Numbers don’t lie. And the numbers Matt Patricia posted in his first season at Ohio State tell a story that even the most skeptical observer would have a hard time arguing with.
When Patricia was hired in February 2025 to replace Jim Knowles, he inherited a defense that had just helped win a national championship. The bar was already at the ceiling. Somehow, Patricia’s unit met it and then some.
The Headline Stats
Ohio State’s defense in 2025 led the nation in both major categories:
- Scoring defense: 9.3 points per game (No. 1 nationally)
- Total defense: 219.1 yards per game (No. 1 nationally)
Those numbers are the best posted by any FBS defense since Alabama’s legendary 2011 unit. That’s the company Matt Patricia’s first college defense in over two decades is keeping.
The season opened with a statement. Ohio State held Texas and quarterback Arch Manning to just seven points in the opener, a performance that drew national attention. Former NFL head coach Bruce Arians praised Patricia’s game plan on The Pat McAfee Show, noting how effectively the defense disguised coverages and kept Manning from reading the alignment.
From there, the standard held week after week. Patricia’s defense carried the Buckeyes through a demanding Big Ten schedule and into the College Football Playoff, where the run ended with a loss to Miami in the Cotton Bowl.
Beyond the Team Stats
What makes Patricia’s first year even more impressive is what it produced at the individual level. Mel Kiper Jr.’s latest mock draft projects four Ohio State defenders in the first seven picks of the 2026 NFL Draft:
- Caleb Downs (Safety)
- Arvell Reese (Linebacker)
- Sonny Styles (Linebacker)
- Kayden McDonald (Defensive Tackle)
Here’s the key detail: only Downs was a projected first-rounder heading into the 2025 season. Reese, Styles, and McDonald all elevated their draft stock significantly under Patricia’s coaching. Four potential first-round picks from a single defensive unit is unprecedented in Kiper’s mock draft history for one school.
That kind of player development across multiple positions in a single season is rare at any level. It speaks to Patricia’s ability to identify what each player does well and build the scheme around those strengths, something he emphasized from the day he was hired.
“My whole goal is to see what you do well,” Patricia has said. “How do I put you in a position to get on the field and do that job well and to the best of your ability?”
The draft projections suggest he found the answer for each of them.
Recognition
Patricia was named a finalist for the Broyles Award, which honors college football’s top assistant coach. The award ultimately went to Indiana defensive coordinator Bryant Haines, but the nomination placed Patricia among the sport’s elite coordinators after just one season.
During the Broyles Award ceremony, Patricia spoke with ESPN’s Holly Rowe about what drew him back to college football after more than 20 years in the NFL.
“Just walking into that room and just being able to be around the kids and see that joy, that youthful energy and love for the game of football was just so invigorating to me,” Patricia said. “It just really brought me back to my roots of why I wanted to coach.”
The Bottom Line
The stats justified the hire. The award nomination validated it. The player development confirmed it. And the contract extension that followed in February 2026 secured it.
Matt Patricia’s year one at Ohio State was, by every measurable standard, a success. Now the question shifts from whether he could do it to whether he can sustain it. Based on the numbers, the development, and the commitment he’s shown to Columbus, the early answer looks more than promising.