Right after the Transfer Portal closed, the Ohio State football team had to figure out what to do with the coaching staff. Right after that period finished, the Buckeyes didn't have an offensive or defensive coordinator under contract. Matt Patricia was widely expected back, but it wasn't certain.
Then Ryan Day made the decision to hire Arthur Smith as the offensive coordinator. Bringing him into the fold gave the Buckeyes a former NFL head coach as a play-caller, which is something Day desired. Shortly after that, a new contract was announced for Patricia.
Now, the Ohio State Buckeyes have both former NFL head coaches on staff. The details of contracts with both coordinators were not available right away. Now, it is being reported that the Buckeyes dropped an absolute bag to keep Patricia in Columbus for the next few years.
The Ohio State football team spent a bunch of money to keep Matt Patricia
According to Bill Landis of the Bill and Doug Show, the Buckeyes are paying Patricia through 2028 to be their defensive coordinator. They are paying him a whopping $3.75 million this season. In each of the next two years, the contract goes even higher, paying him $3.85 million for 2027 and 2028.
With that contract, Patricia is the highest-paid coordinator in college football. With what he was able to do defensively last season, right after Jim Knowles left, clearly made Ohio State comfortable enough to make this deal. Arthur Smith is getting paid a lot of money, too.
Smith's contract is only for two years. He will get paid $1.5 million for the first season and $2 million for the second season. He is going to be the play-caller for as long as he is in Columbus. Both coordinators are getting compensated heavily, and Ohio State is clearly not afraid to spend money for the right coaches.
Perhaps this spending on coaches will help drive development from some of the recruits who aren't as highly-touted. Regardless, this is a lot of money to spend on a coaching staff, as they are spending around $15 million on the entire staff for next season.
Day clearly believes this will lead to a lot of wins. Otherwise, he wouldn't have signed off on the Buckeyes spending this much money on these two coordinators. That's how much he respects what they have done in the past and what Patricia did last year.