Mike Sanford turns down chance to be Ohio State offensive coordinator

Boise State offensive coordinator Mike Sanford has been in high demand this off season. He first said no to Vandberilt, and was approached by Oregon State. Most recently Sanford interviewed for the open position at Ohio State, per Sports Illustrated's Thayer Evans. Evans makes no mention of Sanford being offered the job, but that Sanford took his name out of the running.

In a time when coaches like Utah State defensive coordinator Todd Orlando goes to take the same position for a lateral move, Boise State is able to keep its offensive coordinator. This is a big coup for Bryan Harsin to keep his staff together after having a great season where they went 12-2 and defeated Arizona in the Fiesta Bowl.

Being a 2005 graduate of Boise State likely played a key role in Sanford staying in Boise. Sanford has also said that he wants his next job to be a head coach and going to Ohio State would likely mean his first head coaching job would be at a MAC schools. He has mostly coached outside of the West at Boise State, UNLV and Stanford, so the aspect of recruiting in a new area could be somewhat daunting.

Sanford helped Boise State offense turn around from a less-than-stellar performance, and in 2014 he helped lead the Broncos to having the the ninth ranked scoring offense with 39.7 points per game and 14th in total offense at 494.3 yards per game.