Ryan Day’s decision to raid the NFL for both coordinators was supposed to give Ohio State a different edge. Two years in, it looks more like a gamble with a shaky payoff.
The Buckeyes now have enough of a sample to judge the move, and the picture is messy. Matt Patricia has been the defensive coordinator for 1.75 seasons, while Arthur Smith has run the offense for .75 seasons.
The defense has swung between dominant and disjointed. The offense, meanwhile, has been rough.
Patricia’s hire raised eyebrows from the start. After Jim Knowles left the program on what felt like the flight home from the National Championship, Day chose to go outside the college game and bring in a coach who had been away from coaching for two years.
Patricia had spent time as an assistant in New England and Philadelphia, but his most recent headline was his failed run as head coach of the Detroit Lions, where he went 13-29-1. He also came with only three years of college coaching experience, all of it from the 1990s.
It had been 22 years since he last coached in college.
At first, the move looked brilliant. Last year’s Ohio State defense played like a wall, and Patricia’s scheme gave opponents plenty to think about.
The Buckeyes had enough elite talent to make the whole thing hum, with four first-round picks and seven players who went in the first or second round. That kind of personnel let Patricia lean into what he wanted to do.
This season has told a different story. The defense has been exposed in a major way, starting with a meltdown against Texas that should have been even worse.
Then came a game where Illinois piled up more than 200 yards, followed by lopsided losses to USC and Oregon. The question hanging over the unit is simple: is this what the Matt Patricia defense looks like without NFL talent propping it up?
The offensive hire never made much sense either. Smith came over from the NFL after seven years as a play caller, and not once did he oversee a top-10 offense. He had been part of the house cleaning in Pittsburgh last year, and Day brought him in once he was available.
So far, the fit has been a disaster. The offense has lost the spark it once had, and Smith’s personnel usage and play calling have both come under fire. Jeremiah Smith is the one piece keeping the unit from looking even worse, because without him this would be a very low-tier offense.
In Other News...
Ohio State Fans Have A New Reason To Worry About Legend Bey
Legend Bey arrived at Ohio State with some buzz, but his first season has not gone the way many Buckeyes fans hoped. The freshman running back has seen limited playing time, and his path has already been complicated by a suspension early in fall camp. Even with the season moving along, Bey has not been able to carve out much of a role in a backfield that has been difficult to crack.
Bey added another layer of uncertainty this week by posting a cryptic message on social media, which naturally sparked concern about where things stand. Nothing official has been announced, and there is no confirmation that he is entering the transfer portal, but the timing of the post is enough to make people around the program pay attention. For a player still trying to find his footing, and for a fan base watching the running back room closely, it is the kind of development that raises more questions than answers. [Read more 🡒]
Ohio State Makes Another Special Teams Change After Costly Problems Persist
Ohio State has moved on from special teams coordinator Robby Discher after the 2026 season, another sign that the Buckeyes are still searching for answers in a phase of the game that never quite stabilized. Discher was hired in January with the expectation that he would help clean up a unit that had become a recurring concern, but the same issues kept surfacing, from kickoff and punt return troubles to penalties and miscues in important moments.
Head coach Ryan Day has already acknowledged the problems and made clear the responsibility does not rest with Discher alone, which suggests this is as much about broader accountability as it is about one staffing change. For a program with Ohio States standards, special teams has become too familiar a source of frustration, and the latest move only adds to the sense that more adjustments could still be coming. [Read more 🡒]
Ryan Day Owns Ohio State Collapse As Pressure Builds Fast
Ohio States latest setback was the kind that lingers, because it began with control and ended with a collapse. The Buckeyes jumped out to a 14-0 lead against Oregon, then watched the Ducks reel off 38 unanswered points as the offense stalled and the game slipped away, leaving Ohio State at 6-3 overall and 4-2 in Big Ten play.
Ryan Day did not try to soften the aftermath. He acknowledged the teams problems on offense, where the Buckeyes have struggled to find consistent production on the ground and through the air, and said coaching changes, play calling and personnel adjustments are all under consideration. With the season moving deeper into November, the pressure around the program is only getting louder, and the next steps now matter as much as the loss itself. [Read more 🡒]