For the third time in the last decade, Tennessee football dipped into State College, Pennsylvania, for a leader on the defensive side of the ball.
After firing former defensive coordinator Tim Banks on Dec. 8, Josh Heupel and the Vols are expected to name former Penn State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles for the same role, according to multiple reports.
Knowles, 60, is one of the brightest defensive minds in football. He played a hefty role in Ohio State’s 2024 national championship, where the Buckeyes allowed the nation’s fewest points per game at 12.9. They allowed 24 touchdowns across 16 games.
The Philadelphia native spent just one season at Penn State. Before that, he was the defensive coordinator at Ohio State for three years, coming over after a successful four-year stint at Oklahoma State. His final season with the Cowboys served as the most successful, guiding them to top-10 finishes in scoring defense and total defense. He also brings head coaching experience to the table, serving six years at Cornell, his alma mater, from 2004-09.
He spent this past season as the defensive coordinator at Penn State, taking the job with the Nittany Lions after being offered a three-year contract worth $3.1 million per season to make him the highest-paid defensive coordinator in the country. After Penn State elected to hire Matt Campbell as head coach, it was announced that Knowles would not be retained — therefore bringing up a buyout of over $7 million for his remaining two years of the contract, per ESPN’s Pete Thamel.
Knowles took over a defensive unit that ranked top 10 in scoring defense and total defense. In his lone year in State College, Knowles coached the Nittany Lions to a No. 37 ranking in points per game (21.42) and No. 34 in yards per game (334.3). Meanwhile, Ohio State maintained the nation’s best marks in scoring defense (8.15) and total defense (213.5) under new coordinator Matt Patricia. Most notably, Penn State ranked 93rd in the country on opponent third-down conversions at 42.36% — which was a large critique of Banks’ defense, which ranked 98th at 42.95%.
He brings a complicated scheme to the table, which suggests it took the players at Penn State longer than a season to learn. Knowles described his defense in his Feb. 2024 introductory press conference at Penn State.
“I would think the first thing you’re going to see is that we’re going to have answers,” Knowles said. “That’s the biggest thing to me is to make sure that we have answers for the players to be able to succeed, to put them in the right positions. We’ve all watched football and you can see where there’s a gaping hole or a busted coverage. I never blame the players for that. I always take responsibility. If something happens negatively, the players know that in the game, that’s my responsibility.
“Anybody who watches it, you’re just going to see that guys are in the right places. They’re in the right places and they’re not being exposed to the opponent’s offensive coordinator or the opponent’s quarterback, that there’s enough disguise built into the defense so that our opponent doesn’t know exactly where we’re in. I think that’s a big deal. That gives our players the best chance to succeed.”
Notably, Knowles coached Ohio State’s defense to the 2024 College Football Playoff dismantling of Tennessee in the first round. The Buckeyes held the Vols to 17 points in the game, where Tennessee managed just 256 yards of offense. It was Tennessee’s lowest yards output of the entire season, finishing a hefty margin below a 312-yard output against Florida.
The Vols averaged 3.66 yards per play across 70 plays in the blowout loss.
Electing to bring aboard Knowles means Heupel will be abandoning one potential pipeline option. Washington defense coordinator Ryan Walters worked with Heupel at Missouri, alongside other Tennessee assistants at other stops.
Instead, choosing Knowles continues a different pipeline. He becomes the third Penn State defensive coordinator hired at Tennessee in the last decade, joining Bob Shoop (2016-17) and Banks (2021-25).
Aside from coaching against the Vols, Knowles’ deepest connection comes from working under former Tennessee offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe at Ole Miss and Duke.
