Jim Knowles was formally introduced as Penn State’s defensive coordinator on Tuesday. Just two weeks after winning a national championship with Ohio State, Knowles discussed his decision to leave the Buckeyes, his dream to win it all with the Nittany Lions and more inside the Pegula Ice Arena media room.
Here’s everything Knowles said on Tuesday.
Why did you decide to leave Ohio State and take the Penn State job?
“I’m grateful for my time at Ohio State. We had the No. 1 defense in the country. We won a national championship, had great relationships with the players and with Coach (Ryan) Day and the administration. Felt supported.
“You reach a point in your career where you’re given opportunities based on past performance. And, like I said, Penn State for me, growing up in inner city Philly was the epitome of college football. When I was a kid, I was never talented enough to make it to Penn State as a player, but given the opportunity to do it now as a coach, it’s really where I want to be to continue my career and bring any expertise that I can to the organization.”
How would you describe your defensive system?
“I think that the people who watch it and the people who report on it, not trying to butter you guys up, but the media and everyone nowadays has become so much more knowledgeable, and I appreciate that. I would think the first thing you’re going to see is that we’re going to have answers. That’s the biggest thing to me, is to make sure that we have answers for the players to be able to succeed.
“We’ve all watched football, and you can see where there’s a gaping hole or a busted coverage and I never blame the players for that. I always take responsibility. Something happens negatively, the players know that in the game that that’s my responsibility.
“I think anybody who watches it, you’re just going to see that guys are in the right places. They’re in the right places, and they’re not being exposed to the opponent offensive coordinator or the opponent quarterback. That there’s enough disguise built into the defense so that our opponent doesn’t know exactly what we’re in. I think that’s a big deal. I think that gives our players the best chance to succeed.”
How would you describe James Franklin and Pat Kraft throughout the hiring process?
“Incredibly supportive, incredibly welcoming. I really felt that in just my short time here. Very welcoming. Not a cliche, but you feel the family, you feel the ‘We Are Penn State’ and that means something to everybody. They just want to win, and they want to win at the highest level, and they’re committed to doing whatever it takes. And they’ve just been really, really welcoming. It’s been an easy transition.”
How integral was Kraft in getting this done, and what did you learn about him through the entire process?
“I didn’t, during the process, have that much contact with Pat because it all really went through Coach Franklin. But I just always got the sense that he was in the background, willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen. It just always came through Coach Franklin that he has tremendous support from the AD, from the president, in conversations that I had with Coach Franklin. But I didn’t get to deal with Pat very much.”
How do you think your background from Philadelphia has shaped your football life?
“You got to be tough. You have a thick skin. And you’re willing to take coaching, hard coaching. Growing up, the guys that I had as coaches, they were all cops, firemen, maintenance men and they were hard on you, they were challenging to you. They preached discipline, hard-nosed football. And, I think growing up in Philly, and under those guys, you have to be willing to accept criticism, and respond with toughness.
“Even with the players, I’m always for a guy that’s gonna challenge the coaching like, ‘Hey, I want to know why we’re doing this. What’s the purpose?’ And kind of that back and forth that you get growing up, where you’re willing to speak your mind, and you accept it when you make a mistake, but you challenge it if you have a different opinion.
“And I think you learn not to take things personally. Don’t take it personally. My coaches, teachers growing up, they’re trying to make you better, and I coach that way. We’re in this for you. I knew that they were in it for me, like you knew that those guys loved you and they would love you. There was a mix of that, like tough love, and that’s what I got going out there.
Why is it so important for you to build connections with your players?
“The players, they have to trust you. They have to know that you care about all their personal situations. And they have to trust that you have their best interest in heart. And you build that; that doesn’t come right away. You can’t do it all the time by just being a friend all the time. There are times where you have to be pushing the discipline and holding them accountable.
“But then once they know that you’re accountable, I think those are the situations that come up where I make a mistake or something happens within the defense that’s not their fault. I think it’s important, it’s always been the players, with accepting responsibility once they see that you’re not going to point the finger at them, that you’re going to say, ‘Hey, that was my fault. I didn’t train you correctly. They ran a play that we weren’t prepared for.’
