After helping the Ohio University football team to a remarkable turnaround season last year, former University of Hawaii offensive lineman and coach Brian Smith was named associate head coach of the Bobcats on Wednesday.

Smith added the No. 2 position on the Athens staff to his titles of passing game coordinator and running backs coach that he held in 2022 upon his hire by head coach Tim Albin. Ohio did not list an associate head coach in Albin’s first two seasons.

“I was very fortunate to join a staff and team with a lot of great people,” Smith told Spectrum News in a message. “The staff wanted to throw the ball more than they have and were open to do some new things so I was able to put in some Run (and) Shoot concepts that fit with what was already in place and everyone did a great job teaching, learning and executing some new stuff quickly.”

Ohio went 10-4 overall and 7-1 in the MAC in 2022, a huge turnaround from 3-9 the year before. The Bobcats lost to Toledo, 17-7, in the Mid-American Conference championship game but went on to beat Wyoming, 30-27 in overtime, in the Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl.

It was the Bobcats’ fourth all-time season with double-digit victories and first since 2011.

Wednesday marked the third time in Smith’s coaching career that he was elevated to the No. 2 staff member of an FBS football program. He held associate head coach positions at UH (2016 to 2019) and at Washington State (2021), both under Nick Rolovich, with whom he played at UH in the early 2000s.

Ohio posted 2,007 rushing yards and 23 rushing touchdowns in 2022. Freshman running back Sieh Bangura had more than half of that production with 1,078 yards and 13 touchdowns en route to third-team All-MAC honors.

"Brian Smith has over 20 years of experience and in his first season with Ohio we saw the Bobcats' passing attack go from 178 yards per game to 278 per game,” Albin said in a team release. “While working with the Bobcats running backs, we saw Sieh Bangura become only the second MAC Newcomer of the Year in program history."

Before taking the Ohio job, Smith, a California native, worked exclusively on the West Coast and in Hawaii. It is by far the farthest east he has worked and lived with his wife Liane and daughter Chloe.

“We have acclimated well and that is attributed to a good staff and we got a home in a nice neighborhood with a lot of great neighbors and families with kids,” Smith told Spectrum News.

Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.