We often spend the offseason picturing cool stuff the coaches could do with all the different players they have recruited then rarely see any of it in the games. That was not the case Saturday.
By Marcus Hartman for Press Pros
Columbus, OH – Matt Patricia was all smiles after his first game at Ohio State.
Why was not a mystery.
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After six months on the job as Ohio State defensive coordinator, he unveiled his version of the Buckeye defense to rave reviews against then-No. 1 Texas.
Texas had a decent afternoon on the final stat sheet, but the numbers are a bit deceiving. The Longhorns gained just over half of their 336 yards after falling behind 14-0 with 13 minutes left in the fourth quarter.
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Perhaps Ohio State’s 14-7 win would have turned out differently if UT opened up the offense more for junior quarterback Arch Manning earlier in the game. But he didn’t look like he was prepared for a bigger workload.
Of course, Patricia played a big role in that by changing looks in the front and back of the defense all afternoon.
After Jim Knowles arrived in 2022 with the caveat his system would take years to perfect, the contrast with Patricia was hard to ignore. Head coach Ryan Day, though, was sure to praise his returning staff as much as Patricia when he spoke to reporters Tuesday.
“It was a very well-thought-out plan, but these weren’t all of a sudden brand-new coverages,” Day said. “There’s only so many coverages you can play. You can play one, two, three, four. And when you’re talking about great coaches like Tim Walton, Matt Guerrieri, James Laurinaitis, Larry Johnson, I mean, these guys know our players, and they know how to coach.
“So when Matt comes in and kind of has some wrinkles and different thoughts on how we want to attack it, they all work together in there.”
Patricia, who made his name as defensive coordinator for the New England Patriots under Bill Belichick, no doubt is enjoying some of the differences between the NFL and college football.
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After two decades in parity-driven pro football, he landed at one of the programs that recruits at an elite level. He will often have superior chess pieces to play. Miami University coach Chuck Martin once said facing Ohio State was like going to recess and the other team had the first 85 picks.
That’s an exaggeration based in reality, especially when comparing the Buckeyes and the RedHawks because virtually no one with a scholarship offer from both would end up in Oxford (there are exceptions).
Of course, Texas is not like Miami. The Longhorns are also recruiting juggernauts. So, it was with some irony Patricia’s first appearance with Ohio State came in what former OSU head coach Urban Meyer calls a “matchup game.”
The talent levels might be close, but the rosters still have more variance than in the NFL based on age and levels of development.
Linebacker Arvell Reese hauls down ARch Manning for the Buckeyes’ only sack in last week’s game with Texas.
Patricia also has more players to work with at this level compared to the 53-man NFL roster. That creates both a challenge and an opportunity to involve as many players as possible without giving them too much to learn or asking them to do things they can’t.
So far, so good.
While Ohio State’s base defense remained a 4-2-5, the Buckeyes unveiled a “Penny” front against the Longhorns. That had a true nose guard over the center, with defensive linemen also shaded inside each offensive tackle with two ends outside.
(It could almost have been mistaken for Woody Hayes’ Oklahoma 50, except typically the Buckeyes had only one inside linebacker when they went to this look Saturday.)
While one of the ends would be an actual end, such as Kenyatta Jackson, the other was either Arvell Reese or Sonny Styles. (C.J. Hicks, a former linebacker, also saw time at end and forced Manning to throw faster than he wanted to on the final play of Texas’ last possession.)
Reese and Styles are linebackers by trade, so they could drop into coverage or rush the passer, making it difficult for Manning or the Texas offensive staff to identify what they might do before the snap.
This alignment also basically takes away the inside running game because you can’t double team everyone in there. And the linebacker in the middle has the speed to run down plays to either side.
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Beyond that, Caleb Downs is the ultimate chess piece in college football. He can play deep safety, box safety, nickel or even linebacker (Monster back, anyone?). That presents Patricia with another way to keep offenses guessing.
“Well, those two guys in particular that you mentioned (Reese and Styles) both have versatility, then you look at Caleb and you see guys who can do multiple things,” Day said Tuesday.
“Then it becomes harder to recognize exactly how you’re being attacked. And I thought Texas did a nice job with some of their guys and what they were doing. Very similar.
“The more versatility you have, then the harder it is to peg down what exactly is going on in that play. Our guys take a lot of pride in being able to disguise looks pre-snap and then give different looks post-snap, which, again, is all good, but you’ve got to execute them. And the coverage and rush have to work together.”
In his first real game as a defensive end, Hicks showed the speed that made him a linebacker the last three years (and a defensive back at Alter High School). Reese looked as good on the line of scrimmage stuffing blockers and rushing the passer as he did playing at the second level.
Styles, too, is a former safety, and he dropped all the way into a deep third on one play after lining up at end, something future opponents must acknowledge.
Add that to the 3-3-5 and 3-2-6 dime packages Ohio State already had run in previous years, and Patricia had no shortage of options in his first game with the Buckeyes.
“Arch is a great quarterback, so coming out of the gate not really knowing what that was going to look like, that was really difficult,” Patricia said Saturday. “But I’m proud of our guys for stepping up to that challenge and all the way across the board, from the front end to the back end.
“I think those guys just did a tremendous job with the adjustments. And we were moving a lot of different parts on them. So it was really, really great effort by the players.”
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