The stats from Matt Patricia’s first season at Ohio State are impossible to ignore. No. 1 scoring defense. No. 1 total defense. A Broyles Award nomination. Four potential first-round draft picks. By every on-field measure, the year was a resounding success.
But if you ask the players who lived it, the numbers aren’t what they talk about first. They talk about the man behind them.
More Than a Scheme Guy
At the NFL Combine, defensive tackle Kayden McDonald gave Matt Patricia a label that no stat sheet could capture.
“He’s a peoples’ coach,” McDonald said. “He’s gonna come up to you off the field. He helped me mentally and got me ready for this moment. Now I feel at ease, I got a smile on my face, and I’m just ready to be great.”
When asked about his favorite Ohio State memory, McDonald didn’t mention a specific play or a big win. He mentioned the people who believed in him.
“Having Coach Patricia and Coach Johnson and Coach Day believing in me,” McDonald said. “I’d say that, for real.”
That’s Patricia’s name in the same breath as Ryan Day and Larry Johnson, two of the most respected figures in Ohio State football. For a coach who arrived in Columbus just over a year ago, earning that level of trust from a player says everything about how he operates.
Investing in Families
Caden Curry offered another window into how Matt Patricia builds relationships with his players. It goes beyond the meeting room and the practice field.
“Taking the time to get to know me and my family and getting to know him and his family, he’s just such a great guy to be around and he has so much wisdom,” Curry said.
Curry went on to describe Patricia as “everything” to his senior season, a word that carries weight coming from a player who has been in the Ohio State program for four years and worked under multiple coordinators.
“Coach Patricia is one of or the best defense coordinator in college football, in my opinion,” Curry said. “He’s just a guy that everybody wants to play for.”
The family investment isn’t a small detail. For college athletes navigating one of the most demanding environments in sports, having a coach who takes genuine interest in their lives outside of football creates a level of trust that translates directly to the field. Players who trust their coach play faster, communicate better, and buy into the system more completely.
The Emotional Preparation
What stood out most at the Combine was how many players cited Matt Patricia’s impact on their mental readiness, not just their football IQ. McDonald’s quote about Patricia helping him “mentally” was the most direct example, but the theme ran through nearly every interview.
Sonny Styles praised Patricia’s willingness to prepare players for the Combine experience itself, hopping on Zoom calls to simulate what meetings with NFL teams would look like.
“Him hopping on Zoom calls with all of us, taking us through what a meeting’s going to look like, he’s been such a great help,” Styles said.
Arvell Reese described the subtlety of Patricia’s influence, noting that the teaching was so natural he didn’t fully appreciate it until after the season.
“It’s stuff you pick up on and you don’t even realize you gained it from him,” Reese said. “I’m realizing that right now.”
Why It Matters
In college football, the coordinator conversation almost always centers on scheme. What front are they running? What coverage concepts do they prefer? How do they handle third and long?
Matt Patricia can hold his own in every one of those conversations. His defensive resume speaks for itself. But what separated his first year at Ohio State wasn’t the scheme. It was the connection.
A Yahoo Sports writer captured the sentiment after watching Patricia help an injured player off the field during a game, putting his arm under the player as they walked together to the locker room. The writer had initially been skeptical of the hire and admitted: “Man, was I wrong.”
The peoples’ coach. It’s a simple label. But at a program where defensive coordinators have come and gone, it might be the reason Matt Patricia sticks around.
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