When James Laurinaitis isn’t at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, he can be found jogging around Ohio State’s campus.
He runs from the Woody around campus to Ohio Stadium, but he often stops at Buckeye Grove. Sometimes he needs a rest; other times, he just likes to stroll along the historic Columbus walkway.
As the Minnesota native walks through, he can see legendary names like two-time All-American Jack Tatum, 1995 unanimous All-American Eddie George, and so many others who have earned a Buckeye Tree as First-Team All-Americans.
Then he stops at his tree. The three-time All-American is flanked by 2006 All-Americans Troy Smith and Quinn Pitcock. If it’s summer or early fall, when the trees produce nuts, he likes to grab a few and give them to his kids when he gets home.
It’s a safe haven for Laurinaitis, now the linebackers coach for the Buckeyes. But going to Buckeye Grove isn’t necessarily about his accomplishments; it’s about remembering the pride of being at Ohio State.
“The traditions here are unmatched, but the excellence is, I think, in whatever you do at this school is what sets you apart,” he said. “When I think of Ohio State, having been here, and obviously been associated with it since 2005, it’s like, you just understand that if you’re going to be part of this university, you’re expected to bring excellence.”
It’s that pride that drives Laurinaitis as he prepares for a third season as linebackers coach, maybe even more than the playing days that helped him earn that tree.
“As a coach, I almost have more angst about it, because I want to make sure that the guys out there are representing the standard,” Laurinaitis said. “I knew I could uphold that standard as a player. And now it’s on you to get it out of the guys.”
Every First-Team All-American in Ohio State football history gets his own tree in Buckeye Grove. (Courtney Hergesheimer / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
Those days helped shape Laurinaitis as he establishes himself as one of the top young coaches in the sport.
He won a national championship in his first year, was announced as a College Football Hall of Fame inductee in January, and just three weeks ago watched his two starting linebackers, Sonny Styles and Arvell Reese, be picked in the top 10 of the 2026 NFL Draft, a feat no other coach has accomplished.
With the responsibility of coaching at Ohio State, Laurinaitis hasn’t had time to think about it.
But Ryan Day has.
“I feel that James is the best linebackers coach in the country,” Day said.
When Laurinaitis took the job, he had a goal to turn the linebacker room into what former Buckeyes assistant and now South Florida head coach Brian Hartline built with the receivers. Ohio State has had a first-round pick at receiver in each of the last five seasons.
The first step in doing that, though, is to recruit elite talent. Laurinaitis didn’t wait to make a good impression on recruits, either.
After he got the full-time job, Laurinaitis took a trip to Olentangy High School, just 25 minutes from campus, to meet with four-star C.J. Sanna and his coach, Wade Bartholomew.
He sat with Sanna for 45 minutes, and the two hit it off. When Bartholomew returned to the room after walking Laurinaitis out, Sanna just smiled.
“I said, ‘That’s where you’re going to go?’ We both knew, like, we both knew immediately,” Bartholomew said. “He knew that’s the guy that you want to be coached by.”
It wasn’t just the Ohio State brand that stood out to Sanna, nor was it the presence of one of the program’s best linebackers.
During their meeting, Laurinaitis was up front with the versatile linebacker. He told him where he could fit in the scheme and what he liked on film, but was honest about what Sanna needed to improve.
“Coaches, they don’t want to criticize kids, right? They want to give the kids what they want to hear because they need them to choose their school,” Bartholomew said. “Instead, Coach Laurinaitis came in and said, ‘If you show up in my room, these are the things you’re going to have to do to get better.’”
For Laurinaitis, his recruiting philosophy, which has landed not only 2026 No. 2 linebacker Cincere Johnson but also the No. 2 linebacker in the 2025 class, Riley Pettijohn, goes back to the coaches he admired growing up. People like Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell, former Rams head coach Steve Spagnuolo, and others showed him the consistency he had to bring.
“You didn’t always like what they said. But they were gonna be consistent to you and everybody else around you,” Laurinaitis said.
Fickell wasn’t exactly sure how good Laurinaitis would be when Ohio State was recruiting him — but he knew Laurinaitis had a confidence and a drive they couldn’t teach.
