that too. Ladd McConkey was a three-star rated outside the top 1,000 when Hankton made him a Bulldog. Now he’s probably the Los Angeles Chargers’ best receiving weapon.

The recruiting part will take care of itself, so what about the developmental part?

Go ask Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr. what they think of Hankton as a developer. He’s the guy who turned them into first-round draft picks while being the passing coordinator at LSU in 2023. You know, the same year Jayden Daniels won the Heisman Trophy.

Hartline had the nation’s best receiver that year in Marvin Harrison Jr. Hankton had the only guy who could look Harrison in the eye in Nabers.

That’s what Hanktons brings to the table. He’s a former NFL wide receiver with a ton of energy who can quickly build relationships, lock in his guys on the recruiting trail, and move on to the next class, where he’ll repeat that success. Along the way, he’ll turn some of them into productive players with first-round upside.

Sound familiar?

Hartline’s success is something that should never be understated. But he also got to do it at a program capable of maximizing his ability to constantly win. That is what OSU can do for Hankton. He’s coming to take over what is arguably the most important room in the program, understanding that he’ll have every possible resource to help him succeed.

Maybe there will never be someone who does what Hartline did. He recruited and churned out talent at an unbelievable level while never once needing to rely on the transfer portal. But that one variable might end up being the only difference between the two. More than likely, a transfer will be among the new faces in the wide receiver room in 2026.

It is not going to be easy to replace Hartline, just as it won’t be as easy for Hartline to recruit at South Florida at the same level he did when he walked into high schools with a ‘Block O’ on his shirt.

But Day at least found a guy whose resume suggests that if you give him every resource his successor had, a similar result isn’t out of the question.

Among those resources is getting to coach the ultimate form of Jeremiah Smith, the college football player. Not a bad way to get things started.

“We’re excited to welcome Cortez and his family to Ohio State,” Day said in a statement. ”His experience recruiting and developing some of the best wide receiver talent in the country speaks for itself. I think he is going to integrate into our program’s culture and values, which are at the core of who we are, very well.”