Michigan fans must love Ohio State's Jim Knowles successor after their front-row seat

This came out of left field. In the wake of Ryan Day promoting Brian Hartline and Keenan Bailey from within to be Ohio State's co-offensive coordinators, he made another questionable hire in replacing Jim Knowles on defense. According to Pete Thamel of ESPN, Ohio State will be hiring the failed former head coach of the Detroit Lions in Matt Patricia to serve as the new defensive coordinator.

Thamel later followed by saying Patricia will be sharing co-defensive coordinator responsibilities with recently promoted secondary coach Tim Walton. Ohio State has also promoted its safeties coach Matt Guerrieri to their pass-game coordinator. There are so many cooks in the kitchen in Columbus that I have no idea how any of this is going to work out. Michigan fans are laughing uncontrollably.

Not to say that Michigan Wolverines fans and Detroit Lions fans completely overlap, but if you root for one on college football Saturdays, you are more likely than not to root for the other on NFL Sundays. For how awful of a head coach Patricia was with the Lions, let's just say that Michigan fans are expecting very little out of their rival's new defensive coordinator. This move was so desperate.

Patricia has not worked in college football since he was a graduate assistant at Syracuse in 2003...

If we are looking for a positive, Patricia was a well-thought-of assistant with the New England Patriots.

Michigan football fans know all too well what Matt Patricia is capable of

Ohio State hiring Patricia comes in the wake of Notre Dame sniping Chris Ash away from them to replace Al Golden who is off to the Cincinnati Bengals. Ash had strong Ohio State ties, but Notre Dame still ended up with him. There was a report that Day tried to poach D.J. Durkin off Hugh Freeze's Auburn staff for some reason. Auburn is not good, Durkin carries baggage, and he still got a big raise!

From a schematical standpoint, I am sure that Patricia will do just fine replacing Knowles. Prior to failing in Detroit, Patricia was a savvy defensive mind, albeit one propped up by Bill Belichick. However, from an optical standpoint, how do you sell this to your fans? We are talking about the same disheveled guy who is obsessed with having a No. 2 pencil nestled behind his ear and backward cap.

Truth be told, the answer lies somewhere in between. Patricia is not going to be as bad as he was leading the Lions, but he also may not look as brilliant as he was when Belichick and company were giving him the answers to the test in New England. The man has a right to reinvent himself, but few places in college football scrutinize everything under the face of the sun quite like Ohio State does.

I hope it works out for him, but this just goes to show that Day is really feeling himself this offseason.