After finally getting over the hump and winning the National Championship, Ryan Day had a lot of work to do in Columbus to get Ohio State back into contention next season. Offensive coordinator Chip Kelly left for the NFL and Penn State poached defensive coordinator Jim Knowles with a huge payday, forcing Day to rebuild his entire staff.
On the offensive side, Day is going with a coordinator-by-committee approach, elevating wide receivers coach Brian Hartline to the role with Tyler Bowen as his run-game coordinator, and tight ends coach Keenan Bailey as Hartline’s co-OC. Those moves will help to placate excellent position coaches with a raise to go with the promotion because Day is more than capable of running an effective offense, but the other side of the ball is not the head coach’s specialty.
With Knowles gone, partially because of Day’s continued interference last season, Ohio State has reportedly turned to longtime Bill Belichick assistant and former Detroit Lions head coach Matt Patricia in an inexplicable move. Patricia was once a hot head coaching candidate from his time as Belichick’s DC in New England, but since he was fired by the Lions, he has served as the offensive coordinator with the Patriots and a senior defensive assistant with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2023.
The lack of high-profile defensive jobs since his days in Detroit should have been the first red flag to Day that Patricia is a massive downgrade from Knowles, who coached the No. 1 defense in the country last season, but his 13-29-1 as head coach is even more concerning. Patricia has never succeeded away from New England, and even his last stint with Belichick was a widely criticized disaster, so needless to say Penn State fans and the rest of the Big Ten should be celebrating this move.
The Buckeyes will always have enough talent to field an above-average group on both sides of the ball regardless of who is on the headset calling plays. However, Day had his best group of coordinators in 2024 which led to him finally breaking through for a national title, and this offseason he’s undone what may have been the program’s biggest strength.
Penn State has not beaten Ohio State since 2016, but if there was ever a year for it to happen and James Franklin to break the drought, it’s looking like 2025. Not only did Penn State do an excellent job keeping the core of its roster in Happy Valley for another year, but the Nittany Lions massively upgraded at defensive coordinator while the Buckeyes clearly took a huge step back.