Ryan Day's 2025 Ohio State coaching staff is complete with arguably its most important hire made on Wednesday.
Former New England Patriots defensive coordinator and Detroit Lions head coach Matt Patricia will be the Buckeyes' DC this season. The pick, in fairness, is a polarizing one.
New England consistently had some of the best defenses in the NFL with Patricia as defensive coordinator from 2012 through 2017, winning Super Bowls two of those years. But how much of that is attributed to Patricia and how much is attributed to one of the greatest head coaches and defensive minds in football history, Bill Belichick, is disputed.
What isn't disputed is that Patricia's coaching career since then has been a failure. Players openly rejoiced when he was fired as Detroit's head coach amid his third season in 2020, and his run as the Patriots' offensive play caller in 2022 proved a horrible idea, though a lot of that falls at Belichick's feet.
Patricia last worked as an interim defensive coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles at the end of the 2023 season but was not retained. While there's undoubtedly great achievements and plenty of experience on Patricia's résumé, his strained relationships with players in Detroit leave concerns about his ability to recruit and connect with players at the collegiate level.
Still, outcast former head coaches and NFL coordinators have worked for other powers in the past, namely Nick Saban at Alabama with coordinators like Steve Sarkisian and Lane Kiffin, and Day is hoping for similar results with Patricia.
Eleven Warriors' Andy Anders and Dan Hope discuss the nuances of Day's hire on a new episode of Press Coverage, which you can watch in the video player at the top of the page.
