James Laurinaitis is officially a full-time assistant coach for Ohio State.
Ohio State promoted Laurinaitis to linebackers coach on Thursday, making him one of their 10 full-time assistant coaches one year after initially hiring Laurinaitis as a graduate assistant.
Jim Knowles will continue in his role as Ohio State’s defensive coordinator, but Laurinaitis will now be the linebackers’ primary position coach after Knowles handled that responsibility for his first two years with the Buckeyes.
Laurinaitis takes the place of fired special teams coordinator Parker Fleming on Ohio State’s full-time coaching staff. He rounds out Ohio State’s 10-man staff of assistant coaches for the 2024 season, joining two other new hires in offensive coordinator Chip Kelly (who replaces quarterbacks coach Corey Dennis after a brief stint on staff by Bill O’Brien) and safeties coach Matt Guerrieri (who replaces Perry Eliano).