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DC/LB Coach Jim Knowles (Official Thread)

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How Defenses Have Fared in Their Second Season Under Jim Knowles At Three Previous Stops

Defensive improvements under Jim Knowles haven’t always been night and day between his first two seasons at previous stops, but OSU is on the right trajectory ahead of 2023.
www.elevenwarriors.com www.elevenwarriors.com

HOW DEFENSES HAVE FARED IN THEIR SECOND SEASON UNDER JIM KNOWLES AT THREE PREVIOUS STOPS​


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Expectations were already sky-high for Jim Knowles to produce a major defensive turnaround entering his first season at Ohio State.

The Buckeyes’ new defensive coordinator inherited a unit that finished 59th in total defense (372.6 YPG), 38th in scoring defense (22.8 PPG), 96th in passing defense (245.8 YPG) and 26th in rush defense (126.8 YPG). Not all those numbers were dreadful, but none represented a truly elite unit. Ohio State also gave up a whopping 77 combined points in the two regular-season losses that kept it out of College Football Playoff contention in 2021.

After nearly overhauling the entire defensive coaching staff in the offseason, Ryan Day made it clear that the Buckeyes were aiming for a top-10 defense under Knowles’ leadership in 2022. And while they didn’t quite get there, Knowles helped the defense improve dramatically by nearly every major metric. This past season, Ohio State ranked 14th in total defense (321.5 YPG), 24th in scoring defense (21 PPG), 26th in passing defense (200.5 YPG) and 26th in rush defense (121.1 YPG).

But that wasn’t enough to get the scarlet and gray over the hump. The Buckeyes suffered one less regular-season loss than it did the year prior and earned a backdoor berth into the CFP, but lost to Michigan for the second straight season – this time an even more lopsided defeat – failed to earn a spot in the Big Ten Championship Game and ultimately fell to eventual national champion Georgia in the Peach Bowl. Once again, Ohio State’s defense took much of the heat as it gave up a combined 87 points in the Buckeyes’ two losses to end the year.

So although Ohio State appeared to take a big step forward under Knowles in many respects, it still wasn’t a large enough leap to take the Buckeyes to the promised land. That means in 2023, expectations will be even higher and patience could begin running thin among Buckeye fans, especially if Ohio State allows another offensive explosion in a potential third consecutive loss to its archrival in Ann Arbor.

Luckily for the Ohio State faithful, Knowles has a track record for producing continued improvement the longer he helms a defense in a particular program. The year before he took over as Duke’s defensive coordinator (2010), the Blue Devils had the 108th-ranked total defense in the nation. By the end of 2017, his final season with the program, Duke ranked 21st in the nation. That same year, Oklahoma State came in at No. 79 in total yards allowed per game. Knowles took over the reins in 2018, and by his final year in 2021, the Cowboys had the fourth-best total defense in the country.

Knowles knew upon coming to Columbus that his timeline for a turnaround would be sped up considerably from any previous stop in his collegiate coaching tenure. And now, with a full year under his belt to implement his notoriously complex scheme at Ohio State, many will view that as ample time for Knowles to truly stamp the Buckeyes as one of the best defenses in the country in 2023.

But while a multi-year investment in Knowles paid off in spades at his previous stops, as outlined above, there hasn’t always been a major statistical improvement across the board from year one to year two.

KNOWLES' DEFENSIVE NUMBERS (FIRST TWO YEARS AS DC)
YEAR TEAM SCORING TOTAL PASS RUSH RECORD
2001 Western Michigan 49th (24.2 PPG) 56th (366.3 YPG) 17th (179.8 YPG) 87th (186.5 YPG) 5-6
2002 Western Michigan 70th (27.5 PPG) 28th (330.7 YPG) 20th (179.5 YPG) 54th (151.2 YPG) 4-8
2011 Duke 90th (31.2 PPG) 92nd (425.4 YPG) 84th (244.8 YPG) 85th (180.7 YPG) 3-9
2012 Duke 110th (36 PPG) 109th (469.2 YPG) 104th 267.2 YPG) 103rd (201.9 YPG) 6-7
2018 Oklahoma State 97th (32.5 PPG) 112th (452.5 YPG) 118th (267.1 YPG) 87th (185.4 YPG) 7-6
2019 Oklahoma State 61st (26.8 PPG) 82nd (412.3 YPG) 102nd (253.8 YPG) 67th (158.5 YPG) 8-5

