DC/LB Coach Jim Knowles (Official Thread)

[Captain Buckeye]

Guys, there is something very unique about Michigan, and bc of it, people really should take a deep breath and back off the ledge a bit.

Michigan is projected to have (7) offensive lineman taken in the upcoming draft. That isn’t a typo….its actually LOL funny when u think about it. There’s a reason they trotted out (7) man offensive lines on a regular basis.

This team was designed to be old, tough, physical, and built to wear down good college teams.

The good news is, barring an unforeseen pandemic, we won’t see an offensive line this good in probably forever.

Again, I think people need to take more of a 20,000 foot approach here rather than isolating a single half against an insanely veteran and experienced football team. They’ve won the battle for the last few years, and it sucks, but they aren’t going to win the long term war. The overall health of our programs couldn’t be any more night and day. The pain right now fucking sucks, but all is not lost here. We are in great shape for future….(2) of the current top (4) teams in rankings cannot say same thing.

It’s not only that… but they lose basically everyone else. This was truly experience vs talent.

They have what 44 seniors? Half their roster guys. That’s why I thought they’d win. I thought with it being there and their roster having boat loads of experience that they’d play a clean and fundamental game. That’s what happened.

On top of the 7 OL, they lose the following.

1. Corum and IMO likely Edwards
2. Both starting WRs
3. Barner
4. 3 starters on the DL
5. A starting LB
6. 3 starters in the secondary.

So that means 17 starters gone. Which btw doesn’t even account for what JJ will do because he might be wise to get out now.

You add this onto the sanctions coming, Harbaugh maybe not being there and a brutal schedule? They’ll be lucky to not have 3 losses by the time they get to Columbus.

 

[billmac91]

We've been rationalizing why we lost The Game for 3 straight years.

And the Covid loophole has been around for (3) years. Couple that with Stalions and you have a huge competitive advantage.

College football has not been “normal” since the NCAA granted a free year of eligibility combined with NIL.

Keep in mind the legal proceeding Justin Fields needed to have to even be eligible for OSU without sitting a year…..that rule was removed, NIL is legal, and u have kids taking redshirts on top of the free Covid season.

Some teams went all in on a short term window while others stuck to their traditional program standards. We, by and large, have maintained our tradition of turning out 3 year studs that are first rd picks and continued to focus on the High School recruiting trail.

Michigan has consistently had the oldest team in Big 10 last (3) years, hammered the transfer portal, and has utiiized NIL effectively to bring back solid veterans who otherwise would’ve been late round draft picks.

Unfortunately for them, a vast majority of their seniors have expunged their eligibility, and the portal is mostly littered with kids who have (1) year of eligibility remaining, which is a dicey game (they don’t get the free year in weight and conditioning and to learn the system).

Just sit back and watch…..they will certainly get portal players (they literally need them to get to 85 scholarships next year) but the effectiveness of kids only on one year will be very noticeable compared to kids with multiple years. Michigans 17th and 18th rated recruiting from 2022 and 2023 will also begin to show its teeth. I’m excited to watch it play out…..

 

[BuckeyeNation27]

and they still claim a bad spot in 2016.

Day had his chance at redemption this year. To make it clear that the cheating was the difference. Instead, he stepped on his dick again.

People may not want to admit it but Day isn't ever going to get it done, no matter how many excuses are made and no matter how many "wait 'til next year" he gets.

I used to be an idiot. I listened to Cowherd religiously when he was on ESPN. When we were playing USC at home, he said if we didn't beat them then (2009), then we'd NEVER beat them. He meant it literally, and that we wouldn't be able to win big games. And I thought......well that's silly. Just because the unique 4-5 year combination of players that we have in that specific year couldn't get the job done, that means we'll never be able to put 85 kids together and beat them? How does that make sense?

I'm getting that same vibe here. Look at what last years OL and QB are doing in the NFL this year. If Ryan Day had hired his brother a year earlier to commit treason and hack Michigan's servers to catch them cheating, we would have played them with those guys. Instead, we played them with significantly less talented players at the most important positions on the offense. They didn't have to take a step backwards anywhere. They had 9th year COVID seniors. It's not fair to say a lesser talented team needed to win to validate the cheating claims from when we were much much much better than Michigan.

 

[1926Buckeyes]

and they still claim a bad spot in 2016.

Day had his chance at redemption this year. To make it clear that the cheating was the difference. Instead, he stepped on his dick again.

People may not want to admit it but Day isn't ever going to get it done, no matter how many excuses are made and no matter how many "wait 'til next year" he gets.

A bad spot isn't 2.5 years of unprecedented recording and sign stealing. Especially because the fucking spot was right and they fucking cheated.

I know your opinion on Day. This doesn't have anything to do with that. This is about a program that built the last 3 years of success on cheating. And this is what they hope for. Cheat and wait for it to go away while fans are too worried about being called whiners to correctly factor it in to what happened.

 

[Steve19]

with Parker Flemming gone, and LJSr retires and both are replaced by competent people who will teach Knowles D the way he wants...

This ^^^

 

[RB07OSU]

Wanting Jim Knowles gone is taking the stupid dial to 11. After the Coombs debacle, it took him one transition year to get us to this year where we ended the regular season with the #3 total yards defense and #2 scoring defense. I swear that peoples' brains got broke on Saturday.

