“You don’t work for Thad, you work with him,” Boals said. “He gives you a lot of empowerment and responsibility and helps you prepare for that situation. There is no better guy in the business – he has no ego at all. He cares about everyone getting the job done. He’s been great, obviously with his coaching tree in the short time he’s been a head coach is pretty phenomenal.

“He wants guys to who want to be head coaches and his track record with his past assistants, guys have moved on and the ship still sails. There is one common denominator in this program, and that’s Coach Matta.”

“My goal is to be a head coach someday and if that happens this year, great, and if it doesn’t, I am still working for a great guy at a great institution,” he said. “It would have to be a special situation to get me to leave Ohio State.”