It showed itself early, when Bobby Carpenter broke his leg on the first play of the 2005 Michigan game, and Fickell turned to Laurinaitis to sub in.
The freshman just smiled at Fickell.
“He just laughed at you and looked at you with this confidence,” Fickell said.
He went on to tally 375 tackles and 13 sacks in college, was a second-round draft pick by the St. Louis Rams, and played eight years, recording 871 tackles and 16.5 sacks.
But when his playing career ended, Laurinaitis found himself trying to figure out what was next. He knew he would have health insurance for the next five years through his NFL career, so he had time to experiment with whatever he wanted.
Laurinaitis wanted to stay around the game, so he did some radio work in Columbus and worked for Big Ten Network, but the coaching itch was always there.
James Laurinaitis was a First-Team All-American at Ohio State before playing in the NFL for eight seasons. (Neal C. Lauron / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
His dream was always to coach the linebackers at Ohio State. He even had discussions with Day about joining the staff before 2023. But before he could do that, he went to Notre Dame to learn about the profession alongside Marcus Freeman, one of his best friends and teammates at Ohio State.
Though he was just a graduate assistant, he served as the de facto linebackers coach, with defensive coordinator Al Golden as the coordinator and position coach.
He spent that year learning to manage a linebacker room and identifying which drills he preferred. He also learned about playbook drawing and used Microsoft Visio for the first time.
After one year, he returned to Columbus as a GA and the de facto linebackers coach under Jim Knowles.
He climbed the coaching ladder quickly, but there’s a long-held belief in the coaching profession that great players don’t make great coaches.
“I don’t know that I always believed it because I’ve seen the exact opposite. I’ve seen it in James, Mike Vrabel and guys I knew well,” Fickell said. “What was always great about James is that he had an ability, where he wasn’t so arrogant, even though he had this athletic confidence, that he could recognize that not everybody did things the same way or could do things the same way.”
This offseason, Laurinaitis decided to take a trip down memory lane.
He went through every drill the linebackers ran in 2023 to refine his teachings and to identify some things that may work for this year’s linebacker corps.
Over the last four years, Laurinaitis has been thrown into the fire, balancing getting his top players to play at their best while bringing the young players along in their development.
“It’s finding your teaching progression for everything, from installing to just certain techniques and what drills you were going to use,” Laurinaitis said. “You want to work on everything, but you don’t have that much time. You might have 10 minutes to work individual drills. So how do you combine footwork, block destruction, tackling, all in the one drill? And make it understandable for young kids, but all while also enhancing your older players?”
Arvell Reese was chosen with the fifth pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. (Adam Cairns / Imagn Images)
Laurinaitis has been fortunate to coach some elite upperclassmen, who have helped bring along the underclassmen as well. Players like Tommy Eichenberg, Cody Simon and Styles all play a part in the growth of the youth in the room.
“I think, I hope anyway, we’ve had a room where the older guys have set the standard,” Laurinaitis said. “It doesn’t really need to be said much. It’s just displayed.”
Everything seemed to work well over the last two seasons. Ohio State has had a linebacker drafted each year since Laurinaitis arrived in Columbus, with the hope of turning the Buckeyes into Linebacker U.
While he didn’t play a major role in recruiting the early draftees, he helped develop Reese and pushed to move Styles from safety to linebacker.
But now comes Laurinaitis’ hardest challenge yet, replacing two top-10 picks.
While the rotation at linebacker is far from settled, Laurinaitis likes the talent in his room. Payton Pierce led the group with 256 defensive snaps last year, but transfer Christian Alliegro brings experience and versatility. Pettijohn missed the spring due to an injury but figures to be involved, as do TJ Alford, Eli Lee, Garrett Stover and others.
“You can mix and match people, and they all bring different traits to the room that I think are unique. We just got to figure out how to utilize them,” Laurinaitis said.
Laurinaitis hasn’t had time to reflect on his first two seasons on the sideline. From winning a national championship to being inducted into the Hall of Fame to watching two players earn their own trees in Buckeye Grove, it’s been an eventful time for Laurinaitis in his dream job.
But the goal remains the same, to win a national championship, beat Michigan, and, along the way, help a few more Ohio State linebackers plant a tree not far from his in Buckeye Grove.