Ryan Day Names One of the 'Brightest Minds' in College Football at National Championship Celebration

 

Grant Bricker

Jan 26, 2025 3:49 PM EST

 

Ryan Day and the Ohio State Buckeyes celebrated their 34-23 national championship win against Notre Dame on Sunday at Ohio Stadium. 

While giving his speech, Day shouted out an assistant coach after a remarkable season. Day praised safeties coach Matt Guerrieri, calling the assistant one of the "brightest minds" in college football.

"One of the brightest minds in college football, and I'm telling you, a star in the making," Day said. "Our safeties coach, Matt Guerrieri."

Guerrieri worked with defensive backs like Caleb Downs, Lathan Ransom and Denzel Burke. Downs was a Consensus All-American, Ransom was a semifinalist for the Thorpe Award, and Burke was Third-Team All-Big Ten.

https://x.com/AdamKing10TV/status/1883591554964783197

Downs accounted for 82 total tackles, eight TFLs and two interceptions in 2024. Ransom had 76 total tackles, nine TFLs, one sack and one interception, while Burke had 48 total tackles, three TFLs and two interceptions this season.

Guerrieri has had multiple assistant coaching roles in his career, including stints with Indiana (2023) and Duke (2012-21). Guerrieri was a defensive senior analyst for Ohio State in 2022.

 

Ohio State Buckeyes safeties coach Matt Guerrieri.

Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

 

Ohio State's secondary was one of the best in the country this season. The Buckeyes allowed the third-fewest passing yards per game (167). The only programs that ranked higher than Ohio State in that metric were Washington (116.5) and Iowa State (165.6).

That secondary is one of the reasons the Buckeyes entered the final week of the regular season ranked No. 2 in the country. But Ohio State lost to archrival Michigan for the fourth season in a row, falling 13-10 to the Wolverines. Ohio State then got hot at the right time for the College Football Playoff.

The Buckeyes beat Tennessee (42-17), Oregon (41-21) and Texas (28-14) to reach the national title game.

Unfortunately for Guerrieri, he will lose some top talent in the Ohio State secondary. Ransom and Burke have declared for the 2025 NFL Draft, and Downs has not announced his plans for next season yet. 

 

IU football notebook: What they’re saying about Tayven, Guerrieri starting strong

 

By Seth Tow

September 13, 2023

Photo by Mike Schumann / The Daily Hoosier

 

Even before taking the field on Saturday, this has already been a big week for Indiana football.

At the program’s weekly Monday press conference, head coach Tom Allen announced that redshirt freshman Tayven Jackson will be IU’s starting quarterback going forward. He and redshirt freshman Brendan Sorsby had been battling for the job going back to spring camp, and the competition extended through Indiana’s first two games.

So it will be Jackson leading the Hoosiers out on the field at Lucas Oil Stadium this weekend against Louisville.

Allen, offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Walt Bell, co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach Matt Guerrieri, and several players talked about the quarterback decision and more on Monday. Here are a few key updates and points that came out of the media session.

Guerrieri off to strong start

Indiana’s defense has been impressive in the team’s first two games of the season. The Hoosiers held Ohio State to 23 points, before shutting out Indiana State’s offense (the Sycamores’ lone points came on a defensive touchdown).

IU hasn’t been perfect, but for a defense filled with new faces that had a lot of question marks entering the season, it’s been a promising start to the year.

Co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach Matt Guerrieri deserves credit for the encouraging play by the IU defense. Tom Allen brought him in to the program this offseason and immediately handed him defensive play-calling responsibilities, and so far, so good.

“He’s a serious guy when it comes to game preparation,” linebacker Aaron Casey said. “He wants to make sure everything’s good and it starts with him on the back end, but he also delivers it to the linebackers and D-line as well.”

Allen emphasized he has a lot of trust in Guerrieri, noting his character and coaching ability. He said Gurrieri checked the boxes for several things Allen was looking to add to his defense in the offseason, in terms of scheme.

And, Allen said, Guerrieri has done well with identifying various things during the games and making necessary adjustments.

“It’s been a real good fit so far. I think he’s great on game day. He’s a great communicator. Does a good job — he’s up in the press box with several of our coaches — but making adjustments,” Allen said. “He’s a really good teacher and he has the ability to capture the whole room and make guys feel a part of it as a staff, which is critical in that role.

I have high expectations for our defense, and it all starts up front. But I think he’s doing a good job of taking the skill sets of the guys we’ve added to our team and trying to highlight those, and that’s what we’re going to continue to do.”

 

Matt Guerrieri Named IU's Co-Defensive Coordinator and Safeties Coach

 

February 17, 2023

IU Athletics Release

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana head football coach Tom Allen announced the hiring of Matt Guerrieri (gurr-AIR-ee) as co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach on Friday afternoon.

“Matt fits in perfectly with our culture and aligns with our goals schematically,” Allen said. “He is innovative, energetic, and a tremendous family man. We welcome Matt, his wife, Alex, and their son, James, to IU!” 

Guerrieri spent 2012-21 at Duke, including four years as defensive coordinator, and joined the Ohio State staff in 2022.

“I am excited for the opportunity to join Coach Allen and his staff at IU,” Guerrieri said. “Coach Allen is a great coach and I look forward to working with him. My family and I can’t wait to get to Bloomington!”

Guerrieri has been a part of a College Football Playoff semifinalist, seven bowl teams, two 10-plus win teams, and five eight-plus win teams during his coaching career.

He served as a senior advisor and analyst with the Buckeyes before being named defensive coordinator at Tulsa on Jan. 6, 2023.

