Painful Departure: Ohio State Buckeyes football key player is gone…..
Jay Wright, the former head coach of the men’s basketball team at Villanova, has no intention of coming out of retirement, not even to take Chris Holtmann’s post at Ohio State.
Wright stated on Sunday on CBS that “it’s a great job,” as reported by Adam Jardy of the Columbus Dispatch. It boasts a fantastic athletic department, a long history, and a strong recruiting base. Even though it would be a fantastic position, I’m done coaching.”
In order to replace Holtmann, who was let go on February 14 after his seventh season as a Buckeye, Ohio State will have to look elsewhere.
According to Jardy, the Buckeyes have held “early feeler talks” with Dusty May, the head coach of Florida Atlantic, regarding May’s probable replacement.
When the Buckeyes finished with a 14-11 overall record after beginning the season 12-2, Holtmann was bought out. The Buckeyes had been 30–30 since the 2022–23 season began at that point.
Under Holtmann, Ohio State finished with a record of 137-86, the second-highest win % in program history, despite the fact that the team was never able to go past the NCAA Tournament’s second round.
Holtmann’s dismissal was deemed by Wright as “a statement on where college athletics are now.”
Wright stated that “Chris was doing a good job, doing it the right way, and that’s not acceptable anymore,” according to Jardy. “Any program with a coach in his second year would gladly take what Ohio State has right now.”
From 2001 until 2022, Wright was the basketball coach of Villanova. The Wildcats appeared in four Final Fours and won national titles in 2016 and 2018 when he was their coach.
When he announced his retirement in 2022, Wright, 62, stated that it “was just the right time.”
Wright stated, “I started to feel like I didn’t have the edge that I’ve always had, where the edge always came natural to me, so I started evaluating it,” at the time of his retirement announcement (h/t NBC Sports). “I’m giving 70 percent, and we couldn’t ask the players to give 100 percent.” You know, I just knew that was the appropriate moment.”
That seems to have remained the same after two years. Wright’s current position as a commentator with CBS Sports, which he called “so much fun” in January, may have contributed to that in part.
