Matt Patricia embraces jump back to college: 'You can build your rosters really quick'

Following Ohio State‘s national championship win the challenge for the Buckeyes will be keeping things humming at a high level, despite major coordinator changes. Enter Matt Patricia on the defensive side of the ball.

The new defensive coordinator has plenty of NFL pedigree, something that should help him at his new stop.

If nothing else, Patricia should be able to sell prospective players on playing in an NFL-like system, preparing them for the next step in their football journeys. Patricia is ready to get underway in the college game.

“It’s intriguing. I think the way that it’s going to be run you’re going to have a salary cap, there’s NIL,” Patricia told Front Office Sports. “You can get players now. Now it is free agency every day, I do understand that. But I think you can build your rosters really quick.”

Building quickly should allow Matt Patricia to get things in order to pick up right where previous coordinator Jim Knowles left off. Knowles left for the Penn State defensive coordinator job this offseason for a reported price tag of $3.1 million, thought to be the highest figure paid to a college assistant.

Despite the fact that Matt Patricia’s last stint in college came all the way back in 2003 at Syracuse, he’s looking forward to getting his feet wet again.

“They’ve got a College Football Playoff now, which is exciting and fun,” Patricia said. “So I love it. I love the direction it’s going.”

Matt Patricia biographical info

Patricia rose to prominence in 2018 when he landed the head coaching job for the Detroit Lions. He would spend three years there.

Matt Patricia’s 2018 Detroit team ranked fourth in sacks per attempt (8.7%), eighth in passing defense (224.9 ypg) and 10th in rushing defense (110.1 ypg) and total defense (335.0 ypg).
The long-time coach started his career at Amherst and then Syracuse before becoming the assistant offensive line coach for the Patriots in 2004 and 2005, winning Super Bowls with the Patriots.

He then became the linebackers coach and the safeties coach across six seasons before becoming the defensive coordinator in New England. Patricia was in that post from 2012-2017 before being hired as the Lions head coach in 2018, where he served until 2020. He had a record of 13-29-1 as a head coach before being fired.

Matt Patricia served in an advisory role for the Patriots in 2021 and 2022 before going to the Philadelphia Eagles during the 2023 season as a defensive coach.

On3’s Pete Nakos also contributed to this report.