Not only is Particia new, but so too are a lot of players on defense for the Buckeyes this season.
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Recency bias can have an impact on our perceptions and expectations. It can definitely be applied to new Buckeyes defensive coordinator Matt Patricia.
Patricia is anything but new, though, to being a defensive coordinator. He won two Super Bowls as the leader of the New England Patriots defense in 2014 and 2016, the latter of those two led by the Patriots No. 1 scoring defense in the NFL. In addition, Patricia was an assiatant offensive line coach on the Patriots Super Bowl XXXIX winning team in 2004, and he coached in three other Super Bowls as a member of the Patriots defensive staff.
That’s the good of Patricia’s coaching career. But again, recency bias. Since 2017, Patricia has been the head coach of the Detroit Lions– he was fired 11 games into his third season in 2020- and has held senior defensive positions with both the Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles.
Unfortunately, those stints with the Patriots and Eagles have put some stains on his coaching resume. Patricia was the Patriots offensive play-caller in 2022, a season where the Patriots went from sixth the previous season to 17th in scoring the following season. The next season, 2023, Patricia took over as the Eagles defensive play-caller with four games remaining in the regular-season and produced dreadful results in those games and in the Wild Card round of the Playoffs.
So there’s good and not-so-good with Patricia’s career. Now, he’s being tasked with leading a Buckeyes defense that will look a lot different personnel-wise in 2025. Not to mention, the Buckeyes are coming off a season where they led the country in points and yards allowed per game.
To quote Basketball Hall of Fame head coach Rick Pitino, Jack Sawyer isn’t walking through that door. Tyliek Williams isn’t walking through that door. JT Tuimoloau isn’t walking through that door. Neither are five other players from last year’s defense that were selceted in the NFL Draft this past April.
There is a lot of new on this Buckeyes defense, a lot of unprovenness. Combine that with a new defensive coordinator that hasn’t coached at the college level since he was a graduate assistant at Syracuse in 2003, on top of his struggles in his coaching roles since coordinating the Patriots defense, and that is plenty of reason for concern.
The good news is Caleb Downs is returning this season. That’s a big start for Patricia. He’ll also have Davison Igbinosun returning in the secondary and Sonny Styles returning at linebacker. Having a player the caliber of Downs returning is key for Patricia to build his defense.
But my concern is up front. The Big Ten is a conference rooted in trench warfare, being able to run the football, grounding and pounding and having a team conducive to play in the elements come November. Can Patricia’s defense be that? Is the Buckeyes defense going to be able to slow down the running games of Penn State, Oregon, Michigan and Washington?
They play three of those teams in the regular season, including Michigan and Washington on the road. Ohio State’s defense is going to have to find a way to slow down opposing teams’ running games with nearly a completely new-look front seven. That’s not going to be easy, especially with skepticism surroudning Patricia leading this new-look Buckeyes defense.
If Patricia can recapture his coaching genius that made the Patriots defense so good from 2006-2017, the Buckeyes will be able to make the transition with their new personnel on defense. But if Patricia brings any remnants of his previous three roles, that’s only going to create more pressure for a Buckeyes offense that also has new faces at key positions.
How far Ohio State goes this season may be contingent on the performance of its defense. It’s a matter of which verison of Patricia unfolds this season. This is a big concern, undoubtedly, going into thw 2025 season with the Buckeyes looking to repeat as national champions.