Penn State’s game at Ohio State on Saturday in The Horseshoe will be a homecoming of sorts for Nittany Lions defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, who was hired away from the Buckeyes back in January. But, we probably won’t be seeing a TV adaption of it on the Hallmark Channel any time soon.
As the Buckeyes’ defensive coordinator in 2022-24, Knowles were uber-successful — especially last season. The Ohio State defense gave up an average of only 12.88 points per game as head coach Ryan Day’s squad marched to the national championship.
Along the way in 2024, Ohio State defeated Penn State 20-13 in Beaver Stadium on Nov. 2 — one day short of an exact year ago when the teams meet again on Saturday in Columbus. Twice in last year’s contest, the Nittany Lions had first-and-goal situations at the Ohio State 3-yard line. But both times, Knowles’ defense stuffed the Nittany Lions, who came away with zero points, and Penn State limped away with its 10th loss in James Franklin’s 11 games against the Buckeyes.
Now, Knowles is on the opposite sideline, after signing a three-year, $9.3 million contract with Penn State in the offseason to become the highest-paid coordinator in the history of college football.
Penn State is 3-4, unranked, riding a four-game losing streak where it has yielded 29.75 points per game, and is operating under interim head coach Terry Smith after Franklin was fired. Ohio State, meanwhile, is 7-0 and ranked No. 1 in the country heading into the Big Noon contest at Ohio Stadium.
Day & Co. seem to have moved on nicely with Knowles’ successor, Matt Patricia, the former DC for the New England Patriots (2012-17) and head coach of the Detroit Lions (2018-20). Ohio State’s defense has given up a total of 41 points in seven games — an average of 5.86 points per game. Points, by game: 7, 0, 9, 6, 3, 16, 0. The 41 points is one less than the 42 that Penn State and Knowles gave up to UCLA earlier this month, when the Bruins entered the game winless, averaging just 14 points per game and with a brand-new 27-year-old offensive coordinator who wasn’t sure how to use a headset.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
Here’s what Knowles’ bosses and players, past and present, are saying about the 60-year-old DC. Plus, we included what the points-per-game numbers say about Knowles’ six years as a head coach (Cornell, 2004-09) and 17 years as a defensive coordinator: at Penn State (2025), Ohio State (2022-24), Oklahoma State (2018-21), Duke (2011-2017; he was their safeties coach in 2010) and Western Michigan (2001-02).
HIS CURRENT BOSS — What Knowles’ current boss, Penn State interim head coach Terry Smith, said on Wednesday: “Yeah, he told us everything they’re going to do…No, I’m just kidding. You know, it’s just been business as usual. He gave us some insight as to how they think. But we’re just going about our business, just preparing. And, just in certain situations, what is Coach Ryan Day thinking — just insight like that.
“But for the most part, we’re just preparing of what we see on the film. Because this is a new team. This is a new year for them. They have three new coordinators, and they have different ideas and different thoughts and different ways they’re doing things from last year. So, it’s a talented group, and we know the challenge at hand.”
What Smith said about anything changing this week, given Knowles’ perspective on Ohio State: “No. Coach Knowles is extremely smart. He’s like a mad scientist in the lab. His approach has been the same, whether it was last week at Iowa or this week against Ohio State. So, our job is tough. We got to stop the two best receivers in college football and the hottest quarterback in college football. He’s thrown 80 percent completion. It’s a tough task. So, we’ve got our work cut out, and he’s preparing us for it. Hopefully, our game plan works and we can execute it.”
HIS FORMER BOSS — What Day said Tuesday about facing Knowles: “I think it goes back to what we were saying earlier, just about how college football and how it’s changed, and the money and everything like that. It’s just you’re seeing some things that maybe we’re not used to. But I guess when you look at the NFL, you see more of that than you would in college. But I guess we’re getting more like the NFL, so we try not to take those things personal, but we are human… Like any relationship, when it breaks off, sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad. But there really hasn’t been much communication. He did a great job when he was here, helped us win a national championship and kind of left it at that.”
HIS CURRENT PLAYERS — I asked current Nittany Lion defenders Alonzo Ford Jr. (DT, transfer from Old Dominion) and Zion Tracy (CB, Hempstead, N.Y.) on Wednesday the same open-ended question: “What is Jim Knowles like?” Here are their answers:
What Ford says: “He’s an older guy. He’s a bit quiet at times when he’s speaking, but then he gets intense on the field. He’s a bit of a flip sometimes. He’s an intense guy. He’s a very smart guy. He just pushes our defense to be the best we can be.”
What Tracy says: “He’s very hard on us. He wants us to get everything done the right way. But it makes us better as a whole unit because we got to work all together. He makes sure nobody makes mistakes, easy mistakes, things like that.”
How hard was it adjusting to his scheme? Tracy: “It was pretty difficult. You have to know things in his defense. You have to know somebody else’s job. It’s not just knowing what you have to do. It was different learning it. But it’s good.”
HIS FORMER PLAYER — Ohio State sophomore linebacker Payton Pierce, when asked on Oct. 8 about his relationship with Patricia: “I got to know him pretty well [in the offseason]. It was a lot different than the previous defensive coordinator. I talked to Patricia more probably his first two days here than I did with our old defensive coordinator my whole time being here.”
HIS STATISTICS — Here is Knowles’ history as a DC and head coach, in the most crucial area of points per game allowed. For context, I’ve added the annual PPG average during Franklin’s years as a head coach at PSU and the four defensive coordinators under his direction from 2014-25:
Penn State points per game allowed, by DC:
Bob Shoop (2014-15) — 18.6, 20.1
Brent Pry (2016-21) — 25.4, 16.5, 20.5, 16.0, 27.7, 17.3
Manny Diaz (2022-23) — 18.2, 13.5
Tom Allen (2024) — 16.5
Jim Knowles (2025) — 19.4
Knowles at:
Ohio State (DC, 2022-24) — 21.0, 11.2, 12.88
Oklahoma State (DC, 2018-21) — 32.5, 28.8, 23.4, 18.1
Duke (DC, 2011-2017) — 32.2, 36.0, 26.6, 21.8, 25.4, 28.2, 20.2
Cornell (HC, 2004-09) — 18.1, 18.0, 21.7, 30.1, 24.6, 26.8
Western Michigan (DC, 2001-02) — 24.2, 27.5
