Big Ten Football

Ohio State is reportedly interested in a former NFL head coach for its vacant defensive coordinator position.

Per CBS Sports' Matt Zenitz, Matt Patricia met with the Buckeyes about their defensive coordinator opening in Columbus on Monday. Patricia, who coached the Detroit Lions from 2018 to 2020, last worked with the Philadelphia Eagles as a senior defensive assistant in 2023.

Patricia got his coaching start in the collegiate ranks but has only held NFL jobs since 2004. He was with the New England Patriots from 2004 to 2017, serving in various roles including defensive coordinator for six years.

His Lions tenure was mostly unsuccessful as he was fired in 2020 after failing to reach the playoffs in each of his first two seasons at the helm. After his stint in Detroit, he returned to the Patriots for two seasons before joining the Eagles for one season in 2023.

Ohio State is looking for a replacement for Jim Knowles, who was the Buckeyes' defensive coordinator from 2022 to last season. Fresh off a championship with Ohio State, Knowles left the program in January to become Penn State's defensive coordinator.

The three-year deal pays Knowles an average of $3.1 million per season, making him the highest-paid defensive coordinator in college football.

Replacing Knowles will be a tall task after he led Ohio State to having one of the best defenses in college football in 2024. The Buckeyes gave up just 254.6 yards per game, which was the best mark in the FBS last season. Their 12.9 points per game were also the fewest in the nation in 2024.

While Patricia has little experience at the collegiate level, he spent most of his career working under legendary coach Bill Belichick, who will coach North Carolina this season. Whether the Buckeyes give Patricia the chance to follow in the footsteps of Belichick remains to be seen.

HEIGHT: 6'1"

WEIGHT: 186

HAND: 8⅞"

ARM: 30⅜"

WINGSPAN: 72¾"

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POSITIVES

— Locates and exploits soft spots within zone coverage.

— Quick route runner and a natural separator.

— Short-area burst/acceleration at the top of his route.

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NEGATIVES

— Does not possess top-end speed to be a consistent vertical threat.

— Thin, wiry frame and lacks desired play strength for a perimeter receiver.

— Physical coverage disrupts timing and pushes him off the route path.

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NOTES

— Born March 15, 2003

— 3-Star recruit in 2021 class, per 247Sports

— 2024: First-Team All-Big 10; Biletnikoff Semifinalist; Team captain;

— 2023: Third-Team All-Big Ten

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OVERALL

Tai Felton is a plus-level route runner with good timing to hit his landmarks.

Felton wins with short-area quickness and footwork. He can shake defenders with hesitation maneuvers and the rocket step technique. Felton separates well in the short and intermediate portions of the field. Good push on the vertical plane to create opportunities to separate on in/out-breaking routes. His cuts at the breaking point have good suddenness and sharpness to create natural separation. Separating from coverage is his best skill set and he does it well.

Felton's coverage recognition is a strong part of his process. He has good zone recognition and can work inside the soft spots of the coverage. On the outside, he is effective on slants, daggers, quick hitches, and comeback routes. With the ball, Felton has a good motor to take on contact and fight for extra yards—doesn't go down without a fight.

However, play strength is a missing part of his game. Felton struggles to counter physical/handsy defenders. Both inside the contact window and during his route stems—will be knocked off his path easier than I'd like. Not for the lack of trying, Felton does not reel in contested catches at a high rate. His lack of strength and a plus wingspan show up. Felton's short-area burst is fine but top-end speed will not overwhelm defenders. Defensive backs are consistently stride for stride with him down the field if they do not lose leverage quickly at the line of scrimmage. Felton's frame appears wiry on tape, combined with the lack of play strength, which can lead to him playing mostly in the slot in the NFL.

In conclusion, Tai Felton projects as a slot/movement Z receiver with quick route runner and separation abilities. If paired with a true number-one receiver, he can find success on the lesser defenders on the opposing defense. He is an adequate NFL wide receiver with a solid ceiling to buy into.

