After back-to-back seasons of defensive frailties, Ohio State found the man they believe can lead this group back to the Silver Bullet standard. On Tuesday night, head coach Ryan Day announced that Oklahoma State’s Jim Knowles accepted the position of defensive coordinator with the Buckeyes and will start on Sunday, Jan. 2 when the team’s offseason officially gets underway.
Knowles, 56, brings 33 years of coaching experience at the collegiate level to the Scarlet and Gray, much of that spent coaching on the defensive side of the ball. The former defensive end out of Philadelphia also has experience as a head coach, leading his alma mater, Cornell, from 2004-09.
The appointment of Knowles will hopefully take a defense that was just inside the top 50 in the country in yards allowed per game and just inside the top 25 in scoring defense, despite having superior talent and athletes than most of the opponents, and get the group back to the levels it was in 2019 under Jeff Hafley.
Before looking at how Knowles will do this, it’s worth pointing out that at least one Ohio State staff member will have to depart the program. The current Buckeye staff, which has the maximum number off members, is expected to remain intact through the Dec. 15 start of the early signing period and the Jan. 1 Rose Bowl but sources tell Bucknuts that defensive coordinator Kerry Coombs or secondary Matt Barnes, who took over play calling duties from Coombs early in the 2021 season, possibly both, could be on their way out. Knowles will also likely want to bring in some coaches he’s familiar working with or fit his specific style, so there could be a Scarlet and Grat staff makeover once the offseason officially begins.
Knowles began his coaching career at Cornell where he was in charge of the defensive line. He also coached running backs and linebackers for the Big Red before departing for Western Michigan. Knowles coached linebackers in the SEC with Ole Miss and ran the defense in the ACC with Duke.
All of that led Knowles to Mike Gundy‘s staff with the Cowboys in 2018. In his four seasons in charge of the defense in Stillwater, Knowles’ goup got better every year, including being one of the best units in the country in 2021, helping to carry an OSU offense that ranked 67th nationally to the Big 12 Championship Game.
The Cowboys finished the regular season third in total defense (278.4 yards per game) and tied for seventh in scoring defense (16.8 in points allowed per game). His defense was 12th best in the country against the pass (187.2 ypg) and fifth best against the run (91.15 ypg). Oklahoma State finished in the top 10 nationally in sacks (1st), tackles for loss (1st) and third down defense (2nd).
Knowles’ defensive principles are not all that dissimilar to what Ohio State ran this past year. He typically operates out of a 4-2-5 look — a four-down front was a requirement for the Buckeyes’ new defensive coordinator — which was a success with the Blue Devils and helped the defense in Stillwater get better each year he was in charge.
While where Knowles’ defense starts will look familiar to Scarlet and Gray fans, there will be several differences.
First, Knowles has used what he calls the “Jack” linebacker. While in many similar defensive schemes, this Jack is a stand-up edge player, Knowles likes to move his player around. This also allows Knowles to do different things with his other two linebackers to be more prepared for modern offensive looks.
Who will play the Jack linebacker for Ohio State will be determined later, but the Buckeyes have a number of athletic players who could fill the role. While Knowles will have to coach the position into his vision, he will have more naturally talented players with the Scarlet and Gray than he has at any of his previous stops.
The Bullet position, which finally emerged last season after being talked about the two years prior, will also likely still be a part of Knowles’ defense. Will linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez is a converted safety who led Oklahoma State with 118 tackles this season, 33 more than the next highest defender. While Ronnie Hickman, also a mix between safety and linebacker, didn’t record as many tackles (95), he had 41 more takedowns than the next highest Scarlet and Gray player.
Like some of the best Ohio State defenses under Urban Meyer, Knowles will be aggressive. Not only does he like to bring blitzes from different areas of the field, but he typically deploys the press-man coverage that helped the Buckeyes produce NFL corners such as Marshon Lattimore, Denzel Ward, Eli Apple and others.
Although this style sometimes meant OSU’s defense gave up big plays, it also helped rank fifth in the country in fewest plays of 10 or more yards allowed. If the defense is sound, there will be success more often than not, especially with the talent of the players Knowles will work with at Ohio State.
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As for Knowles himself, he’s a dedicated worker. As described in a profile with 247Sports’ Brandon Marcello, Knowles has a very specific way to begin his preparations each week for the upcoming game:
The start of every game week is the same: Knowles locks himself in his office, turns on game film, studies recent games of the opponent, re-evaluates the Cowboys’ strengths and weaknesses, and jots down ideas that soon morph into a game plan. He doesn’t converse with his assistants. He doesn’t ask for head coach Mike Gundy‘s advice. All he has is a legal pad, a pen, a few hours of time, unlimited access to the team’s video database and, most importantly, his own thoughts.
Getting the Buckeye defense back up to the standard set in Columbus, and helping the Scarlet and Gray match the high levels of the offense and therefore return the team to Big Ten champions and the College Football Playoff, won’t be an easy feat. Knowles, however, is up for the challenge, as shown by the way his Cowboys shut down high-flying Big 12 offenses last season, and he will get the players on the same page.
“Ten thousand hours,” Knowles told Marcello. “You want to be great or an expert in anything, it takes 10,000 hours of work… It’s taken time, it’s taken trial and error and it’s taken the ability for me to look at myself and change when I needed to change and admit when we weren’t getting the job done and come up with ways to fix it within a system.”