Jim Knowles (DC Penn St.)

[zbuck]

Day has gotten plenty of heat. Not sure what you're talking about there

Really ? On this site and every other I frequent the loathing for Knowles is absolutely way ahead of any heat for the O and Day in these losses ....

I get it. We need a whipping boy and Knowles is an easier target than Day.

I'm hopeful that we will see improvement in the D this season. The talent is there. Can't wait to see in action on the field ....

 

[Captain Buckeye]

Yep poor Ransom was put in a situation he shouldn't have been time and time and time AGIAN. At somrpoint how can it be his fault.

Look if a coach asks a top tier college athlete if he's " Got this" he better say "Fuck yes coach I would never let the team down."

At somepoint the coach has to relize he doesn't have it and stop putting him in that position.

And up until those last two games it appeared the defense was able to stop these issues.

I think we should’ve been more concerned after the Penn State game than we were at that time.

We body bagged all the bad teams all year and then when it mattered we relied on guys to do jobs that weren’t able to. The problem is that no one knew there were major issues in the back 7 until it was too late.

This year sets up nicely where we get tested throughout.

We get WKU and ND early, Penn State and Wisconsin in the middle and Michigan late. That’s not even including teams like Minnesota who should be decent too.

Bottom line is we went from a bad defense to a good defense last year. This year we have got to take that step to elite defense and I think we will. Our back 7 this year is littered with NFL players. Hancock, Davison, and Styles are far better than what we had last year. Then you have to think Burke and Ransom improve with another year over their 2022 form. You add all that with a clear directive that we will rotate up front less when it counts and I think this is a top 5 defense.

 

[Captain Buckeye]

Day has gotten plenty of heat. Not sure what you're talking about there

Not nearly like Jim Knowles.

Yes the defense needs to be better vs the good teams but let’s not pretend like we didn’t struggle vs good defenses too on offense.

Couldn’t put up points vs ND, struggled with NW, was clunky vs Iowa/Maryland and just didn’t have anything for TTUN in the second half.

Edited: it’s good we are focusing on competing because that’s what it boils down to. When playing a team that could hit back we did not respond well enough.

 

[Jaxbuck]

re "It isn't the coaches fault if the players don't execute" theory: That is so fucking stupid it makes my teeth hurt. The coach is responsible for what happens. Period. He trains them, he puts them in the positions, if they fail it's on him. There is a basic misunderstanding of what a "reason" is vs what an "excuse" is if you find your self going down this path.

re "But for a few plays it would have been a different game" stuff: "Other than that, how did you enjoy the play Mrs Lincoln?" ask your self that question if you find yourself so deep in the weeds of trying to make excuses for losing that you make a statement like "they only scored all those points on a few plays" with a straight face.

The defense got better under Knowles? Against who? Not when it counted it sure as shit didn't get any better. It failed in new ways, I will give you that but looking at the box score after the bombs all fell, how much better were they in terms of points allowed? Yards? tsun and UGA shredded them.

Whoever said Day should be taking heat, I completely agree. He's on his what second hand picked DC? I don't blame incompetents for being incompetent. I blame the guy who keeps hiring them.

 

[Gunlife]

And up until those last two games it appeared the defense was able to stop these issues.

I think we should’ve been more concerned after the Penn State game than we were at that time.

We body bagged all the bad teams all year and then when it mattered we relied on guys to do jobs that weren’t able to. The problem is that no one knew there were major issues in the back 7 until it was too late.

This year sets up nicely where we get tested throughout.

We get WKU and ND early, Penn State and Wisconsin in the middle and Michigan late. That’s not even including teams like Minnesota who should be decent too.

Bottom line is we went from a bad defense to a good defense last year. This year we have got to take that step to elite defense and I think we will. Our back 7 this year is littered with NFL players. Hancock, Davison, and Styles are far better than what we had last year. Then you have to think Burke and Ransom improve with another year over their 2022 form. You add all that with a clear directive that we will rotate up front less when it counts and I think this is a top 5 defense.

I hope your right!!

Look I have like 7 scarring memories from the buckeyes past. Tim Biakabutuka, Joe Bauserman (nebraska), Juice Williams, Ryan Hamby (multiple), 27 qb sweeps against MSU, and now RANSOM. And its not his fault IMO, so Knowles gets some shit. Just the way it is.

Damn it typing those out like 20 more horror stories came up... fuck it. Going positive!

As you said we are loaded again this year, and if we can get decent qb play we should be in contention at the end of the year.

 

[buchtelgrad04]

re "It isn't the coaches fault if the players don't execute" theory: That is so fucking stupid it makes my teeth hurt. The coach is responsible for what happens. Period. He trains them, he puts them in the positions, if they fail it's on him. There is a basic misunderstanding of what a "reason" is vs what an "excuse" is if you find your self going down this path.

re "But for a few plays it would have been a different game" stuff: "Other than that, how did you enjoy the play Mrs Lincoln?" ask your self that question if you find yourself so deep in the weeds of trying to make excuses for losing that you make a statement like "they only scored all those points on a few plays" with a straight face.

The defense got better under Knowles? Against who? Not when it counted it sure as shit didn't get any better. It failed in new ways, I will give you that but looking at the box score after the bombs all fell, how much better were they in terms of points allowed? Yards? tsun and UGA shredded them.

Whoever said Day should be taking heat, I completely agree. He's on his what second hand picked DC? I don't blame incompetents for being incompetent. I blame the guy who keeps hiring them.

