Penn State Football recently added Ohio State Football Assistant Coach Jim Knowles to the program as the team's newest Defensive Coordinator.
To learn more about the new hire, Happy Valley Insider spoke with an Ohio State Buckeyes beat writer to learn more about Knowles, his tenure with OSU and the rumored rough ending that landed him with the Nittany Lions.
JOIN TODAY AND GET 30 DAYS FREE! | THE LIONS DEN FORUM | PENN STATE FOOTBALL 2025 RECRUITING CLASS | PENN STATE BASKETBALL RECRUITING
HAPPY VALLEY INSIDER: The obvious one here is what really happened? Was there a split that started after the Oregon game due to disagreements between Knowles, Larry Johnson, and Ryan Day?
ANONYMOUS BEAT WRITER: "There are only going to be three people that will really be able to answer that one and my guess is that none of them are talking. It never felt as if Knowles and Johnson were on the same page in terms of how a defense should be called or structured and I am not the only person that reported some sort of riff occurred between the DC and DL coaches.
As for anything with Ryan Day, there was a lot of pressure on everyone on the coaching staff. Despite a stellar record, there were a lot of people who were ready for Ohio State to make a change at the top, at least prior to the National Championship, right around the time of the loss to Michigan. The loss at Oregon was a real outlier in terms of how the defense performed, allowing 32 points, even a couple of Ohio State turnovers led to some of those points.
Day brought Knowles in as the head coach of the defense but when you are hearing the drumbeats, real or not real, you are going to start spending more time in all of the rooms of the facility. Knowles always struck me as someone who wanted to be able to do his thing and did not require or desire much oversight.
While it is shocking to see this kind of change right on the heels of winning a national championship, after getting through the initial shock of it all, I am less surprised than I was the first day that I heard that Knowles and Oklahoma were talking."
Is it true Jim Knowles wanted to go to the celebration, but Ryan Day wouldn’t let him?
ABW: "This is another speculation question that I cannot answer. You hear things from sources and if you want to keep sources, you just have to be smart about things.
It is obvious that it was a bad situation, prior to the Sunday celebration, I was confident that Knowles was leaving, having people tell me Penn State, but I also had others telling me other destinations as well (I trusted the PSU news more).
So, it creates a situation, do you have to “walk an employee out” as often happens in a corporate world? Knowles was not going off to Oklahoma or Notre Dame, he is off to a team on Ohio State’s 2025 schedule. Yes, Ohio State is going to change defensive calls, yes Ohio State is going to have to change a lot (don’t get me started on talking about calls and signals and used vacuum cleaners).
Would there have been any harm in letting Knowles come to the celebration to be honored for his work from this past season and share time with his players? Probably not. But sometimes the genie is so far out of the bottle that you can’t do much about things. I think if the news of his departure were not so public at that time, it would have been easier to admit him into the celebration and then have “negotiations break down” and everyone get on with their life. I spent more than a couple of minutes looking for Knowles (and Chip Kelly) during the event, and it would have been a huge distraction if he were there (more so than Chip, who was on the road recruiting up until the very end)."
How did Ohio State’s defense improve under Knowles during his tenure and how did he get his team to the top of the rankings as much as he did this season?
ABW: "Ohio State was 59th in total defense the year before Knowles arrived. Sure, Ohio State went 11-2 that season but this Ohio State team gave up 31 in the season opener to Minnesota (an Ohio State win) before dropping game two to Oregon, 35-28. The Buckeyes would go on and give up 24 to Penn State, 31 to Purdue, 42 to Michigan and 45 to Utah, and despite winning all of those game outside of the Michigan game, it was obvious that things needed to be changed.
Another key factor is that Ohio State’s recruiting on defense was trailing way behind the offense and while Ohio State broke the 50-point margin eight times that season, there just weren’t enough players on defense who were either the right guy or being used the right way.
Knowles didn’t change Ohio State’s defensive recruiting as a recruiter, he did as someone with a proven track record of getting things done. It wasn’t an immediate thing; players need to see a proof of concept because he was working with a different set of players than he would have coached at Oklahoma State.
Not every play call worked out while at Ohio State, but his players would have run through a wall for him, he did a great job of getting everyone on the same page and in the right position.
As for 2024, a senior-led team with the addition of an All-American like Caleb Downs certainly helped. Jim would be the first to admit that he couldn’t have done half the things he did this season without the players.
But as it relates to Jim, he was the chef that put the meal together and was able to get the buy-in from his players while calling some really good games."
What can you tell us about Knowles defense as a whole? Does he do anything special different that makes him such a unique coordinator and coach?
ABW: "There are going to be X’s and O’s guys who can talk about this better than me. It is a 4-2-5 system, was really supposed to be safety-driven but over time the nickel moved from being a safety to a corner (Jordan Hancock) for Ohio State.
When Knowles started at Ohio State, he said that he had “three to five big plays” baked into the defense as it is aggressive. Well, those plays hit at the wrong times, Knowles got too aggressive with too much Cover Zero and year one saw Ohio State do well in its lower leverage games and have some problems with big plays in the bigger games.
Year two, he was a little too conservative in his calls, not enough blitzing and while Ohio State didn’t give up the big plays, the defense couldn’t get off the field either on 3rd downs.
This last season was the closest thing to “this porridge is just right” (Three little bears for those without kids or a childhood) with Ohio State being aggressive the right amount but also not missing opportunities to get the other team off the field.
You will hear a lot about the ‘Jack Position’ with Knowles, something that Ohio State never really was able to work into the system despite having a couple of candidates built for the role (including Mitchell Melton who transferred out to Virginia). Ohio State wasted a year of Jack Sawyer’s career trying to make him into the Jack, and it was really once Sawyer was able to put all that behind him that he became the dominant force that he was in the postseason.
Knowles does a good job of adapting to the personnel that he has however, maybe outside of the Jack position. He puts players in great positions to make plays. Now, it is on the player to step up and execute the training."
How was Knowles as a recruiter? I know most programs don’t have coordinators recruit, but just curious if he did much if it while at Ohio State?
ABW: "Jim Knowles was a non-factor as a recruiter. I will say that I was a big Knowles fan while he was at Ohio State because he is just that gruff guy that talks ball, drinks coffee and probably drinks bourbon while talking ball when he is away from the annoying media.
Ohio State knew that he wasn’t really a strong recruiter upon hiring him and opinions were not changed. He is there to coach players (and drink coffee) so I wouldn’t expect him to be any sort of wildcard out on the recruiting trail."
--------------------------------------------------------------
• Subscribe to our YouTube Channel
