OSU defensive coordinator Matt Patricia thanks the student section after last year’s win over Penn State. Patricia is happy to be in Columbus for another season. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Matt Patricia got a nice raise to continue Ohio State’s two-year run of great defense, and he has a lot of new starters to find and transfers to teach what it means to be a Silver Bullet.
By Marcus Hartman for Press Pros
Columbus, OH — A year ago, Ohio State had to replace eight starters from a strong defense. This year the Buckeyes have to replace eight starters from an even better defense.
In the past, that might not bode well for a team’s chances to succeed.
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Even at Ohio State, where reloading is more common than rebuilding, back-to-back years of replacing a bulk of the starters can be much more taxing than just turning the trick once.
This is a new day, though.
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The new starters don’t have to — and likely won’t — be youngsters still trying to pick a major let alone figure out what being on a college football field in crunch time is like unless they earn the opportunity.
That’s because the coaching staff gave itself options with a transfer portal class that numbers 17 and includes an experienced college starter at just about every position.
The athletics department also opened the vault to make sure Matt Patricia came back for an encore after a sensational first season as defensive coordinator.
“There was opportunities in the league for sure, but we had just moved and the family is a big part of it and we got great kids here,” said Patricia, who is now under contract through the end of the 2028 season and set to make $3.75 million this year. “Coach (Ryan) Day’s got a great staff, great culture, so it wasn’t something where it was like you are necessarily looking to leave, but you do have to listen to those things that do come up, and I’m just glad we were able to just kind of get everything worked out.”
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His situation secured (at least until the next round of job offers), Patricia has plenty to evaluate this spring.
Returning sophomore Devin Sanchez is widely expected to take over for Davison Igbinosun at one cornerback spot with Jermaine Mathews Jr. returning at the other, and the smart money is on Payton Pierce to take one of the open linebacker positions after backing up Arvell Reese and Sonny Styles last season.
Jermaine Mathews has one of the cornerback positions locked down in a secondary that will feature new starters.
The other positions appear to be much more wide open.
Third-year sophomore LeRoy Roker figures to compete at one of the two open safety spots opposite returning starter Jaylen McClain, but Duke transfer Terry Moore and Earl Little Jr. (late of Florida State) are both in the mix.
The other linebacker spot could go to Wisconsin transfer Christian Alliegro, who was very productive in Madison, but returning sophomores T.J. Alford, Garrett Stover and Riley Pettijohn will have a say.
Senior Kenyatta Jackson headlines a defensive line room that looks drastically different after losing three starters and seven transfers.
Coach Larry Johnson replaced those guys with John Walker of Central Florida and James Smith and Qua Russaw of Alabama, but they will compete for playing time with Eddrick Houston, Will Smith Jr., Zion Grady and Beau Atkinson, among others. (Houston played as much off the bench at 3-technique as graduated Tywone Malone while Smith had a meaningful role as McDonald’s backup.)
There are a lot of moving parts this spring, but Patricia could be Day’s ace in the hole.
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In a reversal of roles, Patricia is among those trying to help new guys get acclimated to the Scarlet and Gray way both on and off the field. He also has to figure out what tools he has to work with and how best to deploy them by the fall.
“We have a couple of guys coming back — certainly Jermaine and Jaylen — and then look at those other pieces as we go and build the guys that were here that we know what they can do and then the new guys that are in and try to see what that looks like,” Patricia said.
Kenyatta Jackson, wearing No. 2 this season, returns to anchor the defensive line under the leadership of longtime coach Larry Johnson.
Patricia’s many years in the NFL taught him about both integrating youngsters (draft picks) still learning the game and veteran free agents who bring skins on the wall from other places, skill that could come in handy.
He also said he is comfortable with bending his scheme to the players on hand, as is often necessary to survive in the pros.
Last year, that meant installing an odd front with Kayden McDonald at nose tackle, Reese able to roll from end to linebacker from play to play, Styles directing traffic at middle linebacker and Caleb Downs cleaning it all up from his safety spot.
Those guys are all gone, though, and replacing any one of them is easier said than done — if not impossible given the unique skill set of each.
“I don’t think you ever replace a Caleb Downs or a Sonny,” Patricia said. “When you have great players, that’s why they’re great players, but to your point, I think what you try to do is like, ‘OK, what do we have, and what can we carry over and what maybe just isn’t going to work for us this year?'”
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After seeing the Silver Bullets look like themselves again the last two seasons, though, fans are not about to accept a step back on defense, so what is Patricia going to do?
The Magic 8 ball says, “Check back later.”
Sonny Styles and lot of other soon-to-be NFL defenders must be replaced, a challenge Patricia is experimenting with this spring.
While the NFL offseason goes more sequentially — winter workouts then spring on-field work then a break before preseason practice begins in July — college football presents an opportunity to hit the field as a full team in the middle of the workouts phase.
With pads already cracking, Patrica said the focus will be on fundamentals for now. Then they can worry about scheme fits later in the spring and this summer, figuring out how to make the defense the best it can be to face a schedule that looks very tough on paper.
“It was great last year to get in and take a look to see the guys that we had — because a lot of them hadn’t played — and observe and say, ‘OK, I think these guys can do this, and I think they can do that,’ and kind of put them in those roles and then just watch them blossom and go,” Patricia said.
“We’re really in that same space again this year because the bodies are different, the look is different. So we’re experimenting through spring ball. It’s kind of good in college that we have the spring practices. We’re in pads already, and we’re kind of seeing some of the fundamental stuff that we’re working on, and then you still have work before you get to training camp. So you have some time to kind of build: ‘Hey, this is what we figured out in spring practice that our guys can do. Now, how do we try to put them in those positions to do it?”
That might be what you call the $3.75 million question.
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