Football
- Title:
- Safeties Coach / Pass Game Coordinator
Matt Guerrieri
(Pronounced: gurr-AIR-ee)
Pass Game Coordinator / Safeties Coach
Ohio State Football
Matt Guerrieri was hired as the program’s new safeties coach by head coach Ryan Day in February 2024 and promoted to pass game coordinator in February of 2025.
Guerrieri's two seasons leading the Buckeyes' safeties has been both highly successful and noteworthy. In 2024, his unit was one of the backbones of Ohio State's No. 1-ranked overall defense, a group that helped Ohio State win the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff National Championship. In 2025, Ohio State was once against No. 1 nationally in total defense, No. 1 against the pass and also No. 1 in scoring defense. Caleb Downs was a unanimous All-American for the second year in a row and the Big Ten's Defensive Back of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. Also the 2025 Jim Thorpe Award and Lott IMPACT Award winner, Downs is projected to be the first defensive back taken in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Another of Guerrieri's key contriburos in the secondary in 2024 was Lathan Ransom, who went on to be a fourth round draft choice of the Carolina Panthers in 2025. He played in 16 games as a rookie for the Panthers.
Guerrieri, the co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach at Indiana in 2023, has Ohio and Ohio State ties. He is from Willoughby Hills, Ohio and is a graduate of Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin High School, and he spent the 2022 season in Columbus as Ohio State’s senior advisor and analyst on defense. The Buckeyes have made the College Football Playoffs in each of Guerrieri's three years on staff (2022, 2024, 2025).
Guerrieri has extensive experience – nine years – coaching safeties. He was a graduate assistant for three seasons at Duke before being named safeties coach prior to the 2015 season. He coached safeties for the Blue Devils from 2015-21 and then became the team’s co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach for the next four seasons (2018-21).
While at Duke, Guerrieri was one of three finalists for the 2020 American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Assistant Coach of the Year award, a nominee for the 2018 Broyles Award, and one of 247Sports’ Top 30 Coaches Under 30 in both 2018 and 2019. He mentored All-American Jeremy Cash and five additional all-conference honorees. Cash, the 2015 ACC Defensive Player of the Year, was also a finalist for the Nagurski Trophy, Thorpe Award and the Lott IMPACT Trophy.
Guerrieri also coached at Duke Michael Carter II, a fifth-round NFL Draft pick who has played in 47 games and started 20 times the past three seasons for the New York Jets.
Before joining the Blue Devils, Guerrieri spent the 2011 season as a defensive graduate assistant at Lenoir-Rhyne University, where he helped coach the secondary and the outside linebackers.
Guerrieri was a three-year letterman at Davidson College and a starting safety for the Wildcats. He was a senior captain and a three-time All-Pioneer Football League honor roll selection. He graduated from Davidson in 2011 with a degree in sociology. He earned his master's degree in Christian studies from Duke in 2014.
Guerrieri is married to the former Alex Thompson, from Asheville, N.C. The couple has two young sons, James and Max.
Matt Guerrieri Quick Facts
Hometown: Willoughby Hills, Ohio
High School: Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin
Alma Mater: Davidson
Degree: Sociology, 2011
Year in Coaching: 15th (Third year at Ohio State)
Family: Wife, Alex; sons James and Max
Matt Guerrieri Coaching Assignments
2025 Co-Defensive Coordinator / Safeties........................... Ohio State
2024 Safeties...................................................................... Ohio State
2023 Co-Defensive Coordinator / Safeties........................... Indiana
2022 Senior Analyst, Defense............................................. Ohio State
2018-21 Co-Defensive Coordinator / Safeties........................... Duke
2015-17 Safeties...................................................................... Duke
2012-14 Graduate Assistant..................................................... Duke
2011 Graduate Assistant..................................................... Lenoir-Rhyne
