Matt Patricia Will Tailor Scheme To Buckeyes’ Talent

Football is an ever-changing game, so if a program wants to be successful, it must be able to evolve with the times while also remaining consistent in how it does things.

It may sound like a contradiction, but it isn’t. New Ohio State defensive coordinator Matt Patricia saw it first hand in his 14 years with the New England Patriots. The 2008 season was the only time in his tenure that the Patriots missed the NFL Playoffs — and they went 11-5 that year.

New England played for six Super Bowls in Patricia’s 14 years, winning four. Head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady built the most consistent NFL franchise in history, and Patricia was on the sideline for 12 of those years as a defensive assistant. And the Pats’ defense changed with the times.

“That’s something that kind of developed,” Patricia said. “I think when I originally went to New England in the early 2000s, the game was different. There was much more two-back sets and double tight end sets. We were fundamentally a 3-4 team, as people would say. Now our 3-4 changed through the years. We always kind of were developing it and evolving it, but the game changed.”

Now at Ohio State, Matt Patricia takes over for former OSU defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, who built the best defense in college football a year ago. Normally, a head coach wouldn’t want much change from what works, but this year’s Buckeye defense must replace eight starters, which means some kind of change is inevitable.

Knowles’ defense last year grew more multiple and diverse as the season went on, which is expected to continue this year for the Buckeyes under Patricia. Ohio State’s spring practice is now in its first week, so Patricia and his assistants are getting a better idea of what the defensive Buckeyes can handle.

The scheme will remain similar this year, but many of the players running it will be different, which means the scheme will at times be employed differently than it was last year.

“One of the things that kind of happened to us in New England, luckily enough, but we would pick late in the draft because of our season,” Patricia explained. “Our 3-4 scheme really expanded. A couple of our coaches left. Romeo Crennel left and Eric (Mangini) went to the Jets, and so it became much more difficult to find the pieces to fit the scheme. So we had to take the reverse effect. Let’s just get the best players we can. Let’s bring them in and let’s figure out how to use them. Let’s figure out how to put them in position.”

That’s where the coaches are right now. This isn’t just a learning period for the players, but also for the coaches putting the scheme together.

Patricia’s defense at New England evolved with the times. Offenses went away from two-back sets and started going to one-back, three-receiver sets, which called for a different kind of attack. It led to less base defenses and more sub packages. Belichick and Patricia excelled at finding roles for players in those sub packages and then putting them to good use.

That’s the plan this year as well.

“My whole goal is to try to figure out what do you do well,” he said. “How do I put you in the best position to go get on the field and do that job to the best of your ability? If you can play fast, you can play aggressive. Because you know that I have you in your skill set, then you’re going to be disruptive as a defensive player. You’re going to help us win as a defense, win as a team. We can fit the pieces around where everybody goes in that accord, and then go from there.”

Even as the game continues to evolve, so do coaches. The chess match never stops, and neither does the plotting. If a player does something well, then it’s up to Matt Patricia and the coaches to find a way to make use of those skill sets.

“I’ve coached all of it,” Patricia said. “I’ve coached 3-4, 4-3, nickel, big nickel, dimes, all those packages. Four-down fronts, five-down fronts, odds facing, you kind of do it through the course of the year. So to me, it’s all like, ‘Hey, that guy can do this or that guy can do this.’ I also think it creates roles. So it’s not always the same 11 on the field. So if you can have a really good skill set and you can do something if it’s in a critical situation, then we’ve got to get you in that spot and help you be in that situation and win the game.”

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