Steve Rohlik Named Next Ohio State Head Coach

College Hockey News is reporting this evening that one week after being named interim head coach at Ohio State, Steve Rohlik will have the interim tag dropped and be named the next head coach at Ohio State tomorrow.

Rohlik has served as an assistant coach at Ohio State for the past three seasons, taking the job shortly after good friend Mark Osiecki was hired as the Buckeyes' head coach. Prior to Ohio State, Rohlik worked at Minnesota-Duluth, where he helped recruit the bulk of the team that would go on to win the 2011 national title.

It seems a tad strange for a team to hire the assistant of the coach they fired just over a week ago, but it does give credence to the idea that Osiecki was let go purely for a "difference of opinion" over the direction of the program. Rohlik has been in the running for various head coaching jobs in the past, and with the reputation he has built as an assistant, seemed destined to be a head coach somewhere eventually. As was mentioned at the time of Osiecki's firing, Ohio State's program does seem headed in the right direction, and keeping Rohlik aboard likely keeps their current stable of recruits happy. It's perhaps a bit surprising that Ohio State didn't pursue a bigger name--or maybe they did and it didn't pan out--but they came out of their coaching search with a pretty good coach that should help build on what Mark Osiecki had started at Ohio State.

Update: Ohio State has indeed officially announced Steve Rohlik as their next head coach.