It's been two decades since Matt Patricia last coached in college football.
The longtime architect of the defenses of the New England Patriots's dynasty and briefly a head coach in the league, Patricia is expected to become Ohio State's next defensive coordinator under coach Ryan Day.
ESPN first reported the news, though FootballScoop noted Tuesday that Patricia was a candidate for the Ohio State job.
Patricia is set to replace Jim Knowles, who helped lead the Buckeyes to the College Football Playoff Championship last month and then quickly bolted to Big Ten foe Penn State. The Nittany Lions made Knowles the highest-paid defensive coordinator in college football.
As the Patriots defensive coordinator under Bill Belichick, Patricia helped New England to a trio of Super Bowl crowns;
He spent 14 years on staff at New England before he landed his first NFL head coaching gig atop the Detroit Lions franchise, where he was fired after he compiled a 13-29-1 mark in less than three full seasons.
From 2001-03, Patricia was an offensive line graduate assistant at Syracuse -- his only career work at the FBS level.
But sources had stressed to FootballScoop for more than a week that Day wanted to bring another veteran coach to run his defense and serve as de facto head coach of the defense. The Buckeyes felt the program flourished this past season with Chip Kelly, a former NFL and Power Conference college head coach, in charge of the offense while Knowles orchestrated the nation's best defense. Knowles also had been a head coach at the FCS level.
Additionally, Day and Ohio State are working to retain top young defensive assistant Matt Guerrieri with an elevated title along the lines of defensive pass game coordinator and also looking to add co-defensive coordinator to the role of Tim Walton, already the program's assistant head coach. ESPN first noted these expected moves.
The Buckeyes, seeded No. 8 in the first-ever 12-team CFP, obliterated their competition in four wins en route to the program's first title in a decade; all four victories came by at least 11 points.
Ohio State is set to open its 2025 season inside the Horseshoe Aug. 30 with an intersectional clash against Texas, the team the Buckeyes defeated in the semifinals of the CFP last month.