Penn State seeing early returns on Jim Knowles hire, says James Franklin

Penn State football pulled off arguably the marquee assistant coach addition of the college football offseason, hiring defensive coordinator Jim Knowles away from Ohio State. Knowles has only been in Happy Valley for two months and has been able to lead the Nittany Lions on the practice field for two weeks, but the move is already starting to bear fruit.

“Jim, he’s a man of few words,” said James Franklin following spring practice on Tuesday. “That’s in the staff meetings in the morning. That’s out here on the field.

“He’s a believer that he’s going to spend a ton of time in the meeting room and taking notes down, kind of like I do, and then make the points he needs to make to the coaches in the meeting rooms. We meet in the mornings and go through the film, and he is thorough, and he is detailed to the point where I think he’s very, very comfortable on the field letting the coaches coach. But from a big picture perspective, he sees it all.”

Knowles led the top defensive unit in the country in 2024, helping the Buckeyes finish off the season with a national championship victory. Although the program is losing top playmakers Abdul Carter, KJ Winston, Jaylen Reed, and Kobe King to the NFL Draft, the Nittany Lions return plenty of talent from a group that ranked in the top 10 in scoring and total defense a year ago.

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“He’s got a very good understanding of what he wants it to look like and how it’s all supposed to fit together,” Franklin continued. “I’ve been very impressed with how it’s gone so far.

“Like every time you have tweaks on your offense and defense, there’s different responsibilities for different guys that have to take it on. There’s different personalities of the coordinators and the position coaches when turnover happens, and all those things seem to be going very, very well. So I’ve been pleased.”

Penn State football made Knowles college football’s highest-paid coordinator when it hired the Philadelphia native to a three-year, $9.3 million contract in January. But beyond the money, the 37-year coaching veteran contends that Happy Valley is where he wants to be.

“You reach a point in your career where you’re given opportunities based on past performance,” he said in February. “And like I’ve said, Penn State, for me, growing up in inner-city Philly, was the epitome of college football when I was a kid. And I was never talented enough to make it to Penn State as a player. But given the opportunity to do it now as a coach, it’s really where I want to be to continue my career and bring any expertise that I can to the organization.”

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