The Ohio State football program had their coaches meet with the media for the first time since winning the national championship a month and a half ago. There are a lot of new faces around the Woody for the 2025 season, though. A lot of Ohio State's coaches got poached following the success of winning it all.
Ohio State has a new offensive line coach in Tyler Bowen now that Justin Frye is in Arizona. Brian Hartline isn't new to the building, but he's new to the offensive coordinator job now that Chip Kelly is in Las Vegas. Matt Patricia is new to the building after replacing Jim Knowles as defensive coordinator.
Patricia was by far the most controversial hire that the Buckeyes made in the offseason. He was out of football last year and hasn't been the defensive coordinator for a team for an entire year in almost a decade. He also has some baggage off the field that has concerned some folks.
Ryan Day is fully comfortable with Matt Patricia as Ohio State's DC
Ryan Day was asked about hiring Patricia and whether or not the baggage from almost 30 years ago was concerning to him at all. He said that he did his due diligence before deciding to bring him in and he feels very comfortable with everything Patricia can do, including coaching the defense.
Patricia was alleged to have sexually assaulted a woman in 1996, and Day knew that would come up when he hired him. He feels very comfortable with the information that he received when he was vetting Patricia, who has been an NFL head coach since that incident.
Day also seems very confident in Patricia's ability to coordinate the defense. They are replacing eight starters on that side of the ball, so he has his work cut out for him. Day thinks that Patricia is ready to take on the challenge.
Patricia is eager to get started and said that he wanted to impact 18-22 year-old kids, so this is his chance to do that. He'll be on a short leash with some of the fanbase, though.