Franklin and Knowles previously had discussed a job at Penn State. An early morning call two days after Ohio State's national championship began the process.

In the days after the Orange Bowl, Penn State’s players gathered on campus for a team meeting. At that point in January, they found out defensive coordinator Tom Allen was leaving for Clemson and that James Franklin would do his part to hire the best candidate he could.

Just a few days after the Ohio State Buckeyes won the College Football Playoff national championship, defensive coordinator Jim Knowles accepted a new DC

Penn State’s 2025 defense isn’t going to be identical to Jim Knowles’ 2024 defense at Ohio State, although Nittany Lions fans would not mind if there were plenty of similarities.

Knowles was introduced as Penn State's defensive coordinator on Tuesday, one week after he left Ohio State to take the job.

In a new interview, Penn State's defensive coordinator says he's going to build the No. 1 defense with the Nittany Lions.

New Penn State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles said Tuesday the Nittany Lions are "so close" to winning their first national championship in almost four decades.

Franklin had talked to Knowles in December 2021 shortly after defensive coordinator Brent Pry, one of his longtime assistants, left Penn