It’s officially official, Matt Patricia has been named the next Defensive Coordinator of The Ohio State Buckeyes.

In today’s session we will address my thoughts on the hire as well as what to expect from next year’s Ohio State defense.

For starters, I love the hire I think it’s the right decision and there’s only ever been one Ryan Day coordinator who did not work out – Kerry Coombs. If you asked Day, he wasn’t fully confident originally when he hired Coombs but there was some trust there due to his history under Urban Meyer, so Day gave him a shot.

All of the past Day disciples since then have been excellent. I do have a lot of faith that the former two-time Super Bowl play caller and three time Super Bowl champ, is the right move for the Buckeyes.

Now what can we expect from the scheme and X’s and O’s?

Matt Patricia is a master of his craft for a reason. They say the best defense in the art of war is a good offense. In terms of football, that’s what Patricia’s defenses are, they’re offensive, they’re proactive, and they get after the football and quarterback.

Patricia bases his defense off of the pass game and specifically the pass rush. So what does that mean? Well you’re going to see a ton of advanced looks and those looks are going to change week to week based on opponent. One thing that will stay consistent though is his defenses have tendencies that you can already expect now.

You will likely see 3-4 Big Nickel packages on anything longer than 2nd and 6. They’ll play a robber coverage over the top and have the Nickel play low in the hole with a free over top of that. It’s pretty straightforward to play but miserable for QB’s to adjust to which is exactly what Patricia wants.

He wants to put in a lot of advanced stunts in the interior gaps to free up his edge rushers for free inside or outside shots at the quarterback. One thing you typically won’t see from the DL, is a lot of “Jack” use which is what Knowles hung his hat on and was his terminology for an upright edge rusher. You’re going to see hands in the dirt and a lot of guys twisting the B and C gaps to slow down the QB’s passing reads.

What that’s doing is slowing down the operation in which the QB is surveying the field and tightening the window over the top on the 3rd and 4th receivers who are usually getting skinny and going vertical. With the pressures coming quicker, the secondary is more likely to only have to cover the quick routes in 1 and 2 forcing the QB to throw into tighter windows on the underneath routes due to lack of time in the pocket.

The DL is likely where you will notice the biggest change between Knowles’ defense and Patricia’s, but it probably favors personnel better next year with Patricia as Ohio State has more proven edge rushers in their arsenal with guys like Kenyatta Jackson, Caden Curry, and CJ Hicks, who recently flipped positions. Having less experience on the interior DL, it’s actually alright because the edge rushers are responsible for more of those twists and stunts leaving the 1 and 3 techs to play loose inside.

Where it gets really fun is in the linebackers and secondary. You can expect a lot of cover 3 and cover 5 match ups. In cover 3 you’ll typically see the corners playing deep thirds cut to carry or carry to cut with the free safety playing the middle high allowing the linebackers to also play the hook curl zones.

If the defensive line pressure can get home often, these types of defenses produce an abundance of interceptions. This type of defense all of a sudden becomes very attractive to top level DBs and athletic LBs because it allows them to be robbers in the defense and jump more routes.

Another guy who I’m sure is going to be a major fan of this scheme is newly announced Co-DC and cornerbacks coach Tim Walton. This type of defense makes recruiting ball hawking defenders 5x easier so don’t be surprised to see a little boost there in the next cycle.

With that being said, this defense is based on opposing offenses, so you’ll see a lot of different looks. One thing to remember is when you’re looking for consistency in Matt Patricia’s defense, the only thing that will remain constant is 3-4 nickel or big nickel packages on 2 or 3rd and long situations and the 4-3 man coverages in 3rd and short. Outside of that, Patricia’s defense will be known for its deception and unpredictability.