Former Ohio State Buckeyes defensive coordinator may be the only thing standing in the way of his boss, head coach Josh Heupel, remaining with the Tennessee Volunteers beyond the 2026 College Football season.
As Saturday Blitz's Frank Sciarroni noted, the "hope" for Tennessee putting out a competitive product on Rocky Top this fall is for Knowles to elevate his defense to a point where it can complement Heupel and offensive coordinator Joey Halzle's offensive play-calling.
"Knowles took some heat when he left Ohio State after helping the Buckeyes win a national title to take the defensive coordinator job at Penn State and becoming the highest-paid DC in college football history. That move ultimately proved to be the wrong one after what was a disastrous 2025 season in Happy Valley. Knowles landed in Knoxville this offseason, where he’ll have full control of the defense with Josh Heupel overseeing the offensive side of the ball. We have seen the longtime defensive coordinator take defenses from good to great during his stops at Duke, Oklahoma State, and Ohio State, and that is exactly what he will be expected to do at Tennessee. The Vols have shown major improvement on that side of the ball in recent seasons, but the hope is that Knowles can develop the unit into one of the SEC’s best defenses to go along with Heupel’s high-powered offense," Sciarroni wrote.
Buckeye Nation knows Knowles' defenses take time to integrate, mainly because he's in love with post-snap disguises to fool opposing quarterbacks. In trying to outsmart opposing offenses, though, Knowles' defenses sometimes catch their own defenders. Linebacker rooms are the most common victims, though Knowles' three-safety sets could be tough on slot DBs as well.
Based on the regression from 2024 to 2025 in Knoxville, when the Vols went from a CFP team to one not even on the bubble, Heupel can't afford to catch his team moving in the opposite direction. Especially because the Knowles hiring went sideways.
Jim Knowles could prove Penn State didn't have the means to win
Knowles has an interesting opportunity to prove to the world that he was brought onto the Penn State Nittany Lions' coaching staff at the worst possible time during his upcoming coaching tenure with Tennessee.
He'll have a much better LB room by the Smoky Mountains than he did in Happy Valley, with former Penn State MIKE Amare Campbell, All-SEC linebacker Arion Carter, and the Vols' leading tackler in 2025, Edwin Spillman, leading the charge.
Will that alone be the difference? It's unclear, especially against projected elite SEC offenses up and down the schedule. If Knowles can get the most out of the group he's partly inheriting and partially building, he could make his employer last fall look very bad.
I mean, it was the lame duck James Franklin year in State College, PA. Maybe everything he touched was simply destroyed by the association.
Or maybe Knowles was buoyed by the 2024 Buckeyes roster, and UT is about to find out that they made a mistake. We'll know for sure in a few short months.
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