First-year Ohio State Buckeyes defensive coordinator Matt Patricia is having one of the greatest adjustments from the NFL to the college game that the sport has ever seen. FOX Sports' Michael Cohen feels Patricia should be honored for it.
Cohen proposed Patricia winning the Broyles Award for the 2025 season.
"The Buckeyes could enjoy their bye week after shutting out Wisconsin, 34-0, two weeks ago to hold a seventh consecutive opponent to 16 points or fewer. It’s been a remarkable start for first-year defensive coordinator Matt Patricia, whose unit entered the break ranked first nationally in scoring (5.9 points per game), second in total defense (216.9 yards per game), first in third-down conversion rate (21.4%) and first in red zone touchdown rate (16.7%)," Cohen wrote.
"Patricia should certainly be in contention for the Broyles Award, which is given to the sport’s top assistant coach, considering both his unfamiliarity with the college game — he hadn’t coached at this level since he was a graduate assistant at Syracuse in 2003 — and the absence of eight defensive players from last year’s national championship-winning team who were selected in the 2025 NFL Draft."
A defensive coordinator has won the award the past two seasons, with former Notre Dame Fighting DC Al Golden winning it in 2024 and Iowa Hawkeyes DC Phil Parker winning it in 2023. Before that, a DC hadn't won the award since 2016, when Brent Venables won with the Oklahoma Sooners.
Matt Patricia a microcosm of difference between Ryan Day and Brian Kelly
Hiring a guy like Patricia and promoting WR coach Brian Hartline to offensive coordinator, moves that were under the microscope before the season, helped Ryan Day maintain a championship standard in Columbus.
Making moves like that is the difference between guys like Day, who stick around a while because he has built a winning culture, and Brian Kelly, who was just fired as the LSU Tigers' football coach because he couldn't nail those kinds of hires.
Unluckily for Day, he may have to do it again this offseason. Hartline will likely be a head coaching candidate for several openings.
Day has earned trust that he'll do a good job of making the right hire again. That's invaluable in this sport, as the rash of head coaching firings this cycle has proven.