Jim Knowles: ‘My aspiration is to help Penn State win the national championship’

Penn State made one of the splashiest moves of the offseason when it hired away Jim Knowles from Ohio State as the program’s new defensive coordinator.

Knowles will be one of the highest-paid assistants in the sport. But some have asked the question of whether he might be seeking even more upside, potentially looking to make the jump to a head coaching role at some point.

The veteran coordinator downplayed those concerns with a message sure to fire up the Nittany Lions faithful.

“I have one aspiration. I’m at that point in my career where you focus solely on the job at hand,” Knowles said. “My aspiration is to help Penn State win the national championship and be the No. 1 defense in the country, and that’s really all I’m focused on. That’s not just talk, that’s the truth. I don’t have any aspirations beyond that.”

As far as the task at hand, Jim Knowles will really just have to maintain more than build. The Nittany Lions boasted one of the best defenses in the nation in 2024, finishing seventh in total defense and eighth in scoring defense.

Of course, a significant number of pieces are gone and will need to be replaced.

For now, though, the Penn State media was more focused on how Knowles will go about things from an operational standpoint. Will he be down on the sidelines or up in the press box?

“I’ve gone back and forth but most recently I’d say I spend most of my time in the press box,” Jim Knowles said. “That allows me to get the best vision on the action. And with the iPads now and the communication directly to the players in the helmet I can still be very connected and there’s a lot more time to think up there.”

Whatever he has done in the past has certainly worked, whether at Oklahoma State or Ohio State.

The Buckeyes had the nation’s No. 1 total defense and scoring defense during the 2024 season, propelling the program to the national championship. Jim Knowles believes he has grown over the years and now knows what works best for him as an assistant.

“I’ve worked hard, I guess, on being emotional and challenging in practice, coaching with an edge in practice,” Knowles said. “But in the game, that’s not my job. And the best place to be in order to think and remain calm and try to stay a couple plays ahead and a series ahead is in the press box.

“That’s just what I’ve found for myself, is that if there’s a camera up there on me you’re not hopefully gonna see me reacting to a bad play or even if we get a great play. I really try to stay centered and my job is to not cheer or react or yell — no one’s going to hear me up there anyway either way, so it’s like my job is to think and be composed. I’ve just found the press box is the best place to do that.”

Penn State will certainly look forward to having him up there. After all, Jim Knowles is one of the best defensive minds in the game with the track record to prove it.