Greg Mattison (born November 15, 1949) is a former

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

coach, and former player. He spent most of his career in

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

as a defensive coach. Mattison coached at

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

for eleven years, at Notre Dame for seven years, at

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

for three years, including the 2006 national championship team, and at

Ohio State The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one of the largest universities by enrollme ...

for two years. He also served as a defensive assistant for the

Baltimore Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team plays its home g ...

of the

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

Coaching career

At Florida, he served as co-coordinator of the defense with

Charlie Strong Charles Rene Strong (born August 2, 1960) is an American football coach who is the current defensive line coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL). He recently served as the Head coach, assistant head coach and Li ...

. Charlie Strong also served as assistant Head Coach and Linebackers coach while Greg also pulled double duty working as the defensive line coach. During this time he was a part of a successful defense and team that went overall 31–8 in games played and won a national championship by beating Ohio State 41–14 in the BCS Championship game in 2006. Prior to his time at Florida, Mattison coached at

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac (known simply as Notre Dame; ; ND) is a Private university, private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1842 by members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, a Cathol ...

from 1997 to 2004 as the defensive coordinator under Bob Davie until the Ty Willingham era (during which he served as defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator). Prior to his time at Notre Dame, Mattison coached the defensive line at the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

from 1992 to 1996, while also serving at the defensive coordinator in 1995 and 1996. During his time at Michigan, the Wolverines led the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...

in rushing defense four consecutive seasons, holding opponents to 78.6 rushing yards per game in 1992, 87.9 in 1994, and 88.1 in 1995. Mattison's charges also led the conference in total defense twice and scoring defense once. He also coached with Coach Davie at

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

from 1988 to 1991 while Davie was defensive coordinator. Under head coach

R. C. Slocum Richard Copeland Slocum (born November 7, 1944) is a former American football player and coach who is currently a special assistant to the president at Texas A&M University. He has also served as interim athletics director at the university from ...

, the Aggies featured the " Wrecking Crew", a nickname for one of the nation's top-ranked defenses. On January 26, 2009, Mattison was promoted to defensive coordinator of the

; he was the successor of former defensive coordinator

Rex Ryan Rex Ashley Ryan (born December 13, 1962) is an American former football coach and analyst. Ryan was formerly the head coach of the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL), and also held various coaching positions w ...

. He was the team's linebackers coach, a job he got in part due to his relationship with

John Harbaugh John William Harbaugh ( ; born September 23, 1962) is an American professional football coach who is the head coach for the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League (NFL). Previously, he coached the defensive backs for the Philadelphia ...

. During his time at WMU, Mattison coached alongside John Harbaugh, who was a graduate assistant and assistant coach. Harbaugh, then head coach of the Baltimore Ravens, hired Mattison to coach the Ravens linebackers. The job was Mattison's first NFL coaching position in 37 years of coaching football. On January 18, 2011, the Ravens announced that Mattison had accepted the defensive coordinator position at the University of Michigan. In returning to Michigan, Mattison reunited with Michigan head coach

Brady Hoke Brady Patrick Hoke (; born November 3, 1958) is a former American football coach. He was most well known for serving as the head football coach at the University of Michigan from 2011 to 2014. He also served as the head football coach at Ball ...

, who is a close friend of Mattison's and was the Wolverines' defensive ends coach during Mattison's previous stint as defensive coordinator at Michigan. His contract at Michigan made him among the highest paid college football assistant coaches in the country.Greg Mattison's contract with Michigan football team
AnnArbor.com, February 27, 2011 He was selected as one of five finalists for the 2011

Broyles Award The Broyles Award is an annual award given to honor the best assistant coach in college football. First awarded in 1996, it was named after former University of Arkansas men's athletic director Frank Broyles. The award is presented in Little ...

. Mattison was a finalist for the head coaching job at

Western Michigan University Western Michigan University (Western Michigan, Western or WMU) is a Public university, public research university in Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States. It was initially established as Western State Normal School in 1903 by Governor Aaron T. B ...

following the 2004 season, a job that eventually went to

Bill Cubit William John Cubit (; born October 14, 1953) is an American football coach and former player. Cubit was the head football coach at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, first on an interim basis in the 2015 season and then promoted t ...

. Mattison had served as the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach under

Jack Harbaugh Jack Avon Harbaughhttp://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/%7Ebattle/celeb/harbaugh.htm (born June 28, 1939) is an American college football coach and former player. He served as the head football coach at Western Michigan University fro ...

at Western Michigan from 1981 to 1986. Mattison served as co-defensive coordinator at

for the 2019 and 2020 seasons. He shared the role with

Jeff Hafley Jeff Hafley (born April 4, 1979) is an American professional football coach who is the defensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL). He previously served as the head coach at Boston College from 2020 to 2 ...

in 2019 and

Kerry Coombs Kerry Coombs (born September 9, 1961) is an American football coach who was most recently the special teams coordinator and cornerbacks coach at the University of Cincinnati. Previously, Coombs was an assistant coach for the Tennessee Titans of t ...

in 2020. Mattison retired from coaching following the 2020 season.

Early life and family

Mattison is a graduate of the

University of Wisconsin–La Crosse The University of Wisconsin–La Crosse (UWL or UW–La Crosse) is a public research university in La Crosse, Wisconsin, United States. Established in 1909, it is part of the University of Wisconsin System and offers bachelor's, master's, and ...

, where he played football and wrestled. He attended high school at

Madison East High School Madison East High School is one of four comprehensive four-year high schools in Madison, Wisconsin. It was established in 1922, making it the oldest public high school still operating in Madison. The school mascot is "Peppy Purgolder", an animal ...

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is the List of municipalities in Wisconsin by population, second-most populous city in the state, with a population of 269,840 at the 2020 Uni ...

. Mattison's son,

Bryan Mattison Bryan Mattison (born May 15, 1984) is a former American football center. He was signed by the New York Jets as an undrafted free agent in 2008, and has also been a member of the Baltimore Ravens, St. Louis Rams, and the Kansas City Chiefs. He p ...

, was a senior captain for the

2007 Iowa Hawkeyes football team 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has symbolic associations in religion, mythology, supers ...

, and most recently played for the

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) West division. Established in 1959 ...

, but was released on May 2, 2013, and is currently a free agent. He was previously a member of the

and the

St. Louis Rams The St. Louis Rams were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). They played in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1995 through the 2015 season, before moving back to Los Angeles, California, where the team had played ...

Sources

External links

Ohio State profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mattison, Greg 1949 births Living people Baltimore Ravens coaches Cornell Big Red football coaches Florida Gators football coaches Illinois Fighting Illini football coaches Michigan Wolverines football coaches Navy Midshipmen football coaches Northwestern Wildcats football coaches Notre Dame Fighting Irish football coaches Ohio State Buckeyes football coaches Texas A&M Aggies football coaches Western Michigan Broncos football coaches Wisconsin–La Crosse Eagles football players NFL defensive coordinators Wisconsin–La Crosse Eagles wrestlers Players of American football from Madison, Wisconsin Madison East High School alumni