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Ohio State football: Knowles ‘not surprised’ by defense, but Buckeye Nation delighted
By Joe Cox
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It was all about the defense.
After 2 disappointing seasons under Kerry Coombs, Ohio State went out in December and got the coordinator it wanted to turn around its defensive fortunes. It was time to end defensive meltdowns like those against Oregon and Michigan in 2021. It was time to end being outmatched against the Clemsons and Alabamas of the world. One game in, it’s safe to say that the Ohio State/Jim Knowles relationship is not just living up to expectations, it’s surpassing them.
It’s been an indirect route to big-time college football for Knowles. The Cornell alum went 26-34 as head coach of his alma mater in the late 2000s. Next came a tenure under David Cutcliffe at Duke, and then a move to Oklahoma State under Mike Gundy. Wherever Knowles has gone, he’s spent much of his time coaching guys who were a few recruiting stars less, a few inches shorter, a few 40-second-dash ticks slower than the players he was trying to stop. It’s not going to be that way at Ohio State.
In Columbus, the Buckeyes can pretty well pick up their fair share and then some of high 4 and 5-star talent. But 2 seasons with Coombs saw the Buckeyes finish 5th and 9th in the B1G in scoring defense, and 9th and 9th in yardage allowed. The athletes were there, but the execution — particularly in big games — was lacking.
Knowles claimed after the Buckeyes’ 21-10 victory that he wasn’t surprised by his defense.
“It’s a matter of confidence and leadership,” he told the media after the game. “Our players expected this. I expected this.”
But while Buckeyes fans doubtlessly expected Knowles’s defense to carry the day at some point, they didn’t necessarily figure it would work so well so soon.
Against the No. 5 team in the nation, aside from a couple of highlight-reel pass plays by the Fighting Irish, Ohio State’s defense was phenomenal. The Buckeyes allowed opponents to convert 37% of their 3rd down plays in 2020 and 42% of such plays in 2021. Against Notre Dame, they held the Irish to 23% (3-for-13). Coombs’s defense held opponents to a rate that low just twice in 2 seasons — and never against the No. 5 team in the nation.
It was even more important that the defense shine Saturday night, because OSU’s all-star offense was struggling. After Notre Dame took a 10-7 lead early in the second quarter, the Buckeye offense shot blanks for nearly 2 quarters.
But over the final 41 minutes of the game, Knowles’s defense stood strong. The results of Notre Dame’s last 6 possessions: punt, punt, punt, punt, punt, punt. Those 6 series included a pair of 3-and-outs, no drive longer than 40 yards, and no drive featuring more than 6 plays. No drive lasted longer than 3:35, and Ohio State won the battle of possession time 27 minutes to 14. Notre Dame finished with just 253 yards, and ran only 48 plays.
For the last 2 seasons, while OSU’s offense blazed up and down the field, Buckeyes fans yearned for a defense that could merely SLOW opposing offenses — force the occasional stop, not get gashed for large numbers of points, and hold serve until the offense could save the day. Against Notre Dame, the defense wasn’t just that — it was the game-changing force.
Buckeyes coach Ryan Day certainly recognized the significance of what he’d seen from Knowles’s group.
“It wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t the way we drew it up, but we won,” Day said after the game, after noting that holding Notre Dame to 10 points was what he was most pleased with.
Sixty minutes into the Jim Knowles era, it’s safe to say that things are different in Columbus. That might not have surprised Knowles, but Buckeye Nation was pleasantly surprised on Saturday. It might have been the official start of a beautiful friendship.
Veteran college writer Joe Cox covers Ohio State and college basketball for Saturday Tradition.