As the Patriots prepare for a Super Bowl showdown with the defending champion Seahawks, many pundits have pointed to the resurgence of the team’s defense as the difference between this year’s Patriots and the Patriots who came up short in 2008 and 2012.

Darrelle Revis and Brandon Browner have stabilized the secondary. Vince Wilfork is healthy in the middle of the defensive line. Jamie Collins and Dont’a Hightower are a fantastic duo at linebacker.

One man who isn’t getting the headlines is the chess master himself, Matt Patricia. The unassuming defensive coordinator is the man calling the plays on defense, and his rise through the coaching ranks has not been surprising to those who have played for him.


“Matt Patricia has every bit as much to do with the Patriots defensive success as anyone in Foxboro,’’ former Patriots linebacker Matt Chatham wrote for Football by Football. “What plays teams run with their players, how well they’re prepared to execute those plays, and when specifically to call them…that’s what it’s all about. Your puppet won’t work without a great puppeteer.’’

“It’s just preparing his players to go out and compete, that’s what he does really well,’’ said Amherst College football coach E.J. Mills. “You see the Patriots do that week in and week out.’’

It was Mills who gave Patricia his start in coaching, hiring him in a low-level position coaching the defensive line in 1999. Don Faulstick, Mills’ offensive coordinator at the time, had recommended Patricia from coaching him in college. Patricia played on the offensive line and majored in aeronautical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute from 1992 to 1996.

“Matty was legitimately a rocket scientist,’’ Mills said. “He was an engineer, working at a firm, and he really wanted to get into coaching.’’

At Super Bowl Media Day, Patricia described his decision to go into coaching.

“Once you’re in love with this game and you love this game, I don’t think it ever leaves you,’’ Patricia said. “I do remember when I was doing engineering, it was right at the start of the fall of that football season and just the fresh cut grass, the smell of the grass, the smell of the end of summer and that whole sensation of football season hit me. And I was just like, ‘I’ve got to get out there.’ That was really one of those points where it was pretty definitive for me and that’s just really what I wanted to do.’’


“He was special, even back then. I knew he had a great future, let’s put it that way,’’ Mills said, referencing how Patricia was ahead of his time in utilizing technology as a coach. “I just remember he did a PowerPoint for me, and I probably didn’t even know what the hell a PowerPoint was, and he was just really advanced in using the technology that we had in our office.’’

Patricia had an opportunity to become the offensive line coach and make a full time salary at St. Lawrence, but opted instead to take a graduate assistant role at Syracuse University in 2001.

“I was like, ‘Matty, you’re nuts not to take that [St. Lawrence job].’ And he said, ‘you know what? I really want to go Division 1.’ So he took a GA spot at Syracuse, which wasn’t even on the field, it was as a GA,’’ Mills recalls. “He was aiming high all along.’’

At Syracuse, Patricia spent 3 seasons breaking down hours and hours of tape every day, expanding his football knowledge exponentially. In 2004, he jumped to the NFL and became and offensive coaching assistant with the Patriots.

“When he went to the Patriots, Bill Belichick was a pencil and paper guy,’’ Mills said. “And Matty basically said, ‘This isn’t smart. We could be doing this more efficiently.’ And so he just started doing things on the computer, and Bill was like, ‘Woah what the hell is that?’ And then he realized that the reports that he could produce were really impressive. And so that’s how I think he caught coach Belichick’s eye.’’


Patricia was named assistant offensive line coach of the Patriots in 2005, and in 2006 he flipped over to defense (many Patriots assistants switch sides of the ball at some point) and began coaching the linebackers. It was then that Patricia began to distinguish himself with his work ethic and his attention to detail.

“The beauty of Matt is when he became the linebacker coach, and he’s coaching Tedy Bruschi, coaching Mike Vrabel, this is a backup guard at the Division 3 football level,’’ said Mills. “So he doesn’t necessarily have all of the answers, but he’s going to work so hard to get the information that allows those guys to play more efficiently.’’

“As a coach, I think my biggest thing is I’m just trying to make sure our guys are prepared to the best of their ability so they can go out and play the game. That’s probably what worries me or keeps me up the most,’’ Patricia told Mark Daniels of the Providence Journal in June. “I don’t want them to not have all the information to help them win.’’

Patricia switched to safeties coach in 2011 and was officially named defensive coordinator prior to the 2012 season. As Belichick’s trust in Patricia has grown, the latter has had more and more input on weekly game plans. Chatham recalls from playing under Patricia that his coach would get energized by high pressure situations or heavy workloads.

“It’s just exhaustive research,’’ Mills said. “There’s no stone unturned. So I think he was trained by the whole Patriot Way.’’

played a little Matt Patricia word association w some #patriots defensive players today. best answer? Dont'a Hightower: "Italian mob boss" — shalise manza young (@shalisemyoung) January 27, 2015

more Matty P word assn: Ninkovich - relentless; Chandler Jones - wisdom & Syracuse; McCourty - genius; LB coach Pat Graham - friend & mentor — shalise manza young (@shalisemyoung) January 27, 2015

Yes, Patricia is well schooled on not saying anything of value to the media, although firsthand accounts from Mills and Chatham that Patricia does have a personality and isn’t just a bearded, genius robot Belichick built to help mitigate the workload. But Patricia is also like Belichick in his ability to envision more effective ways to utilize players that were cast off by less flexible teams.

Akeem Ayers is proof of that this season. A 3-year starter for the lowly Titans, Ayers was traded to the Patriots for virtually nothing midseason and has been more effective with a more focused (albeit lesser) role in the Patriots scheme.

“I did a lot of different things from pretty much every position on the defensive front,’’ Ayers said of his time in Tennessee. “I’m happy I’m here. I feel like I’m in a better position.’’

“I think it comes down to doing your job and being able to do it consistently,’’ said Rob Ninkovich, another example of a player who has blossomed under the tutelage of Belichick and Patricia. “You have to be consistent in this league or else you can’t be out there.’’

It sounds like Ninkovich is reading that response out of a textbook, but Patricia truly has instilled a hunger in the players he coaches to prove themselves every day. You don’t jump from a low-level job at Amherst College to defensive coordinator in the Super Bowl by taking days off.

“I think it’s like any job. Every day you’re on an interview. I’m still on my interview,’’ Patricia told Daniels. “I think every day I’m there trying to show that you belong. Certainly from day one, everyone that’s new that comes in, we’re trying really hard to stay.’’

Mills is hoping the Patriots pull off the win on Sunday and expects his former assistant to receive head coaching interest in the near future. The road to the top has been paved, but Patricia remains grounded.

“Did I see something special in Matt? Without a doubt,’’ Mills said. “The best part about Matt is he’s just the most real, loyal, juts regular guy you’ve ever met. We text still, he never forgot where he came from.’’

Chatham also praised Patricia as “just a dude’’ and “a normal guy.’’ He’s almost always the most intelligent guy in the room, but perhaps Patricia relishes the challenge that football provides.

“Yes, he’s smart, he’s got a great acumen, he gets football,’’ said Mills. “But I think a lot of it is he’s just such a good person, and that’s why those guys play so hard for him and he commands the respect that he does in an NFL locker room and meeting room.’’

He could have been a rocket scientist. Instead, Matt Patricia wants to win Super Bowls.

Stopping Seattle’s offense on Sunday won’t be easy. But it won’t be rocket science either.