Ohio State is hiring former Lions coach Matt Patricia as defensive coordinator, AP source says
Ohio State is hiring former Lions coach Matt Patricia as defensive coordinator, AP source says
Ohio State is hiring former Detroit Lions coach Matt Patricia as defensive coordinator, according to a person familiar with the situation.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Wednesday because the agreement had not been announced.
Ohio State coach Ryan Day, who led the Buckeyes to the national championship, agreed in principle last year to a seven-year contract valued at $12.5 million per year.
Day is hiring Patricia to fill the void left by defensive coordinator Jim Knowles leaving for the same job at Penn State.
The 50-year-old Patricia, a Super Bowl-winning defensive coordinator in New England under Bill Belichick, is getting another chance to coach after the Philadelphia Eagles let him go a year ago. Patricia became the Eagles’ defensive play-caller late in the 2023 season and lost his job after their opening-round playoff loss to Tampa Bay.
The Lions fired Patricia during the 2020 season with a 13-29-1 record in two-plus seasons.
Patricia returned to New England as Belichick’s assistant head coach in 2021 and was the offensive line coach and senior advisor for the Patriots in 2022. He was on Belichick’s staff for 14 seasons and was defensive coordinator for six seasons, ending with his unit giving up 41 points and 538 yards to the Eagles in a Super Bowl loss seven years ago.
He earned an aeronautical engineering degree at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he played center and guard. While trying to figure out which career path to follow, the native of Sherrill, New York, was an aeronautical engineer for two years.
Patricia started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at RPI and went on to lead the defensive line at Amherst College and to be a graduate assistant Syracuse before Belichick hired him as an offensive assistant in 2004.
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By LARRY LAGE
AP Sports Writer
