One of Matt Patricia’s perceived flaws when he arrived at Ohio State has been one of his biggest strengths in his first three months as the Buckeyes’ new defensive coordinator.
Patricia arrived at Ohio State with a reputation for not always seeing eye to eye with his players, particularly during his three-year tenure as the Detroit Lions’ head coach. Lions players infamously threw a “mimosa party” in the locker room at the end of his first season on the job, and his firing in 2020 was publicly celebrated by numerous members of his Lions teams.
In his first spring at Ohio State, however, Patricia’s supposed abrasive personality was nowhere to be found. He’s appeared genuinely thrilled to be a Buckeye and has been personable with players, recruits, media and fans alike. And every Ohio State defender who was asked about Patricia during media interviews this spring – more than a dozen in total – had great things to say about their new coordinator.
“Man, I really like Coach Patricia a lot. It's what can he do for you, not what can you do for him? And he's just trying to serve and help, and I've learned so much football in this past two weeks, more than I've learned in my whole lifetime,” sophomore linebacker Payton Pierce said in March. “So it's been great having him. He's a good coach, and he teaches, and he's talking to me on the mic, telling me what I see and stuff, and it's just, I feel like I'm getting a lot smarter and processing things a lot faster.”
On the field, Ohio State’s defensive players are confident Patricia will put them in positions to perform at their best. While another one of the concerns that surrounded Patricia’s hire was that his defensive scheme could be overly complicated for the collegiate level, several Buckeyes said this spring that they feel Patricia has actually simplified their jobs from Jim Knowles’ defense, allowing them to play faster.
“The defense still has a lot of things going on in it. It's still a complex system. But I think guys are able to just move a lot faster,” redshirt freshman cornerback Miles Lockhart said.
“It just feels like everybody can just play faster and just be themselves,” added senior edge rusher C.J. Hicks.
Patricia’s teaching style also drew consistent praise this spring from Ohio State’s players as well as the other assistant coaches. Patricia could often be seen spending one-on-one time with players helping them work on specific techniques following practices this spring, and his hands-on approach to coaching has resonated with the Buckeyes.
“Everything's very specific, there's no gray area on any things like that,” said starting linebacker Sonny Styles. “Not saying Coach Knowles was like that before, not at all saying that, his style was great. But (Patricia is) super hands-on, super specific, like, you can break down each and every part of our defense, and there's an exact rule for everything, so it's easy to understand where there's all these exact things that you can find them and you can study them.”
“He is a really good teacher of the game,” added star safety Caleb Downs. “He makes everything simple for us to understand like that. And he's done a really good job just being here, being supportive to the new guys that he's just meeting now. And he's done a great job evaluating everybody and seeing what everybody can do and trying to find ways to use everybody.”
Perhaps the weightiest praise of Patricia’s teaching ability came from Ohio State defensive line coach Larry Johnson, who’s long had a sterling reputation among Buckeye defensive linemen for how he teaches the game.
“He's a really great teacher,” Johnson said of Patricia. “He makes it really simple for the players to understand what they're doing and how to do it. There's always a process, and I think that's really cool the way he’s doing it.”
“He is a really good teacher of the game. He makes everything simple for us to understand.”– Caleb Downs on Matt Patricia
Patricia’s history of success as an NFL defensive coordinator, a role in which he won two Super Bowls with the New England Patriots, has certainly helped him make a positive early impression on the Buckeye players who aspire to eventually play in the league and win Super Bowls themselves.
“I really feel like it is a professional system,” Lockhart said of Patricia’s defense. “He came from the NFL, so he can say that easily. But the way he calls his defense, the coverages that we go over, it's what their language is in the NFL. So I think it's a big step up for the guys that are going to go to the next level.”
Most importantly, Patricia has shown the Buckeyes that he cares about them not only as players on the field but as people off the field. Numerous Buckeyes said this spring that they already felt comfortable not only talking to Patricia about football but also other aspects of their lives.
“The relationship with Coach P is amazing. He's a great dude,” said redshirt freshman cornerback Bryce West. “He's always around the team. He's around us when we're lifting. Our little one-on-one talks, it's not always about football, he talks to us about life. He's always there to help us. Same with (secondary coaches Matt Guerrieri and Tim Walton). Everything's not always about ball with them. It's about focusing on helping you become a better man and a better player individually.”
“He's very caring and he makes sure he gets a relationship with all of us,” sophomore cornerback Aaron Scott Jr. said. “He says whenever you're in (the Woody Hayes Athletic Center), just come in and talk to him. He makes me want to come in and learn more.”
“It's just refreshing to have a coach who just spends a lot of time with his players and really cares about them,” added projected starting nickel cornerback Lorenzo Styles Jr.
The positive feedback about Patricia has extended from Ohio State’s current players to the recruiting trail, as several of Ohio State’s top defensive targets – many of whom he’s gone to visit during the May contact period – have also had good things to say about the Buckeyes’ new defensive coordinator.
“Speaking with Coach Patricia was an honor,” recent Ohio State cornerback commit Jordan Thomas told Eleven Warriors in March. “I was glad to know that he viewed me as a game-changer and that he had a plan for me in OSU’s defensive scheme.”
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— Jordan Thomas (@jordanthomas_21) May 14, 2025
Ryan Day said the feedback he’s gotten on Patricia from both players and recruits so far has been consistently positive. He knows Patricia will ultimately be judged by how well Ohio State’s defense performs once the games begin, but from a cultural standpoint, Day believes Patricia – as well as new offensive line coach Tyler Bowen – has been a perfect fit for the program he’s built.
“I meet with every single player after the spring, and I ask them, ‘Rate your relationship with your position coach, with your coordinator.’ One to five; five being great, one being not very good at all. And the feedback I got on both of those guys was excellent,” Day said last month when asked about Patricia and Bowen. “That's the first thing. Second thing is, in recruiting, you talk to the recruits. ‘How's your relationship with Coach Bowen? How's your relationship with Coach Patricia?’ Again, thumbs up across the board.
“So that's the first thing you look for is the relationships. And then how are you getting individual players better? I think that's been a plus,” Day continued. “And then schematically, we'll see. Yet to be seen if we have the right scheme in place. But I like their attitudes. I like where they are. I think they fit our culture really, really well in terms of how they coach. They understand it's important. They both coached in the NFL at a high level. So I'm excited to see what the next couple months bring.”
