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DC/LB Coach Jim Knowles (Official Thread)

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shetuck said:
And we knew, going in, that Knowles isn't a big time recruiter. So it comes down to the other guys to shore up the talent gap in the secondary.
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Yep Eliano did meh recruiting but until the last 2 weeks Safety looked the strong point of the secondary and at least average. Walton felt OMG bad at coaching but did all well recruiting wise. So we'll see
 
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dragurd said:
Yep Eliano did meh recruiting but until the last 2 weeks Safety looked the strong point of the secondary and at least average. Walton felt OMG bad at coaching but did all well recruiting wise. So we'll see
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Pretty sobering rundown about the woes in the secondary:

https://www.landgrantholyland.com/2...-calling-defense-secondary-failures-cj-stroud

Let’s be 100% clear here, the Ohio State defense lost this game. Day, Stroud, and company did just about everything that you could hope that they would against the best defense in the country, but far too often, the defense got absolutely toasted. Whether it was a safety not getting deep enough or a corner not getting his hands up, despite being in position, a DB falling down, or a linebacker missing a tackle in the backfield, something stupid always seemed to happen when OSU needed a stop the most... and more often than not, that stupidity was emanating from the secondary.

I know that there are a lot of people in Buckeye Nation (and some that write for LGHL) that want to get rid of both Perry Eliano and Tim Walton (and maybe even Jim Knowles), but I’m not sure making massive coaching changes for a second year in a row helps all that much, but this has been a recurring theme for this team for quite a while — save for 2019 when Jeff Hafley was in charge,

I’ll have to go back and watch the game again (or maybe I just won’t), but I feel like the defensive line mostly played tremendous football, and I think the linebackers were mostly solid, but the safeties and corners? Woof.

Part of that is poor coaching. Part of that is poor execution (which can at least partially be attributed to poor coaching). Part of that is regular recruiting failures by pretty much every defensive coaching staff under Day.

Sure, Sonny Styles was the No. 12 player in 2022 and JK Johnson was No. 50 in 2021, but beyond those two, do you know how many DBs that have signed with Ohio State have been in the top 100? Two: Jordan Hancock was No. 73 in 2021 and Calvin Simpson-Hunt was the No. 79 player when he signed two weeks ago.

For a program that not that long ago bragged about its secondary being the “Best In America” (RIP #BIA), how is that possible? Two top-50 guys and four top-100 DBs in five classes (yes I know the 2023 cycle isn’t technically over yet); that is flat-out embarrassing.

Obviously, I don’t put all of the recruiting failures on this coaching staff, but they certainly haven’t done anything to turn the tide. But what they have done is seemingly not much to prepare the current players that they inherited to play at the requisite level to keep up with either the defensive front or the entire offense.

I would say that Lathan Ransom has had a pretty solid season but beyond that... I’m struggling to come up with anyone else in the secondary that has been consistently reliable. Whether it is cornerbacks using their athleticism to keep pace with receivers only to have their technique fail them at the point of the catch or safeties routinely overcommitting and getting burned deep, that’s as much on the coaching as it is on the players and despite their impressive resumes, I haven’t seen much that has given me confidence in Eliano or Walton (especially Walton) being able to fix that moving forward.

If they can’t figure something out, I’m afraid we are going to be subjected to seeing elite offenses and sturdy defensive fronts routinely let down by ill-prepared secondaries time and time again, and I don’t know if I can handle that.
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It’s painfully obvious we don’t have the players for Knowles scheme based on who he plays. Knowles seems unwilling to play guys like Styles, Simon and Proctor. We do have the players for a 4-3 with the talent we have at LB just wasting on the bench.

We’ll see if Walton can turn the corners around next year and fix their technique. No Hancock last night was curious.
 
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RuGettinIt said:
It’s painfully obvious we don’t have the players for Knowles scheme based on who he plays. Knowles seems unwilling to play guys like Styles, Simon and Proctor. We do have the players for a 4-3 with the talent we have at LB just wasting on the bench.

We’ll see if Walton can turn the corners around next year and fix their technique. No Hancock last night was curious.
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But Styles was playing last night. Simon can't seem to stay healthy, and he's not better than Tommy or Steele, and Ransom is a better deep S than Proctor.

For those in the Fire Knowles camo, just stop. You can't fire your way to success. You're just going to set your team back further. We need some type of consistency. Knowles is in year 1, and he lost the 2 biggest games, but made marked improvements in every other game! A lot of big plays were stopped and many 2nd half adjustments were made throughout the year. But he needs his players for his defense. We may see a dip in LB number, but a bump in S numbers. A dip in CB numbers, but a bump in DL. I'm curious to how the next transfer portal cycle will work for OSU. But constantly firing guys after year 1 won't make the team better. Now I've seen Leonhards name from wisky brought up, he'd be an interesting CO-DC, but do we really want to go that route again? Doesn't always work with 2 chefs in the kitchen. Especially since Leonhard has run his own show(and succesfully). And it's not like he's a better recruiter than either DB coach
 
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pnuts34 said:
But Styles was playing last night. Simon can't seem to stay healthy, and he's not better than Tommy or Steele, and Ransom is a better deep S than Proctor.

For those in the Fire Knowles camo, just stop. You can't fire your way to success. You're just going to set your team back further. We need some type of consistency. Knowles is in year 1, and he lost the 2 biggest games, but made marked improvements in every other game! A lot of big plays were stopped and many 2nd half adjustments were made throughout the year. But he needs his players for his defense. We may see a dip in LB number, but a bump in S numbers. A dip in CB numbers, but a bump in DL. I'm curious to how the next transfer portal cycle will work for OSU. But constantly firing guys after year 1 won't make the team better. Now I've seen Leonhards name from wisky brought up, he'd be an interesting CO-DC, but do we really want to go that route again? Doesn't always work with 2 chefs in the kitchen. Especially since Leonhard has run his own show(and succesfully). And it's not like he's a better recruiter than either DB coach
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Not in the fire Knowles camp, yet. It wouldn’t be good to walk him after year 1. I just don’t like his scheme to be honest. We’ve seen the risk reward results and it’s not pretty.

I’m also disappointed in what appears to be a lack of player development, especially in the core area of Knowles defense. Was our secondary recruiting really that bad over the last few years? This seems to be a majority of the take on what the problem is. Or, is it as much on the coaches who had a whole off season with them. When I see the constant face guarding and total lack of awareness of the DBs on where the ball is, the lack of tackling skills, and allowing guys who are stopped to still push for 3-4 yards, it really throws up red flags on the coaches.

I just don’t want to see all the coach speak about this guy or that guy looking great in camp and the light bulb going off never to see them play. Or, more than likely, I’m just old and remember when tOSU had real defenses.

I guess here’s to next year and seeing what comes around.
 
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We were a hell of a lot better this year than last. Our two losses were still glaringly bad on Defense. Evidently our talent kennel had not improved very much so against better competition we're still lacking. That takes an influx of talent to fix. He made some great adjustments this year and some bad adjustments. Defensive coaching in college football is a losing proposition so let's be fair on that. UGA can attest to that after Ryan Day just went balls deep on em. I'm willing to give the guy another year before going off on him. He played the cards dealt him this year. Next year he has to do some heavy lifting.
 
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