Knowles served as the defensive line coach at Western Michigan for four years before getting his first crack at a defensive coordinator job in 2001. The Broncos posted respectable defensive numbers, ranking 49th in scoring defense (24.2 PPG), 56th in total defense (366.3 YPG) and 17th in pass defense (179.8 YPG), but weren’t great against the run as they placed 87th in the nation (186.5 YPG).
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ScriptOhio said:
www.elevenwarriors.com

How Defenses Have Fared in Their Second Season Under Jim Knowles At Three Previous Stops

Defensive improvements under Jim Knowles haven’t always been night and day between his first two seasons at previous stops, but OSU is on the right trajectory ahead of 2023.
www.elevenwarriors.com www.elevenwarriors.com

HOW DEFENSES HAVE FARED IN THEIR SECOND SEASON UNDER JIM KNOWLES AT THREE PREVIOUS STOPS​


138972_h.jpg


Expectations were already sky-high for Jim Knowles to produce a major defensive turnaround entering his first season at Ohio State.

The Buckeyes’ new defensive coordinator inherited a unit that finished 59th in total defense (372.6 YPG), 38th in scoring defense (22.8 PPG), 96th in passing defense (245.8 YPG) and 26th in rush defense (126.8 YPG). Not all those numbers were dreadful, but none represented a truly elite unit. Ohio State also gave up a whopping 77 combined points in the two regular-season losses that kept it out of College Football Playoff contention in 2021.

After nearly overhauling the entire defensive coaching staff in the offseason, Ryan Day made it clear that the Buckeyes were aiming for a top-10 defense under Knowles’ leadership in 2022. And while they didn’t quite get there, Knowles helped the defense improve dramatically by nearly every major metric. This past season, Ohio State ranked 14th in total defense (321.5 YPG), 24th in scoring defense (21 PPG), 26th in passing defense (200.5 YPG) and 26th in rush defense (121.1 YPG).

But that wasn’t enough to get the scarlet and gray over the hump. The Buckeyes suffered one less regular-season loss than it did the year prior and earned a backdoor berth into the CFP, but lost to Michigan for the second straight season – this time an even more lopsided defeat – failed to earn a spot in the Big Ten Championship Game and ultimately fell to eventual national champion Georgia in the Peach Bowl. Once again, Ohio State’s defense took much of the heat as it gave up a combined 87 points in the Buckeyes’ two losses to end the year.

So although Ohio State appeared to take a big step forward under Knowles in many respects, it still wasn’t a large enough leap to take the Buckeyes to the promised land. That means in 2023, expectations will be even higher and patience could begin running thin among Buckeye fans, especially if Ohio State allows another offensive explosion in a potential third consecutive loss to its archrival in Ann Arbor.

Luckily for the Ohio State faithful, Knowles has a track record for producing continued improvement the longer he helms a defense in a particular program. The year before he took over as Duke’s defensive coordinator (2010), the Blue Devils had the 108th-ranked total defense in the nation. By the end of 2017, his final season with the program, Duke ranked 21st in the nation. That same year, Oklahoma State came in at No. 79 in total yards allowed per game. Knowles took over the reins in 2018, and by his final year in 2021, the Cowboys had the fourth-best total defense in the country.

Knowles knew upon coming to Columbus that his timeline for a turnaround would be sped up considerably from any previous stop in his collegiate coaching tenure. And now, with a full year under his belt to implement his notoriously complex scheme at Ohio State, many will view that as ample time for Knowles to truly stamp the Buckeyes as one of the best defenses in the country in 2023.

But while a multi-year investment in Knowles paid off in spades at his previous stops, as outlined above, there hasn’t always been a major statistical improvement across the board from year one to year two.

KNOWLES' DEFENSIVE NUMBERS (FIRST TWO YEARS AS DC)
YEAR TEAM SCORING TOTAL PASS RUSH RECORD
2001 Western Michigan 49th (24.2 PPG) 56th (366.3 YPG) 17th (179.8 YPG) 87th (186.5 YPG) 5-6
2002 Western Michigan 70th (27.5 PPG) 28th (330.7 YPG) 20th (179.5 YPG) 54th (151.2 YPG) 4-8
2011 Duke 90th (31.2 PPG) 92nd (425.4 YPG) 84th (244.8 YPG) 85th (180.7 YPG) 3-9
2012 Duke 110th (36 PPG) 109th (469.2 YPG) 104th 267.2 YPG) 103rd (201.9 YPG) 6-7
2018 Oklahoma State 97th (32.5 PPG) 112th (452.5 YPG) 118th (267.1 YPG) 87th (185.4 YPG) 7-6
2019 Oklahoma State 61st (26.8 PPG) 82nd (412.3 YPG) 102nd (253.8 YPG) 67th (158.5 YPG) 8-5

Knowles served as the defensive line coach at Western Michigan for four years before getting his first crack at a defensive coordinator job in 2001. The Broncos posted respectable defensive numbers, ranking 49th in scoring defense (24.2 PPG), 56th in total defense (366.3 YPG) and 17th in pass defense (179.8 YPG), but weren’t great against the run as they placed 87th in the nation (186.5 YPG).
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In other words, his second year as DC is generally atrocious Here is to hoping this time around is much better than the chart above.
 
