Jim Knowles cut his teeth as a play caller calling the defense at Western Michigan for a few seasons in the early 2000s before spending eight seasons at Duke calling the defense.
He left David Cutcliffe's Blue Devils staff heading into 2018 to become Mike Gundy's defensive coordinator at Oklahoma State where he steadily improved the defense to a top 10 scoring defense by his final season in Stillwater, cementing a reputation as one of the best defensive play callers in college football.
In 2022 he left for Columbus to join Ryan Day's staff at Ohio State, and immediately improved the Buckeye defense to become a top-25 scoring defense. They improved to #2 overall in scoring defense in 2023 before taking over the top spot in their run to the national title game this past season. The Buckeyes also led the country in yards allowed and red zone scoring defense as well under Knowles last season.
As Knowles begins a new chapter at Big Ten rival Penn State, a program he grew up idolizing and hoping to one day coach for, he sat down with Adam Breneman to talk about the transition to Happy Valley, and how they're going about installing the defense while carrying over what has worked for Penn State the past few seasons as they've developed some of the most sought after edge rushers by NFL organizations in the Draft.
When asked about the biggest coaching lessons he's learned along his career the hard way, Knowles didn't hesitate when responding that you've got to be willing to change.
"You have to be able to look at yourself when something isn't right, or something isn't working, you have to find an answer. You can't throw up your hands and say, 'Well, this is what we do, and this is what we have.' No. You have to search and study for those answers and for a young coach, you have to find those answers before the problems occur."
Knowles also shared that you've got to be willing to stand in front of the players and own your mistakes - because we all make them - and go about fixing those issues with a plan.
Then Knowles shares an interesting nugget, while talking about the last thing he tells his guys before they hit the field.
"The last thing I tell the guys before they leave the locker room before the game is, 'All your mistakes are on me today. All your good plays are one you, but all your mistakes are one me because if you make a mistake, you're not trying to make a mistake."
"So either I didn't have you prepared, or maybe you made that mistake during the week and I didn't get it corrected well enough. When you get to game time, I think those guys have the ability to play free because not everything is going to go right, and they can't be worried about looking over their shoulder, so I take responsibility for all the mistakes on game day and I am accountable for that."
To hear him talk about owning his mistakes by his players is reminiscent of Jocko Willink's book Extreme Ownership, which makes for a great off season read for those that haven't read it yet.
Hear more from Knowles in the clip.