Jim Knowles shares appreciation for returning Penn State staff on defense

For the third season in a row, Penn State Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin had to hire a new defensive coordinator. That ended up being Jim Knowles and, now, his goal is going to be to maintain and build upon past success the Nittany Lions have had on that side of the ball.

During his introductory press conference, Knowles praised the returning staff at Penn State. In particular, he shared how they’re going to help him over a very difficult upcoming month.

“First of all, shout out to those assistants,” Jim Knowles said. “With Deion [Barnes] and [Anthony Poindexter] and Terry [Smith] and Dan [Connor]. They’ve done a great job. When you can have a defense that’s upper tier and go through a couple of coordinators, that means that the assistants are doing a hell of a job. So shout out to those guys.”

It’s alongside those assistants that in the next month Jim Knowles is going to get to work. Unlike many situations, the Penn State defense he’s inheriting is one of the best in college football. So, he’ll need to make his stamp on it but doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel in Happy Valley.

“It’s the next month, right? It’s literally sitting down, step by step,” Knowles said. “And I’m going to do it differently here than I’ve probably done it anywhere in that we’re now looking at the things that were done here in the past. I’m learning that because there has been success. So, I don’t want to come in and just say, ‘This is what I’m going to do. It’s not going to be like that here. Coach Franklin has built a great defensive culture. They’ve had excellent defense here. So, I’m going to look at it step by step to see what we can retain and then start to teach the guys, ‘Hey, this is how I did this and that, watch some of my past film.’ But we are definitely going to go through a process of meshing. It’s kind of an excruciating process.”

One key in retaining so many assistants is that it’s going to allow Knowles to learn how the defense had been structured. That way, even though there’s a coordinator change, the entire system in place won’t change for players.

“That’s what I love to do. You sit there, tell me why he’s doing that. Tell me why he’s doing this. How did you guys do this? This is how I did it,” Knowles said. “But we’re going to mesh the two, for sure because we need to be. I need to be fair to the culture that Coach Franklin has already developed, to the assistants, to the players. I mean, you can come into the players and say, ‘Hey, we’re going to keep this. We can call this the same as you guys called it.’ This is how I did it, but we want as much carryover as possible so that the transition is as quick as possible.”

Later, Knowles would again go on to praise the defensive assistants in place at Penn State. In particular, he explained that this group at Penn State is going to make things easier for him as he moves to the program.

“It makes my life a lot easier. Veteran coaches who have been successful, but are also really low-ego guys, and I’ve talked to all of them and it comes through like, ‘Hey, we just want what’s best for Penn State, and we want what’s best for our players.’ And that allows for a free exchange of ideas, where everybody’s free to say what they want and what worked and what they knew and what could make us better,” Knowles said. “But it makes the whole process a lot easier, working with these guys that Coach Franklin has here. How much they love the school, they love the program and they just want to do what’s best.”

For Jim Knowles, handling this first month as well as possible is the first step toward competing for championships at Penn State.