“I think that builds a lot of credibility and a lot of trust. Then when times get tough, they know that you’re gonna fix things and you’re gonna put them in the right positions. You’re not just gonna say, ‘Well, you got to win. You got beat.’ I don’t do that. I want to make sure that they know that I’m going to give them every chance to succeed.”
What was James Franklin’s pitch to you and what, if any, relationship did you have with him prior to taking this job?
“We knew each other. I have tremendous respect for what he’s accomplished here and throughout his career. I think coming from Coach Franklin, it wasn’t really a pitch, but it was something we could openly discuss is that he has built a culture here that has really emphasized defense.
“I think he’s been an offensive guy, so maybe some people look at him like that. But when you look back at his history, he didn’t really have to say it, but we talked about it. They’ve had really good defense here. They’ve been through some different coordinators, but they have always had a good defense.
“That goes into how you structure your practice plan, how you structure your offense, in terms of the tempo of the offense. I’ve been around situations where the offense tried to score as fast as they could and didn’t worry about going three-and-out in 30 seconds, and places that can put the defense at a disadvantage.
“He hasn’t structured it like that here. He has made it conducive to be successful. You can talk about that, but the proof is in the numbers. Like I said, they’ve had some various coordinators here recently. And guess what? The defense has still been pretty good.”
Do you have head coaching aspirations, and do you plan to coach in the press box?
“I have one aspiration. I’m at that point in my career where you focus solely on the job at hand, and my aspiration is to help Penn State win the national championship and be the No. 1 defense in the country. And that’s really all I’m focused on. And that’s not just talk, that’s the truth. I don’t have any aspirations beyond that.
“I’ve gone back and forth, but most recently, I’d say I spend most of my time in the press box, and that allows me to get the best vision on the action. And with the iPads now, and the communication directly to the players in the helmet, I can still be very connected. There’s a lot more time to think up there.
“I’ve worked hard, I guess, on being emotional and challenging in practice, and coaching with an edge in practice. But in the game, that’s not my job. The best place to be in order to think and remain calm and try to stay a couple plays ahead and a series ahead is in the press box. That’s just what I’ve found for myself.
“If there’s a camera up there on me, hopefully you’re not going to see me reacting to a bad play, or even if we get a great play. I really try to stay centered. My job is to not cheer or react or yell. No one’s going to hear me up there. My job is to be composed and the press box is the best place to do that.”
Do you plan on implementing the Jack position and what traits go into it?
“That remains to be seen. We’re going to have to dive into who the players are and what they do well. I made that decision. We experimented with it a little bit early on when I first got to Ohio State, because it was huge for me in Oklahoma State because we had those kinds of players who really did it. And it was fairly big at Duke and also going way back to Western Michigan when I first started it.
“But I guess I learned through that whole process that I really need to evaluate first, who the players are here and what they do well, and it’s not about what I know, it’s about what works best for Penn State. So it could be, I guess that would be my answer. Kind of like I always said when I was there, it’s always in my head. I always have that as an answer, but we got to figure out if it fits first.
“That’s a guy who can mix it up both physically but mentally. A guy who I can talk to one-on-one, and I can say, ‘OK, if you see this, do that. If they line up like this, you go over here.’ It’s that guy who is really like an eraser, who I can put in different places based on the look we’re given.
“I think it’s a great package, particularly if you’re undersized. I always tell high school coaches, because you can go and find somebody in the hallway who’s not a DB, he’s not a linebacker, he’s not a defensive lineman, but he’s just a hell of a football player. It’s for those kinds of guys who don’t exactly fit the standard of any particular position, but they’re just guys who are football players, and you can direct them to do what you want.”
How long will it take to evaluate everything and make a plan for spring practice?
“First of all, shout out to those assistants. Deion, Dex and Terry and Dan. They’ve done a great job. When you can have defense that’s upper tier and go through a couple coordinators, that means that the assistants are doing a hell of a job. Shout out to those guys.
“It’s the next month, right? It’s literally sitting down, step by step. And I’m going to do it differently here than I’ve probably done it anywhere in that we’re now looking at the things that were done here in the past. I’m learning that because there has been success. So I don’t want to come in and just say, ‘This is what I’m going to do. It’s not going to be like that here. Coach Frankel has built a great defensive culture. They’ve had excellent defense here.
