Why did Jim Knowles leave Ohio State to be defensive coordinator at Penn State?
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This year’s meeting between Ohio State and Penn State at Ohio Stadium will look significantly different from the past few meetings between the Big Ten foes.
For starters, the offseason hype surrounding the game when the Buckeyes and Nittany Lions were preseason top-three ranked teams is no longer there, as Penn State is unranked and 0-4 in Big Ten play.
There’s then the change in the coaching matchup, as Ryan Day will not be going up against James Franklin, who went 1-11 against the Buckeyes while at Penn State, as he was fired three weeks ago after 12 seasons.
Then there is the elephant in the room in Jim Knowles, the former Ohio State defensive coordinator who left for the same position at Penn State this offseason after helping lead the Buckeyes to a national championship.
Here’s what to know on why Knowles left Columbus for State College:
Why did Jim Knowles leave Ohio State for Penn State?
Knowles spent three seasons on Ryan Day’s staff at Ohio State from 2022 through 2024 as the Buckeyes’ defensive coordinator. In addition to calling the plays on defense all three seasons, he coached the linebackers unit in his first two seasons.
Last season, the Buckeyes defense served to be one of the best in the country under Knowles, which made his move to Penn State even more shocking. The Buckeyes ranked first in the country in points allowed per game (12.9), yards allowed per game (255), yards allowed per play (4.2) and red zone touchdown percentage (42%).
Knowles’ departure from Ohio State after the Buckeyes won the national championship seemed to have been driven by his contract situation in Columbus.
In an interview with ESPN’s Heather Dinich, Knowles said he was hoping to get a deal done before the Buckeyes faced Notre Dame in the national championship game and that, if Ohio State had offered him a contract extension at that time, he “would not have explored or considered other options.”
That contract extension from Ohio State came five days after the national championship, on Jan. 25, and would have made him the highest-paid defensive coordinator in college football, as previously reported by the Columbus Dispatch. One day later, Knowles made the move to State College to be the nation’s highest-paid defensive coordinator for Franklin, with an average annual value of $3.1 million per year.
Penn State formally announced his hiring on Jan. 27, filling the hole at defensive coordinator from Tom Allen leaving for the same position at Clemson. Knowles told Dinich that he had called Franklin two days after the Buckeyes won their first national championship title since 2014.
“I did not want to put anyone, including myself, in a position to have to deal with it immediately following the national championship game,” Knowles told ESPN. “And that’s the way it happened.”
He added: “Season’s over, everything coming to a head again quickly. Ohio State hasn’t come forward with a deal, and it’s like, OK, if I’m going to act on this or at least explore it, I have got to make the call.”
In his first address to Penn State, which was shared by the Nittany Lions’ social media team, Knowles said Penn State was “everything” for him as a kid. The former Ohio State defensive coordinator grew up in the Philadelphia area and attended St. Joe’s Prep, an all-boys Jesuit high school in the Philadelphia area.
“We had like three channels on TV and you got up Sunday morning and you watched the Penn State highlights … Penn State was everything,” Knowles said in a video released by Penn State. “It was everything. That’s what we aspired to be. I couldn’t get there as a player, but through a lot of work, a lot of time, a lot of really good players, that allowed me to reach that point in my career where I could pick wherever I really wanted to be. Growing up as a kid, Penn State was everything and this is where I want to be.”
Jim Knowles coaching career
Here’s a stop-by-stop breakdown of Knowles’ coaching career, including his stop at Ohio State:
Head coach position unless otherwise specified. Assistant role listed in parentheses.
- 1988-1996: Cornell defensive Line coach, running backs coach and linebackers coach
- 1997-2002: Western Michigan defensive coordinator and defensive line coach
- 2003: Ole Miss linebackers coach
- 2004-2009: Cornell
- 2010-2017: Duke defensive coordinator, linebackers coach and safeties coach
- 2018-2021: Oklahoma State defensive coordinator
- 2022-2024: Ohio State defensive coordinator and linebackers coach
- 2025: Penn State defensive coordinator
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Why did Jim Knowles leave Ohio State for Penn State?
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