The Ohio State Buckeyes may be the defending national champions, but that doesn’t negate the fact that this is a brand-new season. It’s also a new team with a new coaching staff.
Ohio State’s newest defensive coordinator, [Matt Patricia](https://ohiostatebuckeyes.com/sports/football/roster/coaches/matt--patricia/2088), joins a team that led nationally in overall defense last season. Patricia was in the NFL for the last 19 years, serving as the New England Patriots’ defensive coordinator from 2012 to 2017 and contributing to three Super Bowl championship teams during his time with the team alone.
In 2018, Patricia became the Detroit Lions’ head coach, a position he held for two and a half years. After he was fired, Patricia returned to New England in 2021, serving in a variety of unspecified roles, including offensive line coach. Then, in 2023, he served as a senior defensive assistant with the current championship-defending Philadelphia Eagles.
Patricia is a complex defensive coordinator. He’s never been set on running one particular scheme, instead doing a mixture of different strategies — especially up front.
His experience as an o-line coach is a significant reason for that, especially during his first stint with the Patriots. Where Patricia really shines is the unleashing of the pass rush and opening up opposing offensive lines.
That knowledge of the trenches, combined with his reputation as an incredible communicator, makes him a threat, especially if he correctly utilizes senior linebacker C.J. Hicks. The same strategy will most likely be used with the secondary. It won’t just be a Cover 1, Cover 2 or man coverage scheme, but a hybrid suited toward each opponent that is ideally built around star junior safety Caleb Downs.
With the Longhorns traveling up to The Shoe to fight through Patricia’s defensive interior in their season opener, the situation sounds scary. But it’s also important to remember how Patricia ended up with the Buckeyes in the first place.
During his head-coaching stint with the Lions, the [defense suffered immeasurably](https://www.espn.com/blog/detroit-lions/post/_/id/36924/matt-patricia-was-supposed-to-be-a-defensive-guru-so-why-is-detroits-defense-so-bad) due to poor planning and play-calling. To Patricia’s credit, he didn’t have much of a hand in calling schemes in-game. But naturally, given his background, he still left his mark on a defense that fell to the worst in the league overall by his last season with Detroit in 2020.
Now, Patricia will be playcalling on the field, and that’s what the Longhorns can use to their advantage. He’s a great coach and a smart coordinator when it comes to putting schemes together, but when it comes to playcalling, Patricia is dusty — specifically on the blitz.
It’s almost a shame that Patricia’s deep knowledge of the trenches is not utilized when it comes to his blitz playcalling. In his first stint with the Patriots, Patricia’s defense blitzed over 20% of snaps in five seasons. But several years later, after making his way to Detroit, the Lions were at the bottom of the barrel in the NFL when it came to blitzing.
Ohio State hasn’t been a blitz-heavy defense recently, as seen in last year’s College Football Playoff, but it’s hard to imagine that the Buckeyes don’t want to get some pressure on Texas quarterback Arch Manning in his first game as QB1. Either way, it’s hard to get pressure on any team’s quarterback if a blitz isn’t run effectively at some point during the game.
Texas will be facing Ohio State two games in a row now, with several months between the upcoming battle and the last loss. As much as this Saturday can be viewed as a revenge tour, it’s also important to note how different the circumstances are now than when they left each other last. Ohio State has lost eight defensive starters and replaced its entire defensive line.
“That was last year’s team — different team, different people, different personnel,” Sarkisian said during Monday’s press conference. “At the end of the day, that stung walking out of the Cotton Bowl last year. But at the end of the day, this is a new challenge, new journey, new mission that we’re on.”