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It’s safe to say not everyone was sold on Ryan Day’s hire of Matt Patricia as defensive coordinator when Jim Knowles took the Penn State job. Our own site listed the uncertainty of the choice as one of the Buckeyes’ biggest concerns last summer.
While things hadn’t gone so well for Patricia as an NFL head coach in Detroit — lack of success by no means being uncommon for Lions coaches from a historical standpoint — or in some of his positions since, his NFL experience is something Day covets.
Patricia got the job, and the reaction from Ohio State writers and fans was mixed, at best.
Those concerns were quickly put to rest. Despite having to completely rebuild a defense that lost a ton of departing talent to the NFL after the 2024 national championship season, Patricia’s unit was not only Ohio State’s best in 2025, but it was the top defense in college football.
The Buckeyes finished first in scoring defense, allowing fewer than double-digit points per game (9.3), and led the nation in total defense, allowing just an average of 219 yards per game. With an entirely new defensive line, Ohio State held opponents to less than 90 yards rushing per game, finishing seventh nationally in run defense, while leading the country in pass defense, giving up a stingy 129.7 yards per game through the air.
There is no room for criticism for the numbers in the above paragraph. It’s ludicrous to expect that kind of performance, let alone any improvement on it.
Leading the country in three of the four major defensive categories makes the 2025 defense historically good (and it’s even better when you consider the Buckeyes led the country in red zone defense and were No. 10 nationally in third-down defense), and the architect of that defense putting to rest any doubts about his return can be seen as nothing but a positive for Ohio State football in 2026.
A side effect of being one of the top programs in the country is that other schools are always coming for your coaches. At Ohio State, it isn’t just college programs coming for them; the NFL also comes calling. With the ridiculous season Patricia’s defense just had, there were no doubt suitors for his services from both college and NFL teams.
Although Patricia’s initial deal was through 2027, there was never any guarantee of his return after turning the OSU defense into a buzzsaw that improved a national championship-caliber defense.
Now that Patricia has committed to being in Columbus for another year, he has the unenviable task of replacing several key parts of his own elite defense.
The good news is there is plenty of talent returning and several new arrivals via the transfer portal that will help. The bad news is that it is a big ask to replace Kayden McDonald’s explosive play on the defensive line and “unicorn” players like Caleb Downs and Arvell Reese, along with an elite linebacker talent in Sonny Styles and top cornerback Davison Igbinosun.
Despite the losses of Downs, Reese, and Styles in particular, the job of rebuilding the defense seems less daunting now than it did a year ago.
Ohio State’s returning starters and depth players have been in Patricia’s system for a year. They should be better pepared in their second year, even if some of them will become first-time starters. New arrivals will help mitigate some of the losses.
Again, it’s ludicrous to expect a repeat of what Patricia’s defense did in 2025 in the season ahead, especially with a tougher schedule to play, but Ohio State’s second-year defensive coordinator has done enough to at least silence last year’s critics and build trust that the Silver Bullets will be back in 2026.