“He seems to really enjoy it here at Ohio State.”
The last time Ryan Day overhauled Ohio State’s defensive coaching staff, there was an immediate turnaround that ultimately landed co-coordinator Jeff Hafley the head coaching job at Boston College.
Fast forward three seasons and the Buckeyes have seen a similar improvement under first-year defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, as they allow just 253.5 yards and 15.7 points per game, good for fifth and 10th nationally.
Naturally, that’s left fans wondering if Knowles has higher aspirations than being the defensive coordinator at Ohio State. But Day noted he has “an affinity” for Columbus and friends in the area that could keep him in the press box at Ohio Stadium for years to come.
“The goal is to keep him here as long as we can, but that is a challenge in today’s day and age,” Day said. “You see that across the country, everyone is hanging on to staff and trying to do the best we can. But the good news is, we were able to go get who we felt was the best fit here.
“If you go look at a list and go pay a bunch of money to the highest guy, then you know they’re going to come in for the money or whatever. In this situation, it was the right fit on our end, it was the right fit on his end. Anytime we do that, we try to project the best we can so he’s here for a while and we have stability.”
Knowles has been a head coach before, leading Cornell – his alma mater – for six seasons before becoming the defensive coordinator and safeties coach at Duke in 2010. He’s since engineered some of the nation’s best defenses, but now finds himself at a program that is built to win national championships.
“Yeah, I do,” Day said when asked if he believes Knowles is happy being the Buckeyes’ defensive coordinator as long as they’ll have him. “I think that he enjoys being a coordinator, enjoys the Xs and Os of it and enjoys the interaction every day with the staff. He seems to really enjoy it here at Ohio State.”
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