Calling for Knowles to be fired this year is a stupid overreaction by the fans. But if we go 4 years in a row of underperforming against ttun, who btw has an average offense or maybe above-average but not great (East Carolina held them to 30, PSU held them to 24and Maryland to 31), then we are having a real discussion about Knowles regardless of the other games leading up to The Game.

I've said the blame goes all the way around, but I thought the defense would hold them to 20 points or less. The McCord INT in the first half definitely hurt that outcome, but in the second half the defense took a horrible dive when we needed them. I guess my point is that it is foolish to want to fire Knowles after the improvements he has made, but this shit cannot happen every year against ttun. That's why I said him and Day are in the same boat, you can't win 10-11 games a year if *ichigan is not one of those wins at least 50% of the time. Fair or unfair, that is what you sign up for being a coach at OSU.

You may be correct @billmac91 . I don't know. During the broadcast and build up to the game, people said that they thought this year's TCUN line was worse than the previous two.

The only thing that I know, for myself right now, is that I don't believe I'll go into next year's game with any expectation of the Buckeyes winning.
I will be pleasantly surprised, but zero expectation. That's my bag, and I own it. I also recognize that it's because I fully expected a different result this year.
To be clear, it's not apathy. Just a significant lessening of hope that it'll be any different than the last three years.

That was the narrative to begin the year, but their OL got better each week by a lot and ended up probably the best in CFB (or damn near it). But that is where I am at, the last two years were the years to do it and we failed miserably both times. Anything can happen of course but I will not go in thinking a win is likely as I did the past two years. But circling back to Knowles, we can get it done if he just calls the same defense he did before The Game imo.

 

[Jaxbuck]

I used to be an idiot. I listened to Cowherd religiously when he was on ESPN. When we were playing USC at home, he said if we didn't beat them then (2009), then we'd NEVER beat them. He meant it literally, and that we wouldn't be able to win big games. And I thought......well that's silly. Just because the unique 4-5 year combination of players that we have in that specific year couldn't get the job done, that means we'll never be able to put 85 kids together and beat them? How does that make sense?

I'm getting that same vibe here. Look at what last years OL and QB are doing in the NFL this year. If Ryan Day had hired his brother a year earlier to commit treason and hack Michigan's servers to catch them cheating, we would have played them with those guys. Instead, we played them with significantly less talented players at the most important positions on the offense. They didn't have to take a step backwards anywhere. They had 9th year COVID seniors. It's not fair to say a lesser talented team needed to win to validate the cheating claims from when we were much much much better than Michigan.

I don't listen to sports talk radio, or any kind of sports media for that matter, so not sure what that has to do with anything.

I do know that once can be a coincidence, two or more is a trend. If you find yourself constantly making excuses for anyone who isn't getting a job done and expecting that next year the light comes on you are going to be left waiting a lot more often than you are going to be rewarded by that light coming on.

It's just the way it is with human beings.

 

[OregonBuckeye]

I thought Knowles did a really good job overall. The faults with the D lie more with lack of DL development and poor S&C, imo

 

[3074326]

Firing Knowles might be the dumbest fucking suggestion I've ever seen on this forum.

I respect all of you. I do not respect this opinion.

Was the defense good enough to win the game? Yeah. It was. The offense wasn't. It put the D in horrible positions all day, and so did coach Day. We can talk about the 4th downs, which absolutely do need to improve. We can also talk about how fucking awful the defense was before Knowles arrived. It takes time, and I'm extremely happy with the progress the D has made.

 

[ScriptOhio]

Just sayin': Knowles has to be doing something right, 12 defensive players get recognized as ALL-B1G.

1stTeam: Eichenberg, Tuimoloau, & Burke
2nd Team: Sawyer & Williams
3rd Team: Chambers, Proctor, & Hall
Honorable Mention: Igbinosun, Ransom, Styles, & Hamilton

 

[Jaxbuck]

Just sayin': Knowles has to be doing something right, 12 defensive players get recognized as ALL-B1G.

1stTeam: Eichenberg, Tuimoloau, & Burke
2nd Team: Sawyer & Williams
3rd Team: Chambers, Proctor, & Hall
Honorable Mention: Igbinosun, Ransom, Styles, & Hamilton

Just as easy to say that damn near anyone can recruit talent at OSU and he just failed to get a stop in the 4th quarter of the most important game of his life with 12 All B1G players.

 

[BB73]

And they barely played all year.

We rarely use a true rush front on 3rd downs anymore. A very good front would’ve been 97-33-44-92.

I think 33 and 44 should’ve shared a position at times with the other position being 97 and 92. I get on first down to stop the run going with JT and Jack but there just wasn’t very much experimentation there throughout the year.

97 played 1 snap last Saturday. I’m pretty sure it was a 2nd and 6 play shortly after the game was tied at 17, where Spin-pass got to the outside and picked up 15 yards. 97 gave up the contain on that side and never saw another snap.

 

[Jake]

 

[BUCK3YE5]

Not ideal. Maybe BC will fire Jeff Hafley and we could just take him back?

 

[jarv]

Fuck. First Scott decomitting and now this?

We are losing the off-season and it hasn't even started yet.