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Kirk Herbstreit names B1G coordinator among top-performing coaches of Week 1

Andrew Kulha

By Andrew Kulha

Published:

Kirk Herbstreit watches college football closely and he knows a thing or two as a former quarterback for the Ohio State Buckeyes. In fact, he and Chris Fowler have arguably become the voices of college football’s biggest game every week on the ABC Saturday Night broadcast.

The point is when Herbie says something about college football it’s a pretty well-informed opinion, and that’s incredible news for two schools (and coaches) in particular this week.

In releasing his top-performing coaches of Week 1, a defensive coordinator — Jim Knowles from Ohio State — was named amongst some of the biggest heavy-hitter coaches in the sport.

Billy Napier is off to an extremely hot start in Florida. His unranked (at the time, now they’re No. 12) Gators were underdogs to No. 7 Utah but came away with a 29-26 win.

Kirby Smart is basically a no-brainer on this list after his No. 3 (now No. 2) Georgia Bulldogs (the defending national champions, mind you) beat the heck out No. 11 Oregon, 49-3. The beatdown was so bad the Ducks went from a ranked team to completely unranked.

And then there was Ohio State, which beat up on No. 5 Notre Dame, 21-10. Sure, Ryan Day gets ultimate credit for the win as head coach, but it’s interesting to note that Herbstreit felt it was Knowles, and his defense, that were the stars of the game.

That is hard to argue, though, because OSU’s offense was supposed to be damn-near unstoppable and the Buckeyes were only able to muster 21 points against the Irish. On the other side of the ball, though, the Buckeyes held Notre Dame to just 253 total yards and forced the Fighting Irish into a putrid 3-of-13 third-down-efficiency mark.

In his very first game as Ohio State defensive coordinator, Knowles and his unit made a huge statement.

Andrew Kulha