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GRADE: 6.8 (Potential Role Player—Fourth Round)

OVERALL RANK: 129

POSITION RANK: WR16

PRO COMPARISON: Shades of Jalen McMillan

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Written by B/R NFL Scout Dame Parson

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Prospect workout numbers, measurables (40-yard dash, hand size, etc.) and 2024 statistics will be added at a later date.

HEIGHT: 6'1"

WEIGHT: 249

HAND: 9⅝"

ARM: 31⅞”

WINGSPAN: 79"

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POSITIVES

— Impressive production as a pass-rusher with 30 career sacks.

— Good get-off and burst off the line of scrimmage, can win with speed around the edge.

— Sets up his pass rush moves well by stemming and using euro-steps. Also has the quickness to change the angle on offensive tackles, going from inside to outside leverage in a hurry or vice versa.

— Has a solid rip move to win around the edge and a decent inside cross-chop.

— Physical and has natural leverage at the point of attack to set the edge and get off blocks from tight ends.

— High motor player who can get coverage sacks and factor into gang tackles down the field.

— Comfortable dropping in coverage.

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NEGATIVES

— Lacks size and length for an NFL edge defender.

— Offensive linemen who can absorb contact or play with good leverage can widen him in the running game due to sub-par size and lower body strength.

— Short arms limit his extension and ability to disengage from offensive tackles.

— Lacks the mass and strength to effectively turn speed to power as a pass rusher.

— Below-average accuracy with his hands and chops when working pass-rush moves, will often miss and allow offensive linemen to get into his body.

— Questionable bend, ankles look stiff to turn tight corners at the top of the rush.

— Struggles to break down in the backfield as a pass-rusher, comes in too hot and will lose contain against athletic quarterbacks.

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NOTES

— Born Apr. 26, 2003

— A 3-star recruit in the 2021 class, per 247Sports

— Injuries: 2024 (Undisclosed, missed 1 game)

— Transferred from Coast Carolina ahead of the 2023 season

— 2024: Second-Team All-Big Ten

— 2023: Honorable Mention All-Big Ten

— 2022: Second-Team All-Sun Belt

— 2021: First-Team All-Sun Belt, Freshman All-American, Set school record with 12.5 sacks

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OVERALL

Josaiah Stewart has been a productive pass rusher throughout his college career. As a true freshman at Coastal Carolina, he burst onto the scene with 12.5 sacks. Since then, he's transferred to Michigan and proven to be a solid situational rusher prospect.

Stewart has an impressive get-off to win with speed around the edge and takes advantage of offensive tackles with slow feet. He also sets up his pass-rush moves well by stemming to the inside and using his quickness and/or a euro-step to win on the inside or outside with a rip or cross chop moves.

However, Stewart isn't a technician with his hands, often missing and failing to "defeat the hands and defeat the man." Especially against offensive linemen with good length that can allow offensive tackles to get into his body and stop his moves. Also, he doesn't have poor bend but does lack some ankle flexion to turn a tight corner at the top of the rush.

As a run defender, the Michigan product's lack of size and lower body strength are issues. He's physically strong enough to be effective against tight ends but has a hard time setting the edge versus offensive tackles and pullers. That could make him more of a third-down pass-rusher at the next level.

Overall, Stewart's combination of sub-par size and technical flaws as a pass rusher could lead to varying opinions about his ceiling from NFL clubs. But his production is hard to argue with and he has enough traits to potentially become a sub-package rusher as a standup outside linebacker.

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GRADE: 6.6 (Potential Role Player — 4th Round)

OVERALL RANK: 160

POSITION RANK: EDGE18

PRO COMPARISON: Shades of Nik Bonitto but shorter

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Written by B/R NFL Scout Matt Holder

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Prospect workout numbers, measurables (40-yard dash, hand size, etc.) and 2024 statistics will be added at a later date.

