By Danielle Daniels
Former Ohio State senior advisor and analyst returns; Has coached safeties for eight years
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ohio State head football coach Ryan Day today announced two updates to his coaching staff: third-year special team’s coordinator Parker Fleming will not be retained for the 2024 season; and Matt Guerrieri has been hired as the program’s new safeties coach with additional responsibilities to be assigned.
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. He has a seven-year history with Buckeye defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, stretching back to 2012 when the pair first worked together at Duke University.
Guerrieri has extensive experience – eight 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, when Knowles left Duke after the 2017 season to go to Oklahoma State, Guerrieri 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,
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.
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