With the Blue Devils, Guerrieri was co-defensive coordinator from 2018-21 and safeties coach from 2015-21. He worked as a graduate assistant his first three campaigns.

Guerrieri was one of three finalists for the 2020 American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Assistant Coach of the Year, a nominee for the 2018 Broyles Award, and one of 247Sports Top 30 Coaches Under 30 in 2018 and 2019.

He mentored All-American Jeremy Cash and five additional all-conference honorees. The 2015 ACC Defensive Player of the Year, Cash also was a finalist for both the Nagurski Trophy (best defensive player in the nation) and the Thorpe Award (top defensive back in the nation).

Guerrieri’s 2019 secondary propelled Duke to third in the ACC in pass defense, allowing just 199.0 yards per game, and a top-five finish in pass defense efficiency (123.8). 

The 2017 Blue Devils ranked among the conference leaders in opponent pass completion percentage (2nd), scoring defense (3rd), passing defense (3rd), and total defense (4th). They yielded 25-or-fewer points in 11-of-13 contests.

Duke surrendered 20.23 points per game, the program’s lowest total since 1977.

Guerrieri took part in the inaugural AFCA 30 Under 30 Coaches Leadership Institute in 2015.

Before joining the Blue Devils, Guerrieri spent 2011 as a defensive graduate assistant at Lenoir-Rhyne University, where he helped coach the secondary and the outside linebackers.

A three-year letterman at Davidson College, Guerrieri started at safety for the Wildcats. He was a senior captain and a three-time All-Pioneer Football League Honor Roll selection.

Guerrieri graduated from Davidson in 2011 with a degree in sociology. He earned his master’s degree in Christian studies from Duke in 2014.

Matt is married to the former Alex Thompson and the couple has one son, James.

Allen Hands Defensive Play Calling to Matt Guerrieri

 

February 18, 2023

Written by Sammy Jacobs (@Hoosier_Huddle)

The Indiana Hoosiers will have a new defensive play caller in 2023 as head coach Tom Allen said he will be handing the reins of the defense over to new co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach Matt Guerrieri at his introductory press conference on Saturday morning.

“So excited to have him with us. Going to be a -- the situation is the way that I would like for this to be organized. Really, I want to follow the pattern we used in 2019.” Allen explained. “I'm going to have -- Coach Guerrieri will be calling the defense, much like Coach [Kane] Wommack did. And I will be heavily involved, but he will be the play-caller on game day. That way it will allow me to be a better head football coach to it this team. With everything that we have and the dynamics of college football today, I really feel like that's the best direction to go but had to have the right person for that particular role.”

Allen took over the play calling for the 2022 season as defensive coordinator Chad Wilt adjusted to his first year at the position. The Hoosier defense finished 120th nationally in scoring and 119th in total defense in the 2022 season.

IMAGE: INDIANA UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS

Allen and the Hoosiers want to replicate the success they had in 2019 and 2020 when Allen handed the reins over to then-defensive coordinator Kane Wommack (current head coach at South Alabama).

“I can equate it to what we did in '19, that it's going to be our system and someone that really believes in it. And just from all that time together and then just obviously, you know, you watch people play and the things that they do and there's certain philosophical alignments that you have in, how you attack things, what are your answers in situations, and you have to have that core belief that that's how do you it.” Allen said.

Guerrieri has similar philosophies to Allen and believes he will be able to take IU’s defense to the next level.

His philosophy “aligns directly with Coach Allen's. We've been a base 4-2-5 for a number of years. I've played in numerous different -- I played in the 3-4 defense. I've been in a 4-3 and a 3-3-5 and 4-2-5. I think it goes to from a philosophy standpoint, Coach Allen would say tackling, take-aways, and effort. Those are the three pillars of who we are. That's not going to change from that standpoint.” Guerrieri said on Saturday.

The Hoosiers are set to open spring practice on March 4th culminating in a “Spring Football Event” on Saturday, April 15th.

Highly regarded Matt Guerrieri has agreed to become Tulsa’s defensive coordinator

 

Sources: Kevin Wilson bringing highly regarded Ohio State staffer to run Tulsa defense


Matt Guerrieri had a long run at Duke, reunited in 2022 at Ohio State with Jim Knowles

JOHN BRICE

January 2, 2023

 

Back as a head coach for the first time in six years, Kevin Wilson is working to assemble a strong first staff at Tulsa, and he's got his defensive coordinator in a key move.

Multiple sources tell FootballScoop that Matt Guerrieri has agreed to become Wilson's first defensive coordinator for the Golden Hurricane.

It's a quick return to play-calling duties for Guerrieri, who spent the 2022 season as a senior defensive analyst for Jim Knowles's Ohio State defense after Guerrieri's final four years at Duke saw him as the Blue Devils' co-defensive coordinator.

An Ohio native who starred in college at Football Championship Subdivision program Davidson, Guerrieri turned in elite work at Duke, where he was an AFCA Assistant Coach of the Year finalist for his work with the Blue Devils' defense in 2020.

Wilson and Guerrieri were colleagues the past year at Ohio State, and sources told FootballScoop that Guerrieri had made an immediate impression on Wilson -- and the entire Buckeyes' staff.

Tulsa parted with Philip Montgomery following a 5-7 2022 season. Wilson previously served as head coach six seasons at Indiana University, where Wilson gradually carved a competitive program that made back-to-back postseason appearances in Wilson's final two seasons at the helm.

Wilson is set to be greeted with a daunting non-conference schedule in 2023; the Golden Hurricane open with FCS-program Arkansas-Pine Bluff and also has a September home date against soon-to-be-SEC-resident Oklahoma, as well as non-conference road trips to Washington and Northern Illinois all within the season's first month.