Mike Hartline was part of five bowl teams at Kentucky. Now he’ll call plays in one.
Ohio Dominican University quarterback Evan Ernst is way more mature at his age than his offensive coordinator, Mike Hartline, was when he was a sophomore at the University of Kentucky.
That evaluation comes straight from the horse’s mouth.
“You reflect on the way you were in college and you don’t want to be that dad that says, ‘Hey, don’t be like me,’ but you also understand what you wish you could’ve done better and when that could’ve happened,” Hartline told the Herald-Leader in a phone interview this week. “One of the regrets I have is I wish I could have matured faster in college, to where even when I was the backup in those years previous, that I took things more seriously for when it was my time to compete for the starting job.”
Kentucky made five straight bowl games, its best streak in school history, while Hartline was on campus from 2006-2010. He sat behind Andre Woodson his first two years before winning the starting job to begin the 2008 season; he would start nine games that year and win the Most Outstanding Offensive Player award following UK’s 25-19 win over East Carolina in the Liberty Bowl. Hartline started five games before an MCL injury ended his junior year, and started all 12 regular-season games as a senior but was suspended for the Cats’ bowl game that year.
Hartline finished his career ranked fourth on UK’s career passing list, where he remains today, behind only Jared Lorenzen, Andre Woodson and Tim Couch. Reflective concerns about his maturity aside, the 31-year-old quarterback-turned-coach glowingly looks back on his time in Lexington.
“I loved every second of it. It was a different culture for me, being from the north and coming to a Southern school,” said Hartline, an Ohio native. “That was something that was different but helped me grow as a person to a lot of different lengths, especially with my teammates, being around a lot of Southern cultures and Southern people.”
Hartline “always talks good” about his alma mater. He admires the transformation the football program has undertaken under Mark Stoops, as well as the facelift UK’s campus has received over the last decade.
“It’s a place where I really grew as a person, and that’s what you find out now down the road, is how much it made you who you were,” he said. “I’m glad for the coaches I had and I’m glad for the experiences — the tough teams we played, the tough people I played with — and it’s special to get down there and see all the guys you used to play with and be a part of it.”
Coach Hartline
After brief stints with the Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots, Hartline’s playing career ceased and he went into sales. His first coaching opportunity came as a quarterback intern coach at Ohio State, where he spent two years before taking a quality-control gig at Cincinnati in 2017. He helped the Bearcats until this spring, when he landed a full-time job coaching quarterbacks and leading the offense at Ohio Dominican.
The man who quarterbacked UK to three bowl games will call the Panthers’ plays this weekend in the inaugural America’s Crossroads Bowl, one of five bowl games to be played this year between NCAA Division II teams. He says he was fortunate that Randy Sanders, his offensive coordinator at Kentucky, put him in positions where he had to see beyond the “tunnel vision” of his own role. It’s been an advantage in his first go-round in full control of an offense.
“There’s been a lot of figuring it out and a lot of things I wasn’t necessarily ready for,” the 31-year-old Hartline said. “But I think a lot of people aren’t ready for certain steps like this in their life and they just take it with a great attitude, and learn from it and work with the guys around ’em, depend on them and make the best decisions they can. It’s been a great test, it’s been a heck of a time for me. ... But there’s no better teaching tool than trying and failing, then changing and really establishing what kind of identity you want as a coach and a play-caller.”
Hartline describes himself as a “run-first” guy. He runs a spread pro-style offense at Ohio Dominican, which ranked third among eight Great Midwest Athletic Conference teams scoring 30.3 points per game. Ernst, in his second season under center, threw for 1,911 yards, 17 touchdowns (tied for third-most in the league) and five interceptions (tied for the fewest). He ranked second in quarterback efficiency among G-MAC quarterbacks.
“Is he the most talented guy on the field? No,” Hartline said. “Does he have the strongest arm on the field? No. I can relate to that, because that wasn’t me, either. But do you give our team the best opportunity to win? Yes, he does that. The biggest thing he’s doing right now is showing the young guys the way. He shows them how to work, how to prepare and how to take things seriously. ... I’m fortunate to have him.”
The future
Hartline is having fun learning the coordinating ropes at ODU, but he would someday like to return to the Division I level and be a position coach — it doesn’t have to be quarterbacks, but that wouldn’t hurt.
Eventually, he wants to be an offensive coordinator at the highest level.
“I like calling plays,” Hartline said. “I’m starting to understand what it takes to do that and how difficult it can be, all those processes I mentioned before, and it’s about having good people around you.”
Hartline is not sure at this time if being a head coach is something for which he’s suited. At the moment, he’s content molding himself into a better offensive coordinator each day.
He won’t rule it out, though.
“Do I ever want to be a leader of men and run a program? I don’t know that yet, just because I haven’t been around enough head coaches to see what that entails,” he said. “So to sit here and say that I know what that entails, I’d be lying to you. ... But as we go along, that’s probably something that I might want to do if I’m ready.”
America’s Crossroads Bowl
Who: Ohio Dominican (7-2) vs. Truman State (9-2)
When: 2 p.m. Saturday
Where: Brickyard Stadium, Hobart, Ind.
How they got here: The two teams were selected to the postseason game as the highest-ranking teams in league standings not participating in the NCAA Division II playoffs.
This story was originally published December 4, 2019 at 12:28 PM.
