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DC/LB Coach Jim Knowles (Official Thread)

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It will be great for people like us who are going to sit and watch that game and imagine the players we have in those positions playing the game. This will be the best film the Buckeyes could get outside of an actual game against ND.
 
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rsh said:
This. And the '22 defense really just need to get back to stopping the run.

The '20 defense, despite of all its woes, was actually good at stopping the run, as any functional single high defenses is supposed to be. Even playoff-caliber backs like ETN & Najee Harris had limited success against the '20 D: ETN 10 carries 32 yards, 3.2 per; Najee 22 carries 79 yards, 3.6 per. (Unfortunately, without the elite pass rush & secondary from '19, the '20 defense broke down too often against the pass.)

One could reasonably imagine that had the dudes from the '20 D returned in '21 (e.g. Togiai, Werner, etc), the Buckeyes could easily be undefeated in the regular season. The best passing offenses on the schedule was maybe Purdue? Both Oregon & TTUN have strong ground games, but mediocre QBs. I would take CJ (or any Ryan Day protégé) over Anthony Brown or McNamara in a QB duel any day of the week ... even in CJ's first year. In '22, CJ's edge over opposing QBs can only grow larger.

IMO, more consistent QB play & an improved run defense is the recipe for success '22.
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with all this talk about stopping the run, how did the '21 defense stopped michigan state?
 
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shetuck said:
with all this talk about stopping the run, how did the '21 defense stopped michigan state?
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I’ve said it in other threads, but because we were front runners this year.

Jump out quick and we belong with best teams in country. But if we got hit in mouth early we were in huge trouble. We didn’t have the physical or mental toughness, especially defensively, to win games where they were the more physical team.

Gattis was right as much as we hate it. We are a finesse team right now. Biggest challenge Day and Knowles have over the off-season is correcting that.
 
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heisman said:
49 points in 7 possessions shut down their running game.
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fair enough… but then that means that the problem with the ttun loss was with our offense.

tbh if somebody told me we’d come out of that game with only 27 points, i’d also say that the offense is the group who significantly underperformed, problems on the defensive side of the ball notwithstanding.

EDIT: just saw billmac’s post above… couldn’t agree more.
 
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billmac91 said:
I’ve said it in other threads, but because we were front runners this year.

Jump out quick and we belong with best teams in country. But if we got hit in mouth early we were in huge trouble. We didn’t have the physical or mental toughness, especially defensively, to win games where they were the more physical team.

Gattis was right as much as we hate it. We are a finesse team right now. Biggest challenge Day and Knowles have over the off-season is correcting that.
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I think it’s a bit unfair to say the players weren’t “tough.” Not having a DC who knew how to implement a system in the spring and fall, and then switching things up in the middle of the season, not only resulted in players that were constantly thinking too much and playing slow, but very likely assistant coaches who weren’t clear on exactly what they were supposed to be coaching the players to do, especially when the offense motioned and/or gave unexpected looks.

Not being able to play aggressive because the coaches didn’t know how to call aggressive plays in the first place, and beyond that you weren’t properly coached on what to do, is not the same thing as not being tough.
 
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shetuck said:
fair enough… but then that means that the problem with the ttun loss was with our offense.

tbh if somebody told me we’d come out of that game with only 27 points, i’d also say that the offense is the group who significantly underperformed, problems on the defensive side of the ball notwithstanding.

EDIT: just saw billmac’s post above… couldn’t agree more.
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I thought the offense played well against Michigan, especially in those conditions.

That said, there’s a reason those conditions favored Michigan and were a detriment to us. It favored power football. And I’m not sure if anyone has noticed, but the weather tends to get really cold, windy, and even snow in mid November…….so being a finesse team may not be a great idea down the backstretch of our schedule. It’s a little bit of a conundrum, IMO.

Day likes to light the scoreboard up and throw ball around the park. Our geographic location is not always suited for that, which means it’s critical we find a power run game going into next year. Henderson really put leaves over large holes in our backyard most of the season. He’d break some huge ones but we didn’t consistently get that 2nd and 3rd and short situation most of year.

Lastly, and I’ve said this countless times, but the time to answer Michigan was on our first drive to show them they couldn’t stop our offense. And for some unknown reason we send Fleming back there (who had already shown a week previously he struggles with securely catching ball) and he muffs the kickoff and we start on our 4 yard line. We come out in a safety protection offense (Chris Olave didn’t even see the field until our second possession because it) and we quickly go 3 and out and give a crucial first possession away. It will always eat at me if we simply had Egbuka available for that game.

Granted, we got the pick from Shaw shortly after, but the tenor of the game was just off from the moment we made such a terrible mistake to put our backs against wall. We never truly recovered IMO.
 
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Buckeye86 said:
I think it’s a bit unfair to say the players weren’t “tough.” Not having a DC who knew how to implement a system in the spring and fall, and then switching things up in the middle of the season, not only resulted in players that were constantly thinking too much and playing slow, but very likely assistant coaches who weren’t clear on exactly what they were supposed to be coaching the players to do, especially when the offense motioned and/or gave unexpected looks.

Not being able to play aggressive because the coaches didn’t know how to call aggressive plays in the first place, and beyond that you weren’t properly coached on what to do, is not the same thing as not being tough.
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I mean, I think that’s fair, but at same time I haven’t seen our secondary shy away from hits like they did this year in a long time (maybe ever). It was really bad in Michigan game……guys in secondary wanted no part of Haskins on edge or open field and consistently let him take extra yards to the sideline versus chopping him down. The closest I can recall was probably early to mid 2000’s year where in a somewhat meaningless bowl game we had a few guys clearly protecting their bodies. If opting out was a thing then, they’d have done it but it wasn’t a thing yet….we’d have been better off playing young kids hungry for time, in that specific game.

That’s a physicality issue to me….especially against Michigan.

Agree our scheme was so “off” it also led to tons of confusion and missed assignments.

There is A LOT for Knowles to clean up.
 
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