“So, I’m going to look at it step by step to see what we can retain and then start to teach the guys, ‘Hey, this is how I did this and that, watched some of that iPad film.’ But we are definitely going to go through a process of meshing. It’s kind of an excruciating process. That’s what I love to do. You sit there, tell me why he’s doing that. Tell me why he’s doing this. How did you guys do this? This is how I did it.
“But we’re going to mesh the two, for sure, because we need to be. I need to be fair to the culture that Coach Franklin has already developed, to the assistants, to the place. I mean, you can come into the players and say, ‘Hey, we’re going to keep this. We can call this the same as you guys called it.’ We want as much carryover as possible so that the transition is as quick as possible.”
How important is it to have a balance from a philosophical standpoint, to be able to do a little bit of everything?
“We’re already talking about that. Like, I want to be able to do it all. We’re going to go at the pace of the players. I mean, always work with the assistants on that. ‘Hey, I want A to Z, and I want it in by the time spring ball starts.’ With the assistants, we had that talk today on, ‘Hey, you tell me if I start to put in too much that you need to dial back.’
“So, you need to get A right, then you go to B, then you need to go AB, then you go to C, then you go ABC. We need to go at the pace of the players, not at my pace because I’m not the one playing out there.”
How do you share what you’ve learned about Penn State’s offense with Andy Kotelnicki?
“Andy’s been great. I’ve always had great respect for him. And he and I are talking already, exchanging ideas, and we’ll continue that. The best way to make our team better. You feel that here at Penn State that we are a team. So, we’re we’re talking, and we’ll talk even more. Jimmy’s and Joe’s versus X’s and O’s. I could tell you’re an old timer, I haven’t heard that one in a while, but that’s, that’s what people say, right?
“To me, it’s just a constant balance. I don’t ever believe that you can just line guys up and be simple and say, ‘Well, we’re just gonna out-athlete you.’ That doesn’t give your players the best chance for success.
“But It is a balance, right? It is a balance of how can I do enough that keeps the opponent off balance while also not hindering the athletic ability of the guys to play fast and make plays? Those are the things that keep me up at night, is how much can I do before I lock a guy up into thinking too much, thinking too much that I haven’t done a good job. But we’ll just take it step by step.”
Did you grow up coming to Penn State games and did you have any relationship with the university as a kid?
“I had zero relationship. I told my kids all the time, I was a guttersnipe, running around the streets of Philly. So any relationship I had was just all in my mind, kind of a dream. I said it earlier, I don’t want to repeat myself, but it’s the truth. I’m old enough where we had three channels. Anybody remember that, when you didn’t have a remote, when you had to get up and change the television yourself?
“I never even dreamt of going to a game. We didn’t have that kind of money or those kind resources to get there. State College could have been California when you live in Philly. It’s all out there. But I would watch those Sunday morning programs with Coach Paterno’s brother [George]. He used to do those Sunday morning programs. ‘Due to time constraints, we moved to further action.’
“But I had these coaches who loved Penn State. They would come right from work, so what would they do? They’d roll their pants up the way Coach Paterno, they’d roll their pants up and come right from work. I knew the term Linebacker U because of them. So it was always more of just a dream, than it was anything that I could have a real relationship with.”
How does having a staff of assistant coaches who have been around for a while impact your transition?
“It makes my life a lot easier. Veteran coaches who have been successful, but are also really low ego guys. And I’ve talked to all of them and it comes through like, ‘Hey, we just want what’s best for Penn State, and we want what’s best for our players.’ And that allows for a free exchange of ideas, where everybody’s free to say what they want and what worked and what they knew and what could make us better.
“But it makes the whole process a lot easier, working with these guys that Coach Franklin has here. How much they love the school, they love the program and they just want to do what’s best.”
Why is it important for you to be here and help this Penn State team win a national championship?
“I see it as close. I think I can help. I think I can be of service. Once you get past maybe being young and thinking you’re going to be the head coach of the Green Bay Packers, as you move forward in your career, you really start thinking about, how can I be of service? Where can I add to a great team and be a part of a great team? And this is the place because everything here is so close to winning it all. And I’m hopeful that I can help get it there.”
