Ohio State’s Ryan Day breaks silence on Matt Patricia’s sexual assault allegation

Ryan Day hired Matt Patricia as Ohio State's new defensive coordinator in February. The former Detroit Lions coach comes in as a replacement for Jim Knowles, who departed Columbus in January following the team's College Football Playoff national championship success.

However, there has been some controversy surrounding Patricia's appointment. During his time with the Lions in 2018, the coach's alleged sexual assault of an undisclosed woman from 1996 resurfaced. While he and a friend were indicted by a grand jury, the case collapsed in 1997 as the victim refused to testify.

The sexual assault allegation led to some criticism of his hiring as the Buckeyes' defensive coordinator.

In his press conference session on Friday, Ryan Day was questioned on why he felt it was proper to hire Matt Patricia despite his controversial history.

“When we make these decisions, we spend a lot of time in the interviewing process and getting to know people,” Ryan Day said. “We always take everything into consideration. That situation in particular, [we] asked a lot of questions, vetted it. Ross Bjork was part of those conversations.

“[I] feel really good about the hire. And our program, as you know, has great values and standards of how we handle ourselves, which you get to see on a day-to-day basis and that's not going to change.”

Ryan Day wants Ohio State's defense to retain its identity

Ohio State has boasted one of the best defenses in college football in the last few seasons. The program was able to establish an identity for its defensive unit under Jim Knowles. Ryan Day aims to ensure this identity is retained despite the changes in coaching staff.

“We want to make sure that our identity of what we do on defense stays intact as we have movement on our staff,” Day said. “All of those things led me down this road of Matt, who even in a short period of time has already worked hard on building relationships with the staff (and) with the players.

“And his experience is going to have credibility the minute he walks in that room. Now that we’re playing a longer season, understanding how that goes and playing in the playoffs, all of those were reasons that we ended up with Matt.”

Matt Patricia holds a lot of experience and a proven track record in the NFL, which can be pivotal for Ohio State next season. Prior to his time with the Detroit Lions, he was an assistant to Bill Belichick with the New England Patriots for several years, winning the Super Bowl twice as defensive coordinator.