Jim Knowles knows his reputation.
The year before he took over as defensive coordinator at Duke (2010), the Blue Devils ranked 108th in the country in total defense. In his last year with the program (2017), Duke climbed all the way to No. 21 in that metric. Similarly at Oklahoma State, the Cowboys ranked 79th in total defense the year before Knowles took leadership of the defense, and finished the 2021 season fourth in the nation in that category.
Knowles has succeeded in turning the defenses around at each of his past two stops, but the 35-year coaching veteran also knows the timeline to enact change will be sped up considerably now that he's at Ohio State.
“There is a lot of pressure on me, that’s not lost on me. This is not an entry level position,” Knowles said Monday at his introductory press conference at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. “To those that a lot has been given, a lot is expected. I went into Oklahoma State really believing that when we could get the defense to rise to the level and the culture of the offense and the things that they did off the field and in the weight room, that we’d be able to compete for a national championship. At Oklahoma State we were what, two feet short this year? But it took four years.
“It’s not lost on me that I don’t have four years here. This program is ready to win every single game right now, and we have to get the defense to that level.”
Even with a defense that ranked outside the nation’s top 25 in total, scoring, rushing and passing defense in 2021 – and in many cases, well below that cut-off – Ohio State was just one win shy of the Big Ten Championship Game this past season. Had the Buckeyes gotten past Michigan in the regular season finale, they would’ve been heavily favored to win the conference crown and secure a third straight berth in the College Football Playoff.
Ohio State still finished the season sixth in the final AP poll, but allowing 42 points to Michigan was not good enough to go further than that, and the 45 points the Buckeyes gave up to Utah in the Rose Bowl only underscored their defensive deficiencies.
Knowles admitted he doesn’t have an all-encompassing grasp on the personnel just yet. But from what he has seen, the Buckeyes may not be as far from significant improvement as many might assume.
“From what I’ve seen, I don’t think we’re far off,” Knowles said. “I think the guys that were here are good coaches. I just feel like we can gain a lot just through the presentation and being systematic, having answers, having variety so that the offense doesn’t know exactly what to expect, and being aggressive. I think there are things that we can do just from the package of it. From what I’ve seen, I don't feel like we’re far off and I think the guys that were here did a good job.”
Knowles is not the only new Buckeye coach feeling the weight of that pressure. With Kerry Coombs, Matt Barnes and Al Washington all gone from last season’s defensive staff, new secondary coaches Tim Walton and Perry Eliano have joined the fold as well and will have plenty of expectations of their own.
Eliano, whose Cincinnati defense ranked second in the country against the pass last season, said he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time and you know the expectations,” Eliano said. “And for me, I’ve never ran away from expectations. I’m the ultimate competitor. We always talk about, ‘Is the player a competitor?’ Well, coaches are competitors too, and for me to have the ability to coach here and coach at the highest level and coach big games – the expectation here is to win national championships. I’m not afraid of that. And that takes a lot of hard work, commitment, discipline and dedication, but I’m willing to get in the foxhole with those young men.”
Knowles will take the brunt of the responsibility, however, as Ryan Day branded him “the head coach of the defense” on Monday. Knowles said accountability was among Day’s top priorities during the pair’s extensive conversations about what needed to change in the Ohio State defense in 2022.
“What Coach Day expects of me is to have a system that’s accountable, that I have to have answers, that the players have to understand why I’m teaching what I’m teaching,” Knowles said. “You just need to be able to wrap the whole thing. You need to be able to say, ‘Here’s what we do, here’s why we do it, here’s why you should buy into it,’ because you can give – historically – the facts and the figures. ‘This is what it can do for you, this is what it will do for our team, let’s take a look at the fundamentals, the approach, how we teach.’
“But really, a system, a plan, be accountable when things go wrong – which they will every now and then – to have answers,” Knowles said. “That’s what he wants.”
More specifically, Knowles wants to implement a system that will create indecision for opposing offensive coordinators and make Ohio State’s defense less predictable out of its pre-snap look. Given Knowles’ track record, it’s hard to doubt a coach that engineered one of the nation’s top defenses just this past season.
But even if the pressure to do so in Columbus will be greater than what he’s had at any previous stop, Knowles said he’s excited to try and do so at what he believes to be the pinnacle of the sport.
“You want to be able to play and compete for a national championship on a regular basis,” Knowles said. “And when anyone thinks of the best in college football, they think of Ohio State, and that goes for people in the coaching profession too. … for someone who's worked his way up in the profession, it’s really – for me – the culmination of a professional dream to get to Ohio State and to be with the best in the business.”
