By Kyle Golik
It isn’t often that Penn State has been able to beat Ohio State at anything on the gridiron. With news that Penn State won the Jim Knowles Sweepstakes that included Ohio State, Oklahoma, and potentially Notre Dame entering late into the contest after Al Golden took the Cincinnati Bengals defensive coordinator position, they did today.
It speaks to the volumes how Penn State and head coach James Franklin are beginning to maximize the success from their 2024 College Football Playoff Semifinal run, leveraging NIL and donations to have key players come back and make the investment in Knowles.
Following Penn State’s 27-24 loss to Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Orange Bowl, the Nittany Lions had a mixed bag of news with EDGE rusher Abdul Carter, who is projected by many to be the first defensive player selected in the 2025 NFL Draft, declaring and Tom Allen leaving for the same position at Clemson.
Franklin said the following after former defensive coordinator Brent Pry’s move to become Virginia Tech head coach. “I think what we talked about in the past is what can we do and what do we need to do here at Penn State to make sure that guys don’t leave for lateral moves,” Franklin said. “To me, that’s really the main focus. We’ve got to make sure that assistants don’t leave for assistant positions and coordinators don’t leave to be coordinators. If guys have a chance for a clear, obvious promotion, we want that for him. We’d like to create a situation here for Manny [Diaz] and his family that he wants to be here until he has an opportunity to get a really good head coaching job that’s going to allow him to flourish. I think Brent [Pry] handled it probably as well as any. He had a great job, turned down a bunch of jobs waiting for the right one.”
“What happens is I think the older and the longer you’re in this profession you recognize that, right? It’s assistant coaches not leaving for titles. If the assistant coaches have an opportunity to go be the coordinator and call the offense or defense or special teams, then they should do that if that’s what they want to do professionally. But for myself and [Athletic Director] Pat Kraft and [Deputy AD for Internal Operations] Vinnie James, we’re going to try and go everything we possibly can to make sure that guys aren’t leaving for lateral moves. And to me, that’s the focus. The other opportunities, I think that’s in their best interest if it’s the right job, and it’s also I think a complement to what we’re doing here.”
Allen indicated in his introductory press conference at Clemson indicated his desire to be closer with his daughters, but it left a void for Franklin to fill.
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Franklin realized he needed to give a coach a reason to come to Penn State. The retention of draft eligible guys such as EDGE rusher Dani Dennis-Sutton, safety Zakee Wheatley, and defensive tackle Zane Durant.
When you couple it with the transfer of former five-star Texas A&M EDGE rusher Enai White, and a talented core that consists of linebackers Dominic DeLuca, Tony Rojas, and cornerback A.J. Harris, Penn State was in an attractive position to lure a coordinator to the caliber of Knowles.
The question has to be what is motivating Knowles to leave the defending national champions that has a constant pipeline of NFL-caliber players? There have been rumors of clashes with other Ohio State defensive staff members on the utilization of players, and as well being under the constant Michigan microscope.
Those are things Knowles will either reveal in the coming days or keep private but there was something that motivated him to leave Columbus.
Knowles was sought after by the preeminent powers of college football, but Franklin and Penn State was able to demonstrate to Knowles it was willing to pay a premium, reportedly $3.2 million per season over three seasons – the highest for a defensive coordinator in college football history, as well as having a talented cored that finished No. 4 in Bill Connelly’s SP+ index.
Knowles’ defense at Ohio State last season finished No. 1, his loss for Ohio State will be immense because he was the architect of the 4-2-5 scheme Ohio State employs. There are no guarantees that Ohio State will be able to improve, not impossible to, but every Ohio State fan that has the program under the microscope will scrutinize the Knowles replacement.
It is this rare victory over Ohio State that Penn State can relish over, but it will follow with great expectations. If Knowles was escaping Ohio State due to the Michigan grind, he inherited the Ohio State misery of Penn State losing every game since 2016. The personnel fits his 4-2-5 scheme well, the question now that Penn State won the bidding war, it needs to produce either a win against Ohio State but more importantly advance to the national championship where they fell one game short this season.
