The pencil is back.
After a run as the New England Patriots defensive coordinator, the Detroit Lions head coach, and then the Patriots offensive coordinator and offensive line coach, Matt Patricia is back in the college game for the first time since he was a GA at Syracuse in 2003. He spent 2023 as a senior defensive assistant for the Philadelphia Eagles, and 2024 out of football. In other words, it's been a while since we've seen Patricia place his hand in the proverbial dirt, and back is the trademark pencil tucked into his baseball cap, like he might just have to measure a new cabinet in between series.
The 50-year-old who turned down an opportunity to work on nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers to coach at his Division III alma mater has lived a life he never could've imagined 25 years ago, and the latest chapter has him assisting in the national championship defense of a program he had no prior connection to six months ago. It's not clear who reached out to who, but the interest between Ryan Day and Patricia was (obviously) mutual. Patricia may be the one coach in college or professional football who's witnessed the recent changes to the college game and found it more attractive to work in.
“One of the most exciting things in college football was the playoffs,” Patricia said. “That’s what I loved about the NFL. Just give me a chance. Get us in the playoffs, give us a chance to make a run and get going. I thought that was so cool in college football this past year. I was excited to see it. Obviously, it was great for Ohio State," Patricia said back in March. "That, along with some of the things they’re doing with NIL and some of the other changes that are coming. It just made me feel like (it was) kind of what I’ve been doing. Studying that in the offseason, college football made me feel like that’s where I want to be. It’s going to be very familiar in certain areas. It kind of just called to me.”
What Day wanted in his new defensive coordinator was someone who was: A) has enough skins on the wall to win a firefight with some of the best offensive minds in college football in high-leverage moments in November, December and January, and B) was humble enough to lead from the back.
The juice of the Jim Knowles hire was worth the squeeze -- it cannot be understated how much that 4-game CFP run changed everything in Columbus -- but the three years were marked by tension between what the defensive coordinator wanted to run and what the defensive staff was willing to do. Knowles left for Penn State and no one from the defensive staff room followed, which meant Ohio State was looking for a certain type of coordinator, one willing to fall in line with the established culture.
"When you look at Tim and Larry and James and Matt Guerrieri, these guys had a huge part of what we did last year on defense," Day said. "We wanted to keep that continuity. We want to run the Ohio State defense. Matt was willing to embrace that."
“I’m going to show him the lay of the land, a little bit of the college perspective because it’s changed a little bit since he’s been there," co-defensive coordinator and secondary coach Tim Walton said in the spring. Up front, Larry Johnson is the head coach of the defensive line as he heads into his 12th year running that room. It might be easier to get a bear to surrender her young than it would be to convince Johnson to play less than four down linemen.
"I've got to listen, I've got to learn. I've got to understand where are all the great coaches that are here (are coming from), what they're doing fundamentally, and the things that we did last year structurally that are really good and implement all that as we go forward," Patricia said this offseason. "Right now I feel like I'm the student, just learning and trying to take in as much as I can."
And so Patricia will look to find the most creative ways to color within the lines on a defense that led the nation in yards per play and scoring... in theory. The 2024 Ohio State defense put up those numbers. The 2025 defense returns only three starters, and has to replace its entire front.
How much Patricia chooses to blitz will be an interesting tell early. Ohio State blitzed only 14 percent of the time on its CFP run, and Patricia's Lions teams were in the bottom quarter of blitzers during his three years as head coach, per The Athletic. How much will Patricia feel comfortable bringing extra rushers, particularly against Steve Sarkisian and Arch Manning in Week 1? How much will the staff let him?
“He’s been multiple in what he’s done. When you look at his defenses, they’ve always utilized their players and we’ve talked about that a lot," Day said, which I'm taking as code for Let's figure out ways to get Sonny Styles and Caleb Downs near the football as often as possible.
After the Texas opener, Ohio State should be a double-digit favorite in every game until Penn State on Nov. 1, which is also at home. Then there's Nov. 29 at Michigan. The national championship grace period will be other and done with if the Buckeyes drop that game.
The job until then will be to not lose any games Ohio State shouldn't and to figure out what colors mix best within the lines Patricia is allowed to color so the defense can click into place in November and beyond.