To the victors go the spoils, and Ohio State head football coach Ryan Day is reportedly benefiting greatly from the Buckeyes' College Football Playoff national championship.

ESPN's Pete Thamel reported Thursday that Day and Ohio State agreed to a new seven-year contract to keep him with the team through the 2031 campaign. The agreement added three years onto his contract that was already in place and will pay him an average of $12.5 million per season.

Landing a contract extension like this is the latest step in an incredible turnaround for Day over the course of the last two months.

After all, November's shocking home loss to a Michigan team that was so mediocre it went to the ReliaQuest Bowl felt like a possible breaking point for Day's tenure at Ohio State. It was his fourth straight loss to the school's hated archrival, and this one was particularly concerning since the offense managed 10 points against a team it was expected to blow out.

Criticism from the Buckeye fanbase reached an all-time high, and some national media members even said it was time for Ohio State to move on from its head coach.

While Day's overall record wasn't in question, the fact that Ohio State hadn't beaten Michigan since 2019 or won the Big Ten since 2020 just wasn't good enough for the high standards in place. It also fell short of a national title during CFP appearances in the 2019, 2020 and 2022 seasons.

And then everything changed.

Perhaps the Michigan loss woke the Buckeyes up because they steamrolled their way through the inaugural 12-team CFP.

First came a 42-17 destruction of the SEC's Tennessee in a game where Day may have realistically been coaching for his job since it was the first one after the loss to the Wolverines. Then came a 41-21 win over No. 1 Oregon in the Rose Bowl in a game that was 34-0 in the second quarter and not even as close as the final score indicated.

The Scarlet and Gray then went into Dallas and defeated the SEC's Texas Longhorns by 14 before an 11-point win over Notre Dame in the title game. All four wins came by double digits, and the champions trailed for fewer than seven total minutes during the course of the entire playoff.

While Ohio State fans undoubtedly want him to turn things around against Michigan, Day has now earned the benefit of the doubt after leading the program to the sport's mountaintop.

He also said during an appearance on The Steam Room podcast with Ernie Johnson and Charles Barkley, "Woody Hayes is the last (coach) to win multiple national championships at Ohio State. That's something I've now set for myself. To be the next head coach to win multiple national championships at Ohio State. There's still a lot more to be done."

It's quite the goal, but he now has the long-term stability to pursue it following this contract extension.

Ohio State reportedly didn't have to look far for its next offensive coordinator.

Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports and 247Sports reported Wednesday that the reigning national champions plan to promote co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach Brian Hartline to the full-time O.C. position.

This comes after former O.C. Chip Kelly departed to fill the same role with the Las Vegas Raiders in the NFL.

That the Buckeyes would promote Hartline comes as no surprise and further guarantees he will remain with his alma mater after he previously interviewed for head-coaching jobs elsewhere.

After all, he is widely considered one of—if not the—best wide receivers coaches and recruiters in the sport who has helped maintain the program's powerhouse status during his eight seasons on the staff.

Hartline has recruited and worked with a long list of star wide receivers, including Jeremiah Smith, Emeka Egbuka, Marvin Harrison Jr., Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson, among others.

He also played at Ohio State before an NFL career that included back-to-back seasons of more than 1,000 receiving yards with the Miami Dolphins in 2012 and 2013.

Ohio State certainly didn't want to risk losing Hartline without a promotion after Kelly left, and now he will have the opportunity to further prove himself in a different role.

However, it remains to be seen if Hartline is given full play-calling capabilities in the offense even after this promotion.

After all, head coach Ryan Day has an offensive background and, as Pete Nakos of On3 pointed out, took over play-calling in 2023 after O.C. Kevin Wilson left for Tulsa. Day called plays that season even though Hartline held the official O.C. role.

Day then took a different approach in 2024 and went out and hired Kelly as a high-profile outside addition. In doing so, the head coach took more of a step back from consistent play-calling and played the CEO and game-management role that many head coaches do.

