While the Nebraska football team has been replacing staff departures with hires that have almost universally been billed as solid additions, the same cannot be said about the rest of the Big Ten.
First was the addition of Rob Ryan, a washed-up, out of touch and just plain strange former defensive coordinator to the USC Trojans. It appears that Ohio State saw that hire, and Ryan’s subsequent bizarre press conference where he made it clear he didn’t understand what spring practice was for, and hollered “hold my beers!”
While Nebraska football has taken strides to improve on the best season in nearly a decade, Ohio State has seemingly decided it would be more fun to put up hurdles and the biggest one of all is Wednesday’s hiring of Matt Patricia.
Nebraska football rival makes hilarious choice of Matt Patricia as defensive coordinator
Patricia is tasked with leading the Buckeyes' defense after the National Champion lost its previous DC, Jim Knowles, to conference rival, Penn State. That move apparently shook the OSU brass to its very core. Perhaps it even dealt them a concussion.
It’s not just that Matt Patricia is an all-timer when it comes to horrendous former head coaches. After all, sometimes a good defensive coordinator just can’t run the whole show. It’s that Matt Patricia has long been thought of as an unlikeable guy who worked well with Bill Belichick thanks in large part to some very good personnel moves, and a margin of error embodied by Tom Brady.
There’s also the little tidbit that even if someone wants to argue Matt Patricia was a good defensive coordinator, he hasn’t done that job in eight years. Of course, it’s also been more than 20 years since Patricia coached in the college ranks. What could possibly go wrong for Ryan Day, who right up until his playoff run, was so hated in Columbus that his family was apparently receiving death threats? What is this hire? Is Day really that confident and secure in his job, and does he not think he needs someone competent to run his defense?
Maybe he doesn’t. Maybe Ohio State has that much talent. But it’s not just me thinking this is a bad hire, either. Here’s a fun sampling from Ohio State fans reading the news, first reported by Pete Thamel:
“Horrible choice. Ohio State is better than this.”
“Just to remind all OSU fans like me, he was the reason the Lions locker room was as bad as it was.”
“Words cannot describe how upset this makes me”
This includes a colleague of mine whose first comments when the news broke were “I hate everything.”
Perhaps Ohio State can make this work. Perhaps the guy who hasn’t led a defense since 2017 and hasn’t coached in college since 2003 is a 4D chess-level move. For now, as a Nebraska football fan, I just find it hilarious.