Perhaps no decision is more important to the success of Ryan Day’s tenure at Ohio State than his decision to hire Greg Mattison as his co-defensive coordinator and defensive play caller. Day is an offensive coach. He likely will be significantly involved with the offensive game plan and play calling. This means that Mattison will effectively be “head coach” of the defense, with significant autonomy in operating that side of the football. So Day’s success or failure may greatly depend on Mattison’s success or failure.

What makes the choice all the more intriguing is that Mattison has not been a defensive coordinator since 2014. Although Mattison has a long track record as a play caller, there have been significant schematic changes across college football in the last five years – namely the ever-expanding use of spread formations and defensive responses to those concepts. And it is unclear what Mattison will add to his playbook from his time with Michigan defensive coordinator Don Brown. So it is helpful to look at Mattison’s background to get a sense of where he will likely take the Ohio State defense – as well as areas that remain to be determined. Today I will examine the fronts Mattison has used. In my next column I will analyze what we might expect from the Buckeyes’ coverage schemes.

Throughout his career, Mattison has primarily focused on the front seven and run defense. Broadly speaking, Mattison’s philosophy has been to stop the run on first and second down, before using a variety of fronts and zone blitz packages on third.

Mattison’s main staple for doing so is the 4-3 under front to the field.