How Penn State’s hire of a new defensive coordinator shows it’s all in on football
Penn State has made a massive splash by hiring Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles to take the same job with the Nittany Lions. He replaces Tom Allen, who left PSU to become Clemson’s defensive coordinator.
Here are three thoughts on what Penn State hiring Knowles means moving forward.
Penn State proves it will compete
There are on-field aspects and in-conference impacts that we’ll get to, but there is nothing more important about the hire than this: Penn State is here to compete for national championships, and will spare no expense in doing so. There were plenty of defensive coordinator options the Nittany Lions could have poached from schools for the going rate of around $2 million. Maybe Indiana DC Bryant Haines would have been willing to come to Happy Valley, or Green Bay Packers linebackers coach Anthony Campanile would have jumped back to the college ranks, or some other candidate would have emerged and Penn State would have put together a top 10 defense as it has for the majority of Franklin’s tenure.
But the Nittany Lions bypassed all of those good options. Instead they went out and got the best defensive coordinator in college football, who just led the best defense in the country, coming off a national championship win. And they did it by making him the highest paid defensive coordinator in college football, with a salary that will start at $3 million and raise to $3.2 million by the end of his three year contract, according to a source. It is abundantly clear that Penn State is all in on football, even financially, in a way that very few other programs in the country are. Now it’s on Franklin, his staff and his players to pay off the investment made by athletic director Pat Kraft and the rest of the athletic department.
Nittany Lions hurt biggest rival
It’s one thing to bring in one of the best coordinators in the country, it’s another to pull them from your biggest rival like Penn State just did from Ohio State. This comes with the important caveat that it’s better to be the Buckeyes than the Nittany Lions right now, considering they just won a national title, but moving forward PSU should be able to close that gap. And poaching Knowles is a really good start because of what it will mean for both teams moving forward. Penn State’s benefits are more obvious — it will have one of the best and most creative defensive coordinators at the helm of a highly talented defense. But the issues it could cause for the Buckeyes will be worth monitoring.
Whoever gets hired to replace Knowles will almost certainly be a downgrade, and while the Buckeyes will still be one of the most talented defenses in the country, many of their schematic advantages could go away with Knowles. And he’s not the only coordinator OSU head coach Ryan Day could be replacing. Offensive coordinator Chip Kelly is reportedly receiving NFL interest, and if Day has to replace both of those spots it could lead to a slight step back for Ohio State. Now, that still probably leads to a playoff berth, but the Buckeyes could go into next season with a new starting quarterback and two new coordinators. There’s combustibility there and Knowles returning could have mitigated all of it on one side of the ball. Instead, he’s a Nittany Lion and the Buckeyes have an additional question to answer.
Taking the defense over the top
The most direct impact Knowles will have on Penn State will be on the field. He’s the best at what he does, and for as good as the Nittany Lion defense has been in the last decade, it can get even better under Knowles. He’s a master of disguising what he’s doing and being creative in key moments to give his defenses schematic advantages over opposing offenses. That was part of the idea when Penn State hired Allen last year, but it never came to fruition. He stopped disguising his coverages, mostly relying on his talent to win in 1-on-1 situations. That’s not the worst idea in the world when your defense is as talented as Penn State’s, but it did take away some of the advantages Allen was supposed to bring.
Assuming Knowles sticks with how he calls a defense, this should be a much less static unit than it has been since Manny Diaz became the defensive coordinator ahead of the 2022 season. Expect the new defensive coordinator to disguise what he’s doing in coverage while relying heavily on his defensive line to be difference makers both against the run and the pass. It would not be a surprise if Penn State appears to play a more passive style of defense — with less blitzing, specifically — but the coverages the Nittany Lions deploy should be one of the key advantages they have moving forward.
