It has been 130 days since grizzled defensive coordinator Jim Knowles left the newly-crowned champs of college football, Ohio State, and headed east to coach Penn State.
On the Buckeyes’ way to the national title in 2024, Knowles’ Ohio State’s defense ranked first nationally in scoring defense, total defense, yards allowed per play, touchdowns allowed per play and opponents touchdowns scored in the red zone.
That was a three-year, $9.3 million contract — the highest of any assistant coach in all of college football — ago.
At Penn State, Knowles has already gone through a full set of 15 spring practices, the Blue-White Game, scores of staff meetings and more than six weeks of offseason scheming in preparation for another national title run — this time by the stacked Nittany Lions, who are a popular choice for the nation’s No. 1 team in the preseason.
Knowles, a Pennsylvania native, is a 37-year college football veteran, including 17 as coordinator at such stops as Ohio State, Oklahoma State and Duke. He follows in a long line of successful and experienced coordinators who have led the PSU defense under offensive-minded James Franklin, who is entering his 12th season as Penn State’s head coach. Coordinators like Bob Shoop, Brent Pry, Manny Diaz and Tom Allen — who was Penn State’s DC in 2024 before moving on to Clemson — had the reins, if not carte blanche, to lead the Nittany Lions’ defense under Franklin.
Now, it is Knowles’ turn. Expectations have never been higher since Franklin’s arrival at Penn State in January 2014.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING ABOUT KNOWLES
Knowles’ impact has been immediate. Just ask his defensive assistant coaches. Which is what I did on Thursday during a Penn State football media availability inside Lasch Building. Three of them — Terry Smith, Deion Barnes and Dan Connor — were former star players for the Nittany Lions. Here’s what they told me about Knowles:
TERRY SMITH, associate head coach/cornerbacks, 12th year on staff: “He obviously has a brilliant mind. He fits the category of the mad scientist, in a complimentary way. He has answers. You know, when you’re running an elite defense — which we’ve had all 12 years we’ve been here — he can help fix some of the concerns and issues we had. You know, all great defenses have concerns and issues as well. But Jim has good answers. He had the No. 1 defense last year, and we want to be the No. 1 defense every year. We want to anchor the team. We want to take on that burden of, ‘We’re winning because we can stop teams.’
“Jim is a dynamic personality. He’s a great leader. He relates to the guys; he relates to the staff. He’s a tremendous guy that you want to follow. That’s half the battle, because sometimes when you don’t know how to handle a staff, the staff doesn’t follow — which means it’s hard for the kids to follow. His record precedes himself. We’re super-excited that he’s here. We had a great spring, and we’re off to a really good start this summer. We can’t wait ’til we get to the fall.”
DEION BARNES, defensive line, sixth year on staff: “Coach Knowles has given me a better understanding of the totality of defense is — not just for me, but for the entire D-line unit. We are still going to attack and be that aggressive unit. We showed that through spring ball. But Coach Knowles is bringing the type of knowledge that shows the entire defense how they fit and why everything happens. I think the D-line is going to play even harder, in my opinion, because they are going to know why every play is being called.”
DAN CONNOR, linebackers, fourth year on staff: “He’s had a huge impact on us and the difference has really impacted the players. Jim goes, ‘We’re going to do X, Y and Z,’ and given that he’s just off a national championship, the players are instantly bought into it. This guy has been to the mountaintop that we’re trying to get to. We think about climbing a mountain and we feel close — it’s the last thing, but that’s the hardest part of the climb. Well, he’s been there. When you have that proof to show the players and the coaches, we’re all open to every idea, any challenge, any standard he wants to set. That becomes the new bar.
“Coach Knowles has been very clear and very direct. Early on, he set the tone of who we’re going to be, what our style is, what our defensive culture has been. It’s a defensive culture that the guys are completely into. They see someone who’s very smart, very systematic in how they do everything. The players respond when you see somebody who’s done it, who just got done doing it at the highest possible level.”
JUSTIN LUSTIG, special teams, outside linebackers and nickel backs, second year on staff: “We have brought in his system, his way of doing things. The guys have bought into it. I think there’s immediate respect because of the success that he’s had, which is important, and the
guys are excited about it. They realized very quickly that the schemes and the things that he’s teaching are going to help them and help us. He’s an excellent teacher, too. That’s what has stood out to me so far — he’s a high quality teacher that does a really good job of explaining what he wants you to do.”
WHAT KNOWLES SAYS
On Thursday, I also asked Knowles himself what his biggest impact has been so far at Penn State, knowing that summer camp is still nearly two months away and Penn State’s season-opener isn’t until Aug. 30 against Nevada in Beaver Stadium. He wants, ultimately, a bunch of Jim Knowles clones:
Knowles explains: “I feel like it’s the introduction of some change-ups to what they were doing in the past, and an emphasis on communication. I think there’s been a lot more talking and a lot more identifying the offensive set. It all goes into eventually wanting the players to think like I think and see the same things that I see.”
