As Penn State’s players bounced around the field, dapping each other up and conversing in between warmup drills, a stone-faced Jim Knowles took a slow trot through the chaos.
He looked out of place, walking slowly and calmly through the noise. Surrounded on all sides by blaring music from the Beaver Stadium PA system and the growing buzz from the crowd as fans filtered in ahead of kickoff, Knowles didn’t talk, didn’t smile and didn’t alter course, even as a pack of tight ends twice his size ran around him.
Players, coaches and fans have become accustomed to his calm, composed demeanor since Knowles arrived in Happy Valley over the offseason on a deal that made him the highest paid coordinator in college football history. Through two games, Penn State’s defense has looked every bit as good as advertised — and also the opposite of its coordinator: dominant, fast and violent.
“It was amazing to see it all work against somebody different, other than our team,” cornerback Audavion Collins said. “So that was, we all communicated on the same page.”
The Nittany Lions shut out visiting Florida International 34-0 on Saturday in an impressive defensive showing, coming on the heels of a game against Nevada where the starters surrendered just three points before the Wolf Pack got a late touchdown. But inside the locker room and film rooms, the message is clear: this is just the beginning.
“Defensively, we’re not playing fast yet,” head coach James Franklin said Saturday. “They’re still thinking a lot with some of the new wrinkles and the new defense, we got to get some of those things cleaned up so they can play faster and more natural.”
That sentiment has echoed throughout the locker room in the early weeks of the season. Knowles’ defensive scheme is notoriously complex, requiring constant communication and an obsessive attention to detail. And while the execution hasn’t been perfect, there are signs that it’s starting to click.
“Me, personally, I say everything starts with practice, getting the game plan,” safety Zakee Wheatley said. “And I feel like me being an older guy, I definitely feel like, as a team, we gotta come out there with more tenacity, more aggressiveness, dominating, for sure.”
Through just two contests — and despite constantly rotating players — the unit has racked up 18 tackles for loss, six pass break-ups, five sacks, three fumble recoveries and two interceptions. Those picks came from Zane Durant and Alonzo Ford Jr., who became the first pair of Penn State defensive tackles with interceptions in the same season since 1990.
Knowles can be credited for that feat. Both players said after the game they recognized a screen pass developing and dropped back into coverage instead of rushing the quarterback, something they “worked a little bit in practice.”
“Just trying to read it, I thought it was a screen or something, just turned around, the quarterback was throwing the ball,” Ford said. “Just key in on the ball and have the hand-eye coordination to be able to catch anything.”
One of the key traits of a Knowles-led defense is creating havoc plays, and even the defensive tackles — a position room at Penn State that hadn’t had an interception since 2012 — already has two.
“I would have told you you’re crazy,” linebacker Dom DeLuca said. “I would have never believed you. But I mean, hey, D-line’s getting their money’s worth, and they’re making a lot of plays for us.”
Linebacker Tony Rojas, who led the team in tackles against the Panthers, understands how complex and demanding the scheme is. As with his coaches and teammates, he believes they’re just scratching the surface.
“We know we’re still adjusting. It’s not an easy system at the end of the day,” Rojas said. “The coaches are hard on us, but at the end of the day, it gets us wins.”
