Ryan Day ‘very excited’ by Ohio State defense entering 2025

Coming off a national championship season, the Ohio State Buckeyes have seen massive turnover on the defensive side of the ball. That turnover was to both the roster itself and the coaching staff, with head coach Ryan Day forced to bring in new defensive coordinator Matt Patricia.

At Big Ten Media Days, Day addressed the Buckeyes’ defense. There, he shared that he’s been very happy with Patricia and is excited for the Ohio State defense going into the 2025 season.

“Lot of work to do,” Day said. “But I’m very excited about our defense and what we’re doing. We wanted to keep continuity there, and that was one of the reasons it took us a long time and a very thorough process in hiring Matt. You know, when you look at Tim [Walton] and Larry [Johnson] and James [Laurinaitis] and Matt Guerrieri, these guys hit a huge part of what we did last year on defense, and so we want to keep that continuity. We want to run the Ohio State defense, and Matt was willing to embrace that.”

Patricia is primarily known for his time in the NFL. After a few small assistant roles in college, he landed in New England in 2004. There, he’d work his way up, becoming the defensive coordinator under Bill Belichick in 2012 and holding the role through 2017 before a difficult tenure as the Detroit Lions head coach. He’d return to New England and later the Philadelphia Eagles after that. Now, he’s returned to college with Ohio State. Along the way, he won three Super Bowls as an assistant coach.

“Now Matt has his own background and things that he likes,” Day said. “And I think one of the things he does a great job of is putting guys in situations that would be successful when you look at the Patriots and his background. So, he’ll have his little different changes, but we want to keep, really, the structure of what we’ve done in the past and keep that going. So, I’m fired up. I think Matt’s done a great job of building relationships already with the current players. When you ask them about that, and you ask the recruits about Matt, they just have glowing responses about who he is, the way he connects, his personality, and so I’m fired up.”

Last season, Ohio State had the top-ranked total defense nationally, giving up just 254.6 yards per game. The Buckeyes also had the top-ranked scoring defense, giving up just 12.9 points per game. Unsurprisingly, eight Buckeyes were drafted by the NFL off last season’s defense. There’s still talent, but the experienced players have largely turned over with that.

“There’s guys that we have to replace,” Day said. “But when you look at some of the guys that are coming off the edge, when you look at our back end, when you look at our linebackers, you see a lot of potential there. But we’ve got to go do it, and that’s why August is very important.”

The Ohio State defense is going to be tested immediately. The Texas Longhorns and Arch Manning come to Columbus for Week 1, with a College Football Playoff rematch. So, the Buckeyes do need to be ready right away.