Explain to me like I’m 5 how it’s a coaches fault that a player falls down.

And if you don’t believe the defense improved last season, I’ll leave this conversation alone right now. There’s no reasoning.

 

[RB07OSU]

And up until those last two games it appeared the defense was able to stop these issues.

I think we should’ve been more concerned after the Penn State game than we were at that time.

We body bagged all the bad teams all year and then when it mattered we relied on guys to do jobs that weren’t able to. The problem is that no one knew there were major issues in the back 7 until it was too late.

This year sets up nicely where we get tested throughout.

We get WKU and ND early, Penn State and Wisconsin in the middle and Michigan late. That’s not even including teams like Minnesota who should be decent too.

Bottom line is we went from a bad defense to a good defense last year. This year we have got to take that step to elite defense and I think we will. Our back 7 this year is littered with NFL players. Hancock, Davison, and Styles are far better than what we had last year. Then you have to think Burke and Ransom improve with another year over their 2022 form. You add all that with a clear directive that we will rotate up front less when it counts and I think this is a top 5 defense.

I actually remember being pretty concerned after the PSU game hoping it was just an aberration with the secondary...the chinks in the armor showed that game. PSU did not have a very good passing offense. Then again, JT had the best defensive performance I think I have ever witnessed (which saved our asses and won the game), so I think that overshadowed our issues in the secondary after we won. But agreed we are in position to take the next step forward this year on defense...if the same problems persist, then I will be singing a different tune with the talent we have.

On the offenses we face, I agree that we should have some decent offenses to face throughout the year. ND will be better on offense with that Wake QB that transferred in I would imagine, that game will really tell the tale early on imo. WKU usually has an air-raid offense that presents some challenges. Maryland will be good on offense imo while they still have their QB. Who knows on Indiana for the first game. But we should have a better gauge earlier in the season this year on who should be playing, and who shouldn't.

 

[BUCK3YE5]

The game plan against UM was fine. The execution was the problem.

Before the game, EVERYBODY said the best chance to win is to stop the run game and make McCarthy beat you. Missed tackles, bad angles, and poor man-to-man coverage are all on the players.

I disagree. Focusing on the run is one thing but playing 75% of the game without a Safety is just ridiculous. Yes their passing game was incredibly mediocre but McCarthy is still a 5 star, he's going to be able to hit layups down the field.

It was a total over-compensation based on what happened in The Game the previous year.

If a rematch happened there is absolutely no way in hell the Bucks would have rolled out that same defensive gameplan. 0.0% chance.

Edit: And if Knowles has the audacity to pull that shit again in 2023 we're going to get fucking steamrolled, again.

 

[buchtelgrad04]

I disagree. Focusing on the run is one thing but playing 75% of the game without a Safety is just ridiculous. Yes their passing game was incredibly mediocre but McCarthy is still a 5 star, he's going to be able to hit layups down the field.

It was a total over-compensation based on what happened in The Game the previous year.

If a rematch happened there is absolutely no way in hell the Bucks would have rolled out that same defensive gameplan. 0.0% chance.

Edit: And if Knowles has the audacity to pull that shit again in 2023 we're going to get fucking steamrolled, again.

That didn’t happen.

 

[scarletngray]

Really hoping that Coach Knowles will find a way to get JT, Hall, Hicks and Styles on the field at the same time.

 

[Mike80]

I disagree. Focusing on the run is one thing but playing 75% of the game without a Safety is just ridiculous. Yes their passing game was incredibly mediocre but McCarthy is still a 5 star, he's going to be able to hit layups down the field.

It was a total over-compensation based on what happened in The Game the previous year.

If a rematch happened there is absolutely no way in hell the Bucks would have rolled out that same defensive gameplan. 0.0% chance.

Edit: And if Knowles has the audacity to pull that shit again in 2023 we're going to get fucking steamrolled, again.

You have that wrong...Knowles system has 3 safeties...

 

[Thump]

“Trust the coaches.”

 

[BUCK3YE5]

You have that wrong...Knowles system has 3 safeties...

If they're all lined up within the down markers, who cares?

That didn’t happen.

I was at the game...far too often we had absolutely nobody covering downfield. A corner would get beat and there'd be no Safety within 30 yards. That's a schematic failure, not an execution one.

 

[Captain Buckeye]

Explain to me like I’m 5 how it’s a coaches fault that a player falls down.

And if you don’t believe the defense improved last season, I’ll leave this conversation alone right now. There’s no reasoning.

Or if a kid misses multiple tackles leading to long TDS (Brown vs Penn State and Michigan), or if a kid bites on a double move etc… how is that the coaches fault? These kids were in a position to make a play every single time and literally fell down trying to.

Yes Knowles should’ve played it more conservatively down the stretch vs UGA but otherwise he put his players in a position to make plays.

We didn’t have one player drafted on defense other than Harrison. That’s ridiculous for a school like Ohio State. The talent was absolutely just not there last year.

 

[Mike80]

If they're all lined up within the down markers, who cares?


I was at the game...far too often we had absolutely nobody covering downfield. A corner would get beat and there'd be no Safety within 30 yards. That's a schematic failure, not an execution one.

So you're advocating for someone to be Jabrill Peppers at all times and play 30 yards off the ball. Got it.

Like it or not, that's isn't necessarily a product of having "no safeties" on the field.