ATLANTA — Jim Knowles is most comfortable tucked away in an office, door closed, with a cup of coffee while he dissects plays and develops game plans. There is no mystery in the Ohio State football field, but when that door is closed, there’s a lot of intrigue outside the defensive coordinator’s office.
“I always called him Batman,” Buckeyes defensive end JT Tuimoloau said. “He’s in his cave, and he comes out and you never know what he has in store for you, but you have to get to know him. Once you get to know him, he’s a guy you’ll have on your side . To be able to play for him as DC, it’s a blessing.”
Ohio State (13-2) certainly benefited from Knowles’ arrival in Columbus three years ago. He took a defense that ranked in the bottom half of the Big Ten and turned it into the No. 1 unit in the country. The caller helped Ohio State win its first national championship in 10 years Monday night against Notre Dame (14-1).
“I don’t know what it was like before I got there,” said Knowles, whose shaved head and short, well-groomed gray beard suggest a veteran who experienced quite a few ups and downs as a veteran. ‘coach. “You know, really not. I didn’t spend a lot of time on it. I just knew from the moment I got there that that’s what we were going to be, and that’s how I drove it.”
Knowles, 59, is an Ivy League graduate, a Crow man, who led this program as football coach for six years during a career spanning 36 seasons and six stops, primarily as an assistant coach at several mid-level programs. He turned around Duke alongside head coach David Cutcliffe and pushed Oklahoma State from 112th in total defense to top five in the nation, leading the nation in sacks.
He recruited and developed underdogs his entire life until arriving at Ohio State in 2022. From Cornell and Western Michigan in the ACC and the Big 12, one would never confuse his journey with a path littered with blue chips.
“I’m a guy who came up through the ranks, and all of a sudden you’re dealing with four or five star athletes, so you really have no idea how they’re going to handle my training style” , Knowles said. “But they are very good people, they want to be coached and they have done everything I have asked of them.”
Knowles’ style? Well, it’s aggressive and intense, just like his raspy voice that cracks between sips of coffee during his press conferences. The roots go back to his hometown, Philadelphia.
“Raised by a Philadelphia cop, so there’s an intensity that goes with it,” he said. “You spend time with them, and you know, it’s my job to be hard on them in practice. To be detailed and on top of my game, to have all the answers and to find out what motivates them, because the game day, it’s time for them to play. My job during the week is to be the bad cop and let all the other guys be the good cop.
This style proved to be the perfect fit for Ohio State’s famous silver bullets.
“He’s extremely smart,” Ohio State linebackers coach James Laurinaitis said. “He has this ability to always think about releasing the best players and getting creative. What looks have we shown? What are they going to expect? And then how can we use that against them? He has the gift of making the right decision in the right situation. It’s incredible.”
Consider the decisions he made late in the Cotton Bowl semifinal game against Texas. The Longhorns scored an opening goal, but three plays later, defensive end Jack Sawyer broke through the trenches and sacked the quarterback Quinn Ewers on the fourth try. He got the ball and raced 83 yards down the field for a touchdown, securing a 28-14 victory and clinching a berth in the national championship game.
On the third play, Knowles called a red zone coverage that the Buckeyes had practiced that week but had never used in a game. On fourth down, he stayed in the same look and Sawyer, who also had pressure on third down, made Ohio State history.
“One of his great things is disguises,” security Caleb Downs said. “The way he disguises the field and the way he changes running sequences, I feel like it creates a lot of indecision for opposing teams.”
Ohio State enters the national championship leading the nation in scoring defense (12.2 points per game), total defense (251.1 yards per game) and pass defense (161.1). The Buckeyes are also second in red zone defense (61.1%).
“Jim Knowles is the best defensive coordinator in the country,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said. “I think what he’s done this season and the way he’s built it over the years has been great, and I think he deserves all the credit in the world for building that because we’ve come a long way on defense over the last two years.”
Knowles’ constant development of players, as well as finding a way for players – some now highly paid superstars – is key. After years of hard work in his offices for smaller programs, the question of whether his process could work at a blue-blood school like Ohio State was answered as emphatically as Sawyer hitting a quarterback in the backfield.
He went from a 4-2-5 defense to a three-man defense. With Big 12 offenses scoring at historically high rates, he adjusted again and transformed Oklahoma State into the most dominant defense in the conference in just three years.
“He allows us to play freely,” Tuimoloau said. “Before every game he tells us all the mistakes are his fault and the games are our fault. … I mean, you can’t ask for more than that. We’re locked up for life.”
Success usually leads to more attention. That’s why Ohio State, which too often relied on its rushing offense to cover up its porous defense in Day’s early years at the helm of the program, sought to become a more physical team. Day hired Knowles after the 2021 season and the team began hitting more often in practice, particularly in pads (twice per week throughout the season).
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Notoriety also attracts rumors, particularly in the job market. Knowles’ name this week is linked to the defensive coordinator position on Brent Venables’ staff at Oklahoma. He didn’t deny those rumors or potential interest when asked by CBS Sports.
“Beating Notre Dame, that’s all I’m focused on,” he said Saturday, two days before the national championship game kicked off. “These things happen, I guess, when you’re successful, players make plays. My job is to put them in the best position. These things happen when you’re successful.”
Everything you need to know about Knowles can be found on the ground. Off the field he usually works, behind closed doors and on the training ground. When he has time, he takes a drag on a cigar and, if he has time to indulge, he nibbles on sushi. No one will ever say this man isn’t eclectic.
On Monday, he will coach his first national championship match. Knowles still hasn’t chosen a victory cigar.
“I don’t pick them,” he said. “I just let it happen.”