A Midwestern school with an unexpected job opening due to its head coach's inappropriate behavior off the field now faces a dilemma of whether or not to make an outside hire for the first time in a long time, with a hire expected within days. I could be talking about Michigan. In this case, all that applies to the Wolverines also applies to Ohio.
While preparing for a legal showdown with now-former head coach Brian Smith, sources tell FootballScoop that Ohio is close to a hire of Smith's replacement. The Bobcats face UNLV in the Frisco Bowl on Tuesday night (9 p.m. ET, ESPN), and a hire is expected shortly thereafter.
The initial belief, sources told FootballScoop, was that interim head coach John Hauser could win the full-time job with a victory over the Rebels in Frisco. Hauser has been with the program since 2022, first as safeties coach and then as defensive coordinator. His hiring would represent the third consecutive internal promotion following Frank Solich's 2020 retirement, keeping the job within "the family" for 22 seasons and counting.
After Solich's retirement, offensive coordinator Tim Albin ran the program from 2021-24, going 33-19 with the school's first MAC championship in decades. After Smith took the Charlotte job, offensive coordinator Brian Smith took over and went 8-4 before his untimely firing. Hauser, Ohio's defensive coordinator, would maintain continuity at a program that has experienced a lot of it over the past two decades.
However, sources have told FootballScoop over the past 48 hours that momentum has been trending toward an outside hire, and ESPN reported Monday that longtime offensive coordinator Kevin Johns has emerged as the favorite.
Johns has no connection to the program, which in times of controversy can become a good thing. The Piqua, Ohio, native played quarterback at Dayton and coordinated offenses at Indiana, Western Michigan, Memphis, Texas Tech, and Duke. He spent 2025 as the quarterbacks coach at Oklahoma State. While Johns has no prior connection to the Ohio football program, he does have a tie to the Ohio athletics department. Bobcats AD Slade Larscheid was a kicker at Northwestern while Johns served as a position coach for the Wildcats.
Ohio would be his first head coaching position, as it was for Albin and Smith and would be for Hauser as well.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.