Matt Patricia
Introduction[edit]
Matt Patricia is an RPI Football alumni that went on to coach in the National Football League for almost 20 years. Within his time coaching in the NFL, Patricia coached on three Super Bowl Championship winning teams, and even served as the head coach of the Detroit Lions for several years
Early Life[edit]
Matt Patricia was born in raised in Upstate New York, and attended high school at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill outside of Syracuse, New York. While at VVS, he lettered in both wrestling and football. He attended college at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute from 1992 to 1996 where he majored in aeronautical engineering and was a four year member of the RPI Football Team. While on the team he played both center and guard.
Early Career[edit]
Before transitioning to a coaching career in the NFL, Patricia bounced around a couple of colleges, gaining the experience he needed to make a leap to the pros. He stayed on at RPI in 1996 as a graduate assistant coach before moving to Syracuse to work as an aeronautical engineer. Patricia rejoined coaching as the defensive line coach at Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts from 1999 to 2000, before moving up to the Division One level as the offensive assistant for Syracuse University for three seasons.
NFL Career[edit]
After leaving Syracuse University in 2003, Patricia joined the New England Patriots in the AFC East as an offensive assistant for the 2004 season. In just his first season coaching at the professional level, he helped lead the Patriots to a victory in Super Bowl XXXIX. He stayed with the Patriots through the 2016 season, winning three Super Bowls along the way and holding many job titles, such as linebacker coach, safeties coach, and defensive coordinator. Patricia then transitioned to his first and only head coaching job to date with the Detroit Lions, where he coached for three seasons from 2018-2020 before being fired halfway through the 2020 season. He would not find the same success in Detroit that he had with the Patriots, only going 13-29-1 throughout his two and a half seasons with the Lions. After being let go by Detroit, he returned to the Patriots for two more seasons before joining on with the Philadelphia Eagles as a defensive assistant for the 2023 season.
Sources[edit]
https://www.philadelphiaeagles.com/team/coaches/matt-patricia