Ohio State has made another addition to its defensive coaching staff.
Matt Guerrieri, who was previously the co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach at Duke, is joining the Buckeyes as a senior advisor and analyst, Ohio State announced Tuesday.
Guerrieri spent the past 10 years at Duke, where he joined the staff in 2012 as a graduate assistant and climbed up the ranks under former Blue Devils head coach David Cutcliffe. Guerrieri was promoted to a full-time assistant coach in 2015 and to co-defensive coordinator in 2017, and he also served as the Blue Devils’ recruiting coordinator from 2017-20.
Guerrieri worked alongside new Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles for his first six years at Duke, as Knowles was the Blue Devils’ defensive coordinator from 2010-17 until he became the defensive coordinator at Oklahoma State.
A former safety at Davidson College, Guerrieri began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Lenoir-Rhyne in 2011 before joining Duke’s staff.
Over the course of his decade at Duke, Guerrieri helped develop a pair of All-American safeties in Jeremy Cash and DeVon Edwards. The Blue Devils’ defense had struggled in the years since Knowles’ departure, however, ranking dead last in the Football Bowl Subdivision in yards allowed per game (517.6) while giving up 39.8 points per game in 2021.
Guerrieri adds to an influx of new defensive coaches for Ohio State that includes three new full-time assistants – Knowles, secondary/cornerbacks coach Tim Walton and safeties coach Perry Eliano – as well as two other new support staffers in former Oklahoma State graduate assistants Koy McFarland and Michael Hunter.