It was hard to argue with the results, as the Buckeyes went on to win the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff national championship. They were barely even threatened in their four CFP games, winning each of them by double digits and trailing for a grand total of fewer than seven minutes across the four contests.

Perhaps Day will give Hartline more play-calling responsibilities this time around, especially after such a strategy with Kelly resulted in Ohio State winning the national title.

If he does, the new O.C. will immediately be put to the test seeing how the Scarlet and Gray open the 2025 campaign with a home game against Texas.

Nebraska's spring game will likely be canceled moving forward due to transfer portal concerns, according to head coach Matt Rhule.

"The word 'tampering' doesn't exist anymore," Rhule said Saturday, per the Associated Press (h/t ESPN). "It's just an absolute free open common market. I don't necessarily want to open up to the outside world and have people watch our guys and say, 'He looks like a pretty good player. Let's go get him.'"

In the week following the Cornhuskers' 2024 spring game, six players entered the portal (via ESPN).

Nebraska's spring game has always drawn one of the largest crowds in the country. Despite coming off a 5-7 season in 2023, 60,452 fans showed up to Memorial Stadium and watched the Huskers' 2024 spring game.

While injuries in the contest are also a concern, Rhule confirmed that he's primarily focused on potentially exposing his players to other schools.

"I dealt with a lot of people offering our players a lot of opportunities after that," Rhule said, via ESPN. "So you go out and bring in a bunch of new players and showcase them for all the other schools to watch? Doesn't make a lot of sense to me."

Nebraska athletic director Troy Dannen confirmed that the school will still have an event to celebrate the players and prepare for the fall season on April 26, but it won't have the format of a traditional game.

"I am not going to call it a spring game," Dannen said during his radio show on Husker Sports Network (h/t On3.com's Sean Callahan). "And do not call it a spring game because I do not expect it to be a game. I don't know what it's going to be just yet. Really, that's going to be Matt [Rhule's] call."

"I expect something that's not going to be televised, but something that will be a celebration of our athletes and get to see some skills and see what they got, and go from there," he added.

The Huskers are coming off a 2024 campaign in which they finished with a 7-5 record and defeated Boston College in the Pinstripe Bowl.

They started the year by winning five of their first six games, but they faltered down the stretch of the season. Before Nebraska's bowl victory, the team had dropped five of its prior six contests.

As the Huskers attempt to take another step forward in 2025, Rhule doesn't want to risk other schools trying to land his players in the transfer portal following another spring game.

The University of Michigan sent a 137-page document to the NCAA in response to the organization's notice of allegations accusing the program of 11 violations in response to a scouting and sign-stealing scheme led by ex-Wolverine staffer Connor Stalions.

Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger obtained a portion of the document and broke the news, noting in particular that the school has no plans to enter a "negotiated resolution" with the NCAA. In addition, Michigan defended ex-head coach Jim Harbaugh, current head coach Sherrone Moore, other Michigan staffers and even Stalions on the matter.

Per Dellenger:

"In the 137-page document — a portion of which Yahoo Sports obtained — Michigan makes clear that it will not enter into a negotiated resolution with the NCAA over the alleged wrongdoing, vigorously defending its former head coach, current head coach, several staff members and even Stalions, the low-level assistant who orchestrated one of the most elaborate sign-stealing systems in college football history on the way to the school winning the 2023 national championship. The school purports that the sign-stealing system offered 'minimal relevance to competition,' was not credibly proven by NCAA investigators and should be treated as a minor violation."

Six of the NCAA's 11 violations are deemed to be a Level I variety, categorized as a "severe breach of conduct."

Stalions has previously denied stealing signs from future Michigan opponents by in-person scouting (which is illegal) when he interviewed with the NCAA last Apil.

ESPN's Adam Rittenberg and Mark Schlabach reported that video clips from Stalions' interview with the NCAA appear in the Netflix documentary Sign Stealer.

Stalions also said he didn't "recall directing anyone to go to a game" as well when asked if he had done that. He no longer works for Michigan after resigning from his football analyst position in November 2023. The month before, Michigan suspended Stalions amid the NCAA's investigation into the program.

ESPN's Dan Murphy and Pete Thamel broke news on NCAA's notice of allegation on Aug. 4. The organization stated Stalions was the ringleader of a scheme that led to Michigan illegally scouting at least 13 future opponents for a total of 58 different times from 2021-2023.

Harbaugh, now the Los Angeles Chargers head coach, has fiercely denied knowing about any scheme.

"Never lie. Never cheat. Never steal. I was raised on that lesson," Harbaugh told reporters in at the team's training camp on Aug. 5. "I have raised my family on that lesson. I have preached that lesson to the teams that I've coached.

"No one's perfect. If you stumble, you apologize and you make it right. Today, I do not apologize. I did not participate, was not aware nor complicit in those said allegations. So for me, it's back to work and attacking with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind."

The NCAA issued a four-year show-cause order and a one-year suspension last August in response to its investigation. Harbaugh was notably suspended six games in 2023, three for recruiting violations (self-imposed by the school) during the COVID-19 dead period and three more by the Big Ten in response to the aforementioned scheme.

Regarding Harbaugh, Michigan says the NCAA's charge against him is "without merit."

"The NCAA alleges that Harbaugh failed to cooperate between Oct. 20 and Jan. 24, 2024 when he did not produce text and telephone records from his personal cell prior to his departure from the school," Dellenger wrote.

"Imaging of Harbaugh's phones — his personal and work — were part of a large initial collection of data that included imaging of phones and other devices from 10 individuals, the school says, including two computers assigned to Stalions and an external hard drive owned by Stalions.

"However, there were 'legitimate concerns' that the data being imaged contained personal and sensitive information and/or attorney-client communications, so images were withheld. The NCAA did not receive Harbaugh's images by the deadline and deemed him to have failed to comply."

Moore, now Michigan's head coach, was a co-offensive coordinator in 2021 and 2022 and the team's offensive coordinator in 2023. He was also the team's interim head coach for four games for Harbaugh in 2023. Moore was also suspended for a game during the 2023 season due to the aforementioned recruiting violations.

Moore is notably accused of deleting 52 text messages with Stalions.

Michigan’s response details the 52 texts Sherrone Moore deleted between he & Stalions on the day @YahooSports unearthed the story in Oct 2023.

While many are related to sign-stealing, none are specifically about the illegal in-person scouting scheme.https://t.co/RsDlAnBdKz pic.twitter.com/QBoxMoxFWA

— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) January 28, 2025

Dellenger spoke more on the matter.

"In its response, Michigan and Moore acknowledge the deleted messages. However, the school contends that the texts were 'innocuous and not material to the investigation' and that Moore cooperated fully with the investigation, even turning over his phone for imaging — a move that revealed the previously deleted messages.

"The coach told school officials that he deleted the messages in anger and frustration shortly after the bombshell news story broke, suggesting that he did not want one person, Stalions, to receive credit for 'all the work that' coaches and players put into the championship run."

Generally speaking, in the document obtained by Dellenger, Michigan claims many of the allegations lack "merit or credible evidence." However, the school does admit in-person scouting took place. Dellenger provided more information.

"In its response, the school acknowledges that some impermissible in-person scouting appears to have occurred — 'though less than the (NCAA) claims'— and that some recruiting violations occurred, as well. All of the wrongdoing, it says, will be addressed in the Committee on Infractions hearing and it will advise committee members of self-imposed penalties."

Ultimately, Michigan is digging its heels in and refusing to back down a year off the team's 15-0 national championship season. Now the fight really begins between Michigan and the NCAA, which won't go away any time soon.