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Buckeyes hire Matt Guerrieri as safeties coach

Spencer-Holbrookby:Spencer Holbrook•01/10/24•

SpencerHolbrook

Ohio State helmet by Matt Parker -- Lettermen Row
(Matt Parker/Lettermen Row)

COLUMBUS — Ohio State is moving quickly to fill an opening on its coaching staff: the Buckeyes have hired Matt Guerrieri to lead the safeties room.

The move comes just two days after the Buckeyes moved on from former safeties coach Perry Eliano after his two-year stint.

He was a senior analyst and advisor to the Ohio State defense in 2022 before leaving for the defensive coordinator post at Tulsa — before he ultimately left Tulsa for Indiana.

Guerrieri was the co-defensive coordinator for Indiana last season, and he directly worked with the safeties room in Bloomington. Of course, he also spent the year learning under former Indiana head coach Tom Allen, who was recently hired as the new defensive coordinator at Penn State after getting fired from his post with the Hoosiers.

Prior to his time at Indiana, Guerrieri worked extensively with Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles with the Buckeyes and a few years ago at Duke.

Guerrieri worked with Knowles at Duke from 2012 to 2017, and he helped Knowles defense become one of the best in the country despite working with talent Ohio State certainly will surpass. Guerrieri has experience working with safeties as a specialty, but he was also involved in defense-wide planning. When Knowles left Durham to become the defensive coordinator at Oklahoma State, Guerrieri became Duke’s co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach.

Ohio State is counting on Guerrieri to help lead the safeties room that will return two starters from a year ago — Lathan Ransom and Sonny Styles — and have back rising stars such as Malik Hartford and the potential impact from Ja’Had Carter.

Guerrieri takes over a room that was good in 2022 and excelled in Year 2 of the Knowles system under Perry Eliano in 2023. But Guerrieri will also need to prove he can recruit at an Ohio State level, something the Buckeyes have not done in each of the last two recruiting cycles.

The young, 34-year-old Guerrieri is a Willoughby, Ohio, native and starred as a defensive back for Davidson from 2007-2010.

Counting down

Buckeyes vs. Akron: 234 days
Buckeyes vs. Michigan: 325 days

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