What’s the best way to follow up winning the National Championship? No. 3-ranked Ohio State decided that beating No. 1-ranked Texas to open the 2025 college football season was it.
After beating the Longhorns in Columbus, 14-7, Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day gave new defensive coordinator Matt Patricia his flowers.
“I’ve known Matt for a while. I know the type of person he is. He’s a great man; he’s a great husband, great father. He really, early on, built relationships and trust within the building in a short period of time with the staff,” Day said about Patricia on Tuesday’s edition of “The Herd.” “[Co-defensive coordinator] Tim Walton, [pass game coordinator] Matt Guerrieri, [associate head coach] Larry Johnson, [linebackers coach] James Laurinaitis and the players deserve a ton of the credit, but that being said, Matt put it all together. It’s only a start. We got a long way to go, but certainly, for a first game of the year with an inexperienced group going on the field, it was a good start.”
While Texas actually out-gained Ohio State in total yards, 336-203, the Buckeyes kept the Longhorns out of the end zone for the first 56:32 of play. Meanwhile, they held quarterback Arch Manning to a 56.7% completion percentage on 17 of 30 attempts, forced the Longhorns to turn the ball over on downs four times, intercepted Manning once and pulled off a goal-line stand at the 1-yard line that would’ve tied the game at seven apiece with 6:40 remaining in the third quarter.
Patricia was most recently a senior defensive assistant in the NFL for the Philadelphia Eagles in 2023. He was part of Bill Belichick’s coaching staff with the New England Patriots from 2004-17 and 2021-22, including serving as the team’s defensive coordinator from 2012-17; the Patriots won Super Bowl XLIX and Super Bowl LI with Patricia as their defensive coordinator. Patricia was also the head coach of the Detroit Lions from 2018-20.
Patricia replaced defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, who left Ohio State for Big Ten-rival Penn State for a reported $3.1 million salary after the 2024 season. Following a 2021 that saw the Buckeyes finish seventh in the Big Ten in opponent points and ninth in opponent total yards, they finished in the top three in the conference in both categories in each of their three years under Knowles (2022-24), including first in both areas in 2024.
As for the other side of the ball, Ohio State sophomore quarterback Julian Sayin made his first collegiate start last week – and Day liked what he saw.
“I think the first thing is when you have young quarterbacks, you ask them, ‘what did you see?’ And when they can come over and tell you what they saw, and then you watch the iPad after that drive, and it is exactly what he saw, that’s a great start,” Day said about Sayin. “I thought his feet moved well. I thought he was accurate with the ball. He made a couple off-schedule plays, and then he threw the ball away and took care of it when he needed to. Again, all good starts. Long way to go, but we can work with that.”
Throwing just 20 passes, Sayin threw for 126 yards and one touchdown, while completing 65.0% of his passes and posting a 134.4 passer rating. His biggest pass of the day was a 40-yard touchdown to wide receiver Carnell Tate that put the Buckeyes up 14-0 with 13:08 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Day admitted that Ohio State played the “field position game” when it went up 14-0 in the fourth quarter, with the Buckeyes punting and running no more than five plays on each of their next two drives. In the aftermath of what was a rematch of last season’s College Football Playoff semifinal round, Ohio State is now No. 1 in the AP Poll, while Texas is No. 7.
Sayin, a former five-star recruit, is in his second season at Ohio State, which comes after he backed up Will Howard in 2024 and transferred from Alabama following the retirement of long-time head coach Nick Saban in January 2024.
Next up for Ohio State is a home game against Grambling State on Saturday, with its first Big Ten game coming on the road against Washington on Sept. 27.
Ryan Day on Ohio State beating Texas, Matt Patricia, Championship odds
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