The Ohio State football team won the national championship. When that happens, teams try to poach their assistant coaches. Success breeds opportunities for them. Even so, losing a coordinator to a rival school is something that they never want to see happen.
It happened last Spring when Tony Alford left Ohio State to be the running backs coach at Michigan. The Buckeyes were fine with letting him go since he was on the downslide with what he was doing with the players. The running backs had regressed under him.
Jim Knowles had been rumored to be leaving following winning the national championship. Two teams were rumored to be leading the charge to poach him from Ohio State. One of those teams is Penn State, a rival. It looks like they were able to take him away from the Buckeyes.
Ohio State football team loses Jim Knowles to Penn State
Knowles has accepted a deal worth $3.1 million to make him the highest-paid defensive coordinator in the country. He leaves Ohio State for a hated rival just days after winning a national title. He goes from a loved coach to a hated villain for leaving for a team in the Big Ten.
It would have been better for the Buckeyes if Knowles had ended up leaving for Oklahoma. Instead, he heads to Happy Valley. The Nittany Lions are a team trying to finally beat Ohio State since they haven't done so since 2016. Ohio State is the team that Penn State needs to beat in order to be a championship team.
It's unclear who Ohio State is going to get to replace Knowles as the defensive coordinator. They could promote internally and move Matt Guerrieri into the DC position. They don't have a lot of options on who to bring in at this point, but they have the money to bring someone good from outside if they need to.