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Jaxbuck said:
It’s between Studwara, Coombs and this chuckle fuck for the worst hire of the Day era imo.
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Lol studwara and this hire seem decent not amazing. Coombs was on a whole nother planet as far as how bad at his job he was.

Despite the letdowns at the end of the year the defense as a whole was much much better then the clustertfuck it was the two years before.

As much as people hate Stud he was basically Warriener part 2 until he started having health issues. Good teacher bad recruiter.
 
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Knowles driven by push to perfect his scheme 'That's why I do it'; Hicks carving out role?​

Ohio State’s national championship hopes went by the wayside late in the 2022 season after a pair of poor defensive performances spelled losses in games against Michigan and eventual national champion Georgia.

OSU defensive coordinator Jim Knowles has spent the six months since that fateful 42-41 Peach Bowl loss to Georgia working through every aspect of the defense. He and his corps of assistants and support staffers have also spent as much time as they can teaching and reinforcing the nuances of the defensive scheme – a 4-2-5 defense that helped turn Oklahoma State into a pretty good team by the end of Knowles’ run there in 2021.

Knowles said he is still haunted by the hail of big plays that sank the Buckeyes in those last two games.

“Yeah, it's haunted me,” he said on Tuesday. “Just haunting me, that doesn't do anybody any good except it just keeps it in. So yeah. So if it's a problem, you’ve got to fix it. You’ve got to take responsibility, take accountability, then you have to say, ‘OK, why did this happen?’ It was a match-up or somebody's just not doing something right. Well, that all comes back to me. And so yeah, you kind of go back to the start. You look at everything, you look at your teaching progression.

“And then yeah, you have to learn and you say, ‘OK, we're in match-up games.’ Those were two match-up games. We did not … I did not get the job done. So then you have to say, ‘OK, how do I do a better job of from the start planning out the defensive progressions for those match-up games. You’ve got to go back to the beginning.

“Anytime you try to do something, that's a stop gap, or something that's just for that week, to me, you're doomed for failure. It's got to become part of your progression. It's gotta be in your mind from the start. It’s like, ‘OK, the things that didn't go well last year, how do I from day one start to make sure that that doesn’t happen?’ ”
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College Football Playoff 2023: The 11 most important people in pursuit of national championship​

JIM KNOWLES, OHIO STATE DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR​

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It’s tough to ask any defensive coordinator to arrive and fix something in his first year. Even with that said, giving up 45 points, 530 yards and 8.83 yards per play against Michigan is below expectations. Knowles coached an under-talented (at least comparatively) Oklahoma State team to the nation’s fourth-best defense in SP+ in 2021, so he knows his business. In year two, with players understanding their assignments more (and Knowles knowing his personnel), can Ohio State take a jump on that side of the ball, particularly against the Buckeyes’ primary rival?

Just sayin': It's an interesting list of people.
 
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So, I’m really sorry to say this but for some reason I feel nothing changes this year under him. I think we see the same fuck ups down the stretch, superior athletes remained sidelined in critical games and we end up furious by season’s end.

i can’t help myself because I hate personally being of that position and normally I don’t feel that negative during an off-season; I’m not trying to stir a pot or anything so I hope this isn’t recognized as such but I don’t see it with him at all.
 
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MGMT said:
So, I’m really sorry to say this but for some reason I feel nothing changes this year under him. I think we see the same fuck ups down the stretch, superior athletes remained sidelined in critical games and we end up furious by season’s end.

i can’t help myself because I hate personally being of that position and normally I don’t feel that negative during an off-season; I’m not trying to stir a pot or anything so I hope this isn’t recognized as such but I don’t see it with him at all.
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Not me man. Not at all.

I don’t think we will see a top 5 defense but I think we see one that is noticeably better.

I look at all 3 levels of defense and, barring some unforeseen injuries, each unit will be improved. Especially the secondary who could be MUCH better than the group that had just 6 CBs on scholarship and had to cross train a freaking kicker for more depth.

*and that’s not even considering improvement that should come from year 2 in a new system. I was just talking position group talent and depth
 
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