Ohio State’s defensive success is not built around one coach, one system, or one season. It comes from a staff filled with experience, proven development, and a shared understanding of what championship-level defense requires.
The coordinator gets the credit and takes the criticism, which is how it should be. Matt Patricia calls the defense. His name is on the record books after 2025. His extension is the story of the offseason. But coordinators operate within structures, and the structure Ryan Day has built around Patricia on the defensive side of the ball is as responsible for what happened last season as any single scheme call or personnel decision.
Look at the staff Patricia is working with and the argument becomes clear quickly. This isn’t a coordinator surrounded by young assistants building their resumes. It’s a coordinator working alongside coaches who have spent decades producing results at the highest level of the sport, each one a genuine expert at the specific position group he oversees.
Tim Walton and the Secondary
Walton has spent his career developing defensive backs. His tenure at Ohio State has already produced multiple NFL draft picks in the secondary, and in 2025 he helped coordinate a pass defense that finished No. 1 nationally at 129.7 yards allowed per game despite losing nearly every experienced piece from the year before.
The relationship between Walton and Patricia goes back to their time together at Syracuse in the early 2000s, before either had an NFL credential to their name. That shared history means their communication operates at a level of shorthand that takes most coaching staffs years to develop. Patricia can call a coverage concept and trust that Walton’s players have been prepared to execute it. Walton can anticipate Patricia’s adjustments and have his unit ready before the call comes.
In 2026, Walton inherits a secondary that lost Caleb Downs and Davison Igbinosun to the draft but returns Devin Sanchez and Jermaine Mathews Jr. as experienced starters at corner. The cross-training philosophy he and Patricia have built into the secondary means the unit enters fall camp with more positional flexibility than a traditional depth chart suggests.
Larry Johnson and the Defensive Line
There may not be a more respected position coach in college football than Larry Johnson. His history of developing defensive linemen who become NFL draft picks is unmatched, and his ability to build cohesion in a room that loses starters to the draft every spring has been one of the constants in Ohio State’s defensive success across multiple coordinator tenures.
In 2025, Johnson helped develop Kayden McDonald into the Big Ten’s Defensive Lineman of the Year, the first unanimous All-American at defensive tackle from Ohio State in 55 years, and guided the development of Caden Curry into a sixth-round pick after a productive senior season.
Patricia has spoken specifically about his relationship with Johnson, who he has known for years through their shared professional experience. That familiarity matters when a coordinator is asking a position coach to develop players in ways the position coach hasn’t been asked to before. Patricia’s use of interior stunts and edge twists requires defensive linemen who understand the system conceptually, not just technically. Johnson has delivered that.
James Laurinaitis and the Linebackers
Laurinaitis was a three-time All-American linebacker at Ohio State and spent nine seasons in the NFL before transitioning to coaching. The credibility he carries in a linebacker room is immediate and specific. He played the position at the highest level. He understands what the transition from college to professional football actually demands of a linebacker. When he tells a player what it takes to make it at the next level, the player knows the information comes from experience rather than projection.
In 2025, Laurinaitis took a linebacker room that had lost its entire two-deep from the championship defense and produced two first-round picks in Arvell Reese and Sonny Styles. He has spoken consistently this spring about Payton Pierce, who takes over the room in 2026, describing Pierce’s feel in the box and his instincts against blocking schemes with the specific language of a coach who sees a player ready to step forward rather than just fill a vacancy.
The Sum of the Parts
As SI.com noted during the 2025 season, Kenyatta Jackson described the culture Patricia brought to the building in terms that extended beyond scheme: “He don’t just talk to the starters. He talks to everybody.” That kind of environment doesn’t sustain itself without the position coaches reinforcing it at every level of the staff. Johnson, Walton, and Laurinaitis have each built the kind of trust with their respective rooms that allows Patricia’s system to function at the depth it requires.
The structure Day has built around Patricia ─ Walton, Johnson, Laurinaitis ─ is as responsible for the results as any single call or game plan. Every player on Ohio State’s defense enters 2026 being developed by someone who has produced NFL players at that specific position. That’s the standard. That’s what makes the system work when the roster turns over.
