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Buckeyes expected to hire Matt Patricia to defensive staff

Spencer-Holbrookby:Spencer Holbrook•about 10 hours•

SpencerHolbrook

Matt Patricia
Matt Patricia (© Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images)

COLUMBUS — Ohio State is adding to its defensive coaching staff by going to the NFL for a Super Bowl-winning assistant coach.

Ryan Day and the Buckeyes are adding former Detroit Lions head coach and long-time New England Patriots assistant Matt Patricia as their next defensive coordinator, per ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

Patricia worked with Super Bowl-winning head coach Bill Belichick for The 33rd Team during the 2024 season.

After starting his career at Amherst and then Syracuse, Patricia became the assistant offensive line coach for the Patriots in 2004 and 2005, winning a Super Bowl in the first year with the Patriots. He then became the linebackers coach and the safeties coach across six seasons before becoming the defensive coordinator in New England. He 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.

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.

All in all, Patricia won three Super Bowls (XXXIX, XLIX, LI) with head coach Bill Belichick, quarterback Tom Brady and the Patriots dynasty.

Now Patricia is heading to Columbus after a long career in the NFL. He’s set to join the national champions as the new defensive coordinator.

Ohio State is also expected to promote cornerbacks coach Tim Walton to co-defensive coordinator.

Ohio State defensive coaching departures this offseason

Defensive coordinator Jim Knowles: Ohio State lost the best defensive coordinator in college football: Jim Knowles left the Buckeyes program for the same post at Big Ten rival Penn State. Knowles had a three-year run with Ohio State that will go down as one of the best three-year defensive turnarounds in college football history. The Buckeyes finished with a truly horrendous No. 97 pass defense in the country during the 2021 season, and the run defense was severely lagging compared to program standards.

Then Knowles was hired as the highest-paid assistant in the history of the Buckeyes program, and every year his defenses steadily improved — especially in 2023 and 2024, when the Buckeyes ultimately won the national title after three years of building the defense under Knowles.

Defensive line graduate assistant LaAllan Clark: Clark, who worked with defensive ends for the last two years at Ohio State, is heading to Texas in a full-time role. Clark has served as a defensive graduate assistant working with the Buckeyes defensive ends under defensive line coach Larry Johnson for each of the last two seasons. But Texas is hiring Clark as a full-time defensive assistant coach working with outside linebackers — largely edge rushers.

Defensive analyst Brent Zdebski: He served as a quality control assistant under Jim Knowles at Ohio State. He also worked under Knowles with the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Now he’s following Knowles to Penn State.

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