Ryan Day shares why he chose Matt Patricia for Ohio State's defensive coordinator position

Head coach Ryan Day and the Ohio State Buckeyes have not had much time to rest after winning the National Championship. Following their big win over Notre Dame in January, the Buckeyes lost both their offensive and defensive coordinator. OC Chip Kelly went to the NFL, and DC Jim Knowles was hired by Penn State.

As a result, Ryan Day had to focus on replacing both of those positions. On February 12, it was announced that Matt Patricia had been hired by the Buckeyes to be the team's defensive coordinator and on Friday, Day spoke with the media about why he chose Matt Patricia to replace Jim Knowles:

"Matt was that guy for a lot of reasons, I think the first one was his experience. Coaching 19 years in the NFL, coached in six Super Bowls, has three Super Bowl rings. It was important, so the experience speaks for itself, I think he's one of the best minds in the game. But also pairing him with Tim Walton as a co-coordinator. That was important to have continuity.

"When you interview certain coordinators, they have an idea of what they want to do. They want to come in and run their style of defense. They want to bring in their own guys. Part of that was to have someone who was willing to work with the guys we have in the room. Having Tim Walton as a co-coordinator there is a huge part of our defense."

Matt Patricia last coached in 2023 as a senior defensive assistant for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Ryan Day promotes Brian Hartline to be the Ohio State Buckeyes offensive coordinator

Ryan Day opted to get outside help to replace Jim Knowles at the defensive coordinator position. However, he took the opposite approach when tasked with replacing offensive coordinator Chip Kelly. Although he conducted a coaching search and interviewed other candidates, he eventually opted to promote Brian Hartline to the position.

Brian Hartline has been part of the Ohio State coaching staff since 2017. He started as an offensive quality control assistant and has since been promoted several times to the point where he is now the offensive coordinator. In 2024, he served as the co-offensive coordinator with Chip Kelly, and the wide receivers coach.

Hartline is one of the youngest offensive coordinators in college football at only 38 years old. It will be interesting to see if he changes much about the team's offensive approach in his first season as coordinator.