Things have gotten ugly between the Ohio State football program and Jim Knowles. Knowles helped coordinate a truly elite defense for the Buckeyes last season en route to a national championship. He was a massive part of the team coming together and dominating in the College Football Playoff.
Less than a week after winning the title, Knowles decided to leave the Ohio State Buckeyes for Penn State, one of their Big Ten rivals. Knowles is now the highest-paid defensive coordinator in college football, something that the Buckeyes were not able to match.
Knowles claimed that the reason he left Ohio State was because of the timing of a contract extension offer. In an interview with ESPN, he says that had the Buckeyes offered him an extension before the title game, he would have stayed. That seems like a lie, and he has given the Buckeyes a ton of fuel to beat them this year again.
The Ohio State football team wants to crush Jim Knowles and Penn State
It seems that Knowles had his mind made up before the National Championship Game that he was going to leave Ohio State. That will fire the Buckeyes up, especially the defense. They are going to want to prove that they can still be the elite unit that they were a year ago, without Knowles.
The Buckeyes are replacing eight starters from last year's defense, but they return the best defensive player in college football in Caleb Downs. Hiring Matt Patricia seems to be working so far as far as the current players are concerned, but we'll learn a lot more about that in the opener against Texas.
Ohio State takes on Penn State on November 1st, a week after a bye week. The Buckeyes should be ready to go for that game, and these comments should only fire up the Buckeyes to win this game even more. That's not a good sign for a Nittany Lions team that has only beaten Ohio State once under James Franklin.
The Buckeyes have this game circled on the calendar six months before the game is played. It could be a battle between two top-five teams.