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DC/LB Coach Jim Knowles (Official Thread)

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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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Not that it's easy, but I don't think it's more complicated than fixing the run-blocking as well as Henderson working on his vision. I think the D will start to work itself out with a lot of returning starters and experienced backups as well as a real voice as DC starting in January.
 
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1926Buckeyes said:
Not that it's easy, but I don't think it's more complicated than fixing the run-blocking as well as Henderson working on his vision. I think the D will start to work itself out with a lot of returning starters and experienced backups as well as a real voice as DC starting in January.
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When Urban Meyer took the program over, he was adamant we’d be a power run team. We had a season where I think we had 1 negative rush for an entire season (wanna say it was 2012 with Carlos Hyde).

We never had that level of confidence this year. Whether it was starting (4) tackles or the lack of a sledgehammer with good feet at RB.

It used to be 50/50 whether we’d run on 3rd and 4. There’s no guessing anymore. Our identity has shifted some….and that’s OK, but I definitely don’t view us as a sledgehammer offense like we used to be.

Again, Day has done profoundly great things for the offense. Far more explosive than its ever been….but we have lost some edge in the run game, IMO. We are more explosive than we ever were under Meyer while also being less physical. Both things can be true.
 
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WHO IS JIM KNOWLES?

Here's a rundown of some of his quirks:
  • His player described him as "some type of cartoon character."
  • He has a degree from Cornell and worked on Wall Street, then quit to start coaching football at the bottom of the coaching ladder.
  • He doesn't put his shoes all the way on, for some reason.
  • He's a vegan.
  • He smokes victory cigars.
The dude gives off extreme Creed Bratton energy and I'm absolutely here for it.

But I think the thing that has me the most sold is just how clear it is that his players love him and love playing for him.

Entire article: https://www.elevenwarriors.com/skul...nce-challenge-is-proposed-and-its-tough-to-go
 
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So back in the loop and reading up on everything. Not much to add that hasn't been said. Seems like a great hire but time will tell. So did Coombs.

About the toughness thing- If we think that's true then doesn't Mariotti's name needs to start coming up? Urban said many, many times that's who's in charge of the physical/mental character of the team. He builds toughness through off season workouts, not the position coaches or coordinators.

Thoughts?
 
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I think him having experience as a coordinator beforehand is huge (or at least makes me more comfortable). Coombs was always a risk to me and I never really loved the hire for that exact reason.

I think someone posted this earlier but I would expect there to be a bit of a learning curve for our guys when it comes to his system. It seems it took a few years for it to really set in at OkSU but hopefully our returning experience on D and the generally higher level of talent can mitigate that. I like the aggression and adjustments he brings to the table for sure though.

My only real concern is he seems to be a late bloomer when it comes to how highly people regard him. Now there are plenty of great coaches who went through that same kinda deal, but there's always the thought that he may have just caught lightning in a bottle at OkSU.

Also think Jax's question about Marotti is very much warranted. Maybe the S&C program has gotten a bit stale after all these years.
 
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I’m pumped. He disguises things and mixes it up to mess with the offense and oline, and I think he’s smart enough to adjust so it’s not too complicated to pick up right away. The biggest thing is he’s competent and smart.

One small thing Fulton points out is he takes the weak side DE and stacks him behind one of the DTs sometimes, but the DE doesn’t really have LB responsibilities, he just hits a gap, but it messes with the OL and their blocking schemes to stack like that… I’m excited because that shit was non existent under the current regime.
 
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Buckeye86 said:


I’m pumped. He disguises things and mixes it up to mess with the offense and oline, and I think he’s smart enough to adjust so it’s not too complicated to pick up right away. The biggest thing is he’s competent and smart.

One small thing Fulton points out is he takes the weak side DE and stacks him behind one of the DTs sometimes, but the DE doesn’t really have LB responsibilities, he just hits a gap, but it messes with the OL and their blocking schemes to stack like that… I’m excited because that shit was non existent under the current regime.
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Did the OSU dline ever run anything exotic as far as “pass rush games”? Stunts, twists, changing gap/rush lanes? Seemed like a holdover from Meyer/Coombs was pretty much “be better than the guy in front of you” type of coaching. Works for inferior matchups but makes it easy for a competent offense/OLine to defend.
 
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OHSportsFan said:
Did the OSU dline ever run anything exotic as far as “pass rush games”? Stunts, twists, changing gap/rush lanes? Seemed like a holdover from Meyer/Coombs was pretty much “be better than the guy in front of you” type of coaching. Works for inferior matchups but makes it easy for a competent offense/OLine to defend.
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They did run simple twists sometimes, but it was extremely basic and seldom utilized. The thing that struck me was that even when we blitzed, it was almost always right into a waiting OL, which is 1000% bad scheme.

I think the main word to describe the defense last year is basic (Fulton described it as 8th grade), because the coaches weren’t really comfortable with what they were doing, which meant nothing creative and no adjustments.

Knowles can seemingly do both, and do both well, and I am excited.
 
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OHSportsFan said:
Did the OSU dline ever run anything exotic as far as “pass rush games”? Stunts, twists, changing gap/rush lanes? Seemed like a holdover from Meyer/Coombs was pretty much “be better than the guy in front of you” type of coaching. Works for inferior matchups but makes it easy for a competent offense/OLine to defend.
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This, more of this.
 
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We are just scratching the surface with this nutty professor, and throughout the offseason we will look into more details and learn about the Knowles defense together. Today, we learned how his defenses line up and got into the controlled chaos that is his goal. The takeaway not mentioned in this was how well-coached his players are. He demands a lot from them in a lot of ways, and they are expected to be able to do everything from coverage to blitzing. For the Buckeyes, this is not going to be a one day transition, but once this defense is going full steam ahead, this Ohio State team will be scary again.

My final takeaway for now is this: Jim Knowles is absolutely nuts, and historically the nuttiest professors are the most successful defensive coordinators in the business. We focused on the back end, passing defense, and alignment in this film study, but we still have a lot to learn. It will be extremely interesting to see how the Buckeyes transition under Knowles and how much he brings over. Until then, we will continue to try to provide more breakdowns on Knowles’ work at the other OSU. Every snap I watched to put this article was a new adventure, and this is going to be a really fun defense to watch moving forward.
 
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