If Texas is going to improve on that 341-yard, 14-point effort in next week’s season opener against the Buckeyes, it will have to do so against a defense with a new coordinator. Matt Patricia was hired in February to replace Jim Knowles, who moved over to Penn State.
Patricia has never been a defensive coordinator at the collegiate level, and he was last tied to a college program in 2003 when he was a graduate assistant at Syracuse. But Patricia certainly isn’t a novice, having spent much of the past 20 years in the NFL. He won two Super Bowl titles as the New England Patriot’s defensive coordinator and he was the head coach of the Detroit Lions from 2018-20.
When asked about preparing for a defensive coordinator with NFL ties this week, Sarkisian said it reminded him of the 2005 season. Back then, Sarkisian was the new quarterbacks coach for a USC team that opened its season against Hawaii. A few months earlier, Hawaii had tabbed former NFL head coach Jerry Glanville to be its next defensive coordinator.
“I was looking at Atlanta Falcons film of Deion Sanders playing man coverage,” Sarkisian said.
Glanville had been out of coaching since the 1993 season, and Sarkisian’s Trojans welcomed him back to the sport with a 518-yard outburst in a 63-17 win. Reigning Heisman Trophy winner Matt Leinart threw for 332 yards and three touchdowns in the trouncing.
Twenty years later, Sarkisian said that film of Patricia’s NFL defenses with New England, Detroit and Philadelphia would be studied. Sarkisian joked that “I’ve got enough time on my hands.” After all, Ohio State will provide Texas with a much-tougher test than Hawaii did against USC.
Ohio State allowed 12.9 points and 254.6 yards per game last season, and both of those marks led the 133 Football Bowl Subdivision-level schools. En route to winning a national title, Ohio State held Texas to 14 points in the national semifinals. Eight members of the Ohio State defense were selected in the 2025 NFL Draft, but All-American safety Caleb Downs is among the defensive starters.
“Really, (Patricia’s) the only new face in that room,” Sarkisian said. “Their whole defensive staff remained the same, and they had a very good defense a year ago, and a lot of continuity on that defensive staff. It’s a new coordinator, it’s a new play-caller, and so you’re going to have to execute at a high level and probably going to have to make some in-game adjustments as we go.”
Sarkisian has some experience with coaching against a Patricia-coordinated defense. While Sarkisian was its offensive coordinator in 2017, the Atlanta Falcons were held scoreless over the first 55 minutes of a 23-7 loss to New England.
“I need to talk to them,” Manning said. “But (Patricia’s) been around, and he’s been around a lot of ball, a lot of good ball. It’s going to be a fun one.”