Ohio State Defensive Stars Give Matt Patricia a Draft Night He Will Never Forget

For Matt Patricia, draft night has usually meant long hours, quick decisions, and moving on to the next name on the board. This time, it slowed down.

Speaking on Good Morning Football, the Ohio State Buckeyes football defensive coordinator described a night that felt different from anything he had experienced before, not because of strategy or roster building, but because he got to simply watch his players enjoy the moment.

“Man, what an unbelievable experience,” Patricia said. “To see the joy, the excitement of the families, the relief from the kids…I’ve never been around anything like that. That was so special for me.”

Ohio State gave him plenty to take in. The Buckeyes became the first program in nearly 60 years to have four players selected within the first 11 picks, and three of them came from Patricia’s defense. It was the kind of stretch that turns a strong unit into something bigger, something people around the country start talking about a little differently.

Patricia made sure to shift the focus back where he believes it belongs.

“I give all the credit to those guys,” he said. “They’re the ones that played. They went out on the field and did everything to put themselves in this position.”

Even with that, being in the green room gave him a perspective he never really had before. In the NFL, those calls come through a headset. You hear the reaction, maybe a quick thank you, and then it’s on to the next pick.

“We went, Carnell got drafted first, so everyone kind of went over to his area,” Patricia said. “Then you look over and now Arvell’s on the phone. It was just watching everybody grab the phone, jump on…it was wild.”

There wasn’t much time to process one moment before the next one started. Different corner of the room, another phone ringing, another family reacting. It kept building, and Patricia was right in the middle of it.

But once the night passed, the reality he knows so well came back into focus.

“The biggest adjustment…you walk into a building where guys have been there five, six, seven years,” he said. “They know their routine, the playbook, how they recover. There’s a lot to figure out as a rookie.”

That’s where Ohio State’s approach comes in. Under Ryan Day, the program has leaned into habits that carry over, not just Saturdays in the fall, but what players will need when football becomes their job.

“It is iron sharpens iron every single day,” Patricia said. “That professional mindset…I think they’ll carry that with them.”

And if there was any doubt about that, Patricia said he didn’t have to wait long to see it. Not long after the draft, several of those players were already back around the facility, going through playbooks and film like nothing had changed, just a new logo on the helmet.

Names like Sonny Styles, Caleb Downs, Arvell Reese, and Kayden McDonald are moving on, but the routine looks familiar.

That’s probably the clearest takeaway from the night. The celebration matters. The moment matters. But what comes after is where everything really starts.

And from what Patricia saw up close, those guys are already on it.

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