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DC/LB Coach Jim Knowles (Official Thread)

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Ohio State returned a Heisman finalist at quarterback, a loaded cast of skill players, and two NFL-caliber tackles on offense. All they needed was for their counterparts on defense to NOT be a total mess, as had been the case in 2021.

This wasn't asking a lot, after all. Rarely had championship teams featured elite units on both sides of the ball, and the defense simply needed to be good enough to let those superstars on offense shine brightly.

Enter Jim Knowles. The veteran coach emerged from anonymity after turning Oklahoma State into one of the nation's best defenses one year ago, instantly making him the biggest fish in a pond of defensive coordinator candidates.

The Cowboys finished in the top five of virtually every statistical category in 2021 despite featuring a cast of relative nobodies, so it was no wonder that many expected Knowles to do wonders with all the talent sitting inside the WHAC. But lost in those conversations was the idea of what Knowles would actually DO with all those blue-chip bodies awaiting his instruction.

Fast forward to today, and some Buckeye fans are feeling buyer's remorse after watching a coordinator making $2 million annually give up 1,063 combined yards in the final two (and most important) contests of the 2022 season, both of which resulted in painful OSU losses. As a result, the narrative surrounding Knowles' impact has been skewed, leading to many questions about what to expect from his defense moving forward.

First and foremost, we should all acknowledge that what Knowles' defense showed this season was not a duplicate of his efforts in Stillwater.

“We didn't do everything that we did at Oklahoma State," said safety Tanner McCalister last week, who played four seasons for Knowles before following him to Columbus as a graduate transfer. "But also the conference is a little different as well. So there are certain things that we did up at Oklahoma State that he may not install at Ohio State. But yeah, we definitely couldn't do everything. So there's definitely still things that he has in his bag that maybe he'll bring out.”

It's also worth noting that McCalister was the only significant newcomer to a unit that returned eight starters along with a number of backups that had seen significant playing time the year before. That meant that Knowles' first task was identifying ways for these same players to be put in a position to succeed after having struggled the year before.

The easiest way to accomplish that task was by disguising his intentions before the snap. After the Buckeyes largely sat in a static, singe-high shell for three seasons, Knowles brought a variety of looks to the secondary in hopes of confusing opponents.

Film study.....continued
 
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pretty good interview. seems rested and relaxed.

still has the annoying habit of holding the coffee (tea?) in his mouth for almost the entire duration of a question.

response to being asked about working with JL... "it's always exciting when you have a guy come in to coach with you who also has his picture on your wall..." :lol:

he got asked a couple times about the CFP game not having a deep safety back. tim may (i think) then asked very directly about how "a couple of those plays at least would not have gone for the distance if there'd maybe been somebody there". knowles he has taken a look at that, but he's also looked at the times when he did have a deep safety back and they still didn't make a play.

he seems to keep coming back to needing to improve in teaching players better technique. and maybe this connects with bringing in guys like JL.
 
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pnuts34 said:




If he learns from the last 2 losses at the end of the season, then this team can be in the CFP and again in the NC hunt. It sounds like he’s adapting to his talent
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I think there is plenty of blame to go around on the defense in the two losses. Parts were play calls and I think Knowles has owned up to that. But then you also have top players suddenly falling down in coverage and missing tackles that wasn't happening all year. I get that everyone will say the only real offensive competition the defense played against were in the two losses, but there some big busted plays that I don't know if we'll know were anomalies or a systemic Knowles issue until next year. I do like the accountability though, guy is not making any excuses.
 
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RB07OSU said:
I think there is plenty of blame to go around on the defense in the two losses. Parts were play calls and I think Knowles has owned up to that. But then you also have top players suddenly falling down in coverage and missing tackles that wasn't happening all year. I get that everyone will say the only real offensive competition the defense played against were in the two losses, but there some big busted plays that I don't know if we'll know were anomalies or a systemic Knowles issue until next year. I do like the accountability though, guy is not making any excuses.
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Not only do I like the accountability, but I also like that he's willing to make changes in order to make the defense better at the end of the day, not all coaches are willing to admit when portions of their scheme aren't working. But Stevie Wonder could see that Sawyer made a terrible Jack, and that better options should be guys in more of a LB build, or that the Nickel should be CBs who tend to cover better than Safety's(depending on the scenario)
 
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pnuts34 said:
Not only do I like the accountability, but I also like that he's willing to make changes in order to make the defense better at the end of the day, not all coaches are willing to admit when portions of their scheme aren't working. But Stevie Wonder could see that Sawyer made a terrible Jack, and that better options should be guys in more of a LB build, or that the Nickel should be CBs who tend to cover better than Safety's(depending on the scenario)
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Exactly, some ideas seem great on paper and don't pan out. A great coach recognizes that and adapts. So I appreciate that from Knowles. Sawyer playing Jack (i just realized how weird the semantics are here) was a bad idea. But Knowles at least acknowledged it and plans to change it.

The other changes, I hope we are ready to implement. At DB, we have a lot of talent and just need to have guys perform. If we can't make Burke/Davison/Hancock/Mathews/Proctor/Ransom/Styles/Stokes/etc work out, we'll realize the problem pretty quick and it won't be our players.
 
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Bestbuck36 said:
Honestly, an aggressive 4-3 with the talent we have would probably pay dividends in most games. Eich actually played very well in coverage which surprised most people especially the deep ball UGA threw on him. So put Sawyers hand in the mud and bring the pain and let athletes be athletes behind them.
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Was thinking that as well. We could use a solid 4-3 which we have the talent to deploy. Especially against those fucks up north.
 
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Bestbuck36 said:
Honestly, an aggressive 4-3 with the talent we have would probably pay dividends in most games. Eich actually played very well in coverage which surprised most people especially the deep ball UGA threw on him. So put Sawyers hand in the mud and bring the pain and let athletes be athletes behind them.
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Not a bad idea at all even if its not our base defense. We have a very talented LB room that starts with Eich and Chambers, but getting some sort of combination of Hicks, Simon and Powers (if he is ready to go) out there with those two more regularly it would be great. Sometimes we'll need 5 DB's out there against passing teams, but working in a 4-3 is feasible. And @buckeyebri said, the 4-3 is also going to help against the skunk weasels and whatever it takes to beat them next year, then do it.
 
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You had 4 plays in 2 games.

- 2 of those 4 were DB's falling down and surrendering TD's.
- 1 was (I believe Proctor?) getting beat on a little switch combo on a double move from a TE for the other TD.
- The other was a trash attempted tackle, heavy at the sticks for the remaining TD.

Remove the last 2 and you have a dub over scUM.

Remove the first two or hold them to FG's and you beat JawJaw by 2 scores. At bare minimum force them to drive the length of the field and you probably win by just burning clock.

People are mad about cover 0 or cover 1 and getting roasted. But when the top two QB's you've faced all year are JJ McCarthy and Stetson fucking Bennett, then I won't blame any coach for saying that they'll take their chances downfield and outside the numbers. I wouldn't believe in them to consistently beat me there either. Save for the DB's falling down or flat out blowing assignment... they really didn't. It's not like those two are 1st round projections.
 
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Buckeneye said:
You had 4 plays in 2 games.

- 2 of those 4 were DB's falling down and surrendering TD's.
- 1 was (I believe Proctor?) getting beat on a little switch combo on a double move from a TE for the other TD.
- The other was a trash attempted tackle, heavy at the sticks for the remaining TD.

Remove the last 2 and you have a dub over scUM.

Remove the first two or hold them to FG's and you beat JawJaw by 2 scores. At bare minimum force them to drive the length of the field and you probably win by just burning clock.

People are mad about cover 0 or cover 1 and getting roasted. But when the top two QB's you've faced all year are JJ McCarthy and Stetson fucking Bennett, then I won't blame any coach for saying that they'll take their chances downfield and outside the numbers. I wouldn't believe in them to consistently beat me there either. Save for the DB's falling down or flat out blowing assignment... they really didn't. It's not like those two are 1st round projections.
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That was perfect and put way better than what I was trying to say. To me there was a sudden lack of execution with individual players rather than a schematic problem. At the time I was pissed at Knowles, but going back to watch the tape is always a good idea. I mean, can you blame a coach for a quality DB falling down in coverage when they haven't done that all year?

Sometimes shit just happens. The UGA game turns up as a W without a player falling down in coverage and then we win the Natty. That same player also was a big reason for our success in the season. Knowles needs a good year without a doubt, but looking back I have a lot of respect for him taking the responsibility for the late shortcomings when I think some guys blew assignments. Don't fall down and make the form tackle in big moments. Anyways, this defense was improved vastly and I think there's reason for hope, though the secondary coaching may need looked at if we're not better in coverage.
 
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Glad Knowles has been hard at work looking for the next guy to allow an unknown receiver go 45 yards downfield on a seem route without realizing it.

I kid, I kid.


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