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Ohio State Football: This will be a massive Spring for Jim Knowles

By Frank Teriaca

ATLANTA, GEORGIA - DECEMBER 31: Ohio State Buckeyes defensive coordinator Jim Knowles is seen prior to the game against the Georgia Bulldogs in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on December 31, 2022 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
ATLANTA, GEORGIA - DECEMBER 31: Ohio State Buckeyes defensive coordinator Jim Knowles is seen prior to the game against the Georgia Bulldogs in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on December 31, 2022 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images) /
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The Ohio State football team begins spring practices next week. It’s time to see what Jim Knowles can do in year number two.

By all accounts, this Jim Knowles experiment worked for the Ohio State football team last season. Getting better in just about every statistical category from the year prior, Knowles stepped in and got this defense headed in the right direction quickly for the Buckeyes.

But with year number two upon us and most of the important players from the defense returning, Jim Knowles needs to take this defense to the next level this spring. It’s no secret that much of the Ohio State football team’s success on defense last year was against teams with lesser talent. When the Buckeyes played teams with equal or close to equal talent such as Penn State, Michigan, and Georgia, the defense struggled mightily.

Knowles knows this. And it’s why this spring will be so very vital to the success of the 2023 Ohio State defense. He has to figure out what he wants to do with the ‘Jack” position. Will Jack Sawyer stay there or be moved to end to replace Zach Harrison? How will the safety position look in year two with two new starters? And lastly, can Ohio State get back to having elite cornerback play?

All these questions need to start to get answered this spring. Knowles has also said on many occasions that the defense wasn’t fully installed last season.  We should see a more nuanced version of the defense in 2023.

Knowles seems to think year two is the time to make a push and demand more from his players. Here is what he said last month, via cleveland.com:

"“But really, it’s just about the technique of it. Now that I’m coming into Year 2, I’ve got to be even more demanding and push and put on more steam with the players individually on the preciseness of the technique. I’ve got to really bear down.”"

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It’s great to see that Jim Knowles seems to understand the importance of how this defense will shape up in year two. He knows that Ohio State was probably one more stop away from beating Georgia in the Peach Bowl. But it starts now with the development that happens in the spring. Hopefully, we see the defense really start to flourish in 2023.

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