Jim Knowles hilariously shares how he has approached spring practices

Jim Knowles in only few weeks into his new position as defensive coordinator at Ohio State, but has already found the perfect way to manage introducing a brand new defensive scheme to his players.

“Meditation, cigars, you know,” Knowles said with a straight face.

Obviously inserting new schemes into a program isn’t that easy, and Knowles is leading the charge to get those schemes perfected by the time the season rolls around in September. He’s so invested in putting these formations in place that Knowles is doing literally everything except putting pads on and doing it himself.

“We’ll go in one day and we’ll download nine defenses in our jet package which is what we’re calling for the jack and then and then you go and you do it against just trash cans and then and then you do it against the offense,” Knowles said. “I’ll just run around like crazy saying, ‘Go here! Go there!’

“You’re just trying to move them all over the place, then they’re fine and then you kind of see their eyes glaze over and then you know, ‘Okay, it’s time just to call base,’ give me a period and just base four down and then you kind of back off.”

Before being hired by the Buckeyes at the end of last season, Knowles previously held the same position at Oklahoma State. Knowles took over in 2018, and the Cowboys’ defenses steadily improved under the veteran coach. During his first season in charge, Oklahoma State gave up an average of 32.5 points per game. This past season, Knowles’ unit has the best scoring defense in the Big 12 at 16.8 points per game and nearly earned themselves a conference championship.

The Big 12 is known for its defensive inefficiency, so Knowles’ reputation will be on the line as he implements his defensive schemes at a perennial national powerhouse in Ohio State, though Knowles is being patient while implementing his various schemes and formations.

“I want to get it all in because of the urgency, but also so I can teach right I don’t want to keep showing Oklahoma State film so I want to get it on I want to get it on tape — good or not so good — and then we can learn from it all all summer,” Knowles said. “We can we can put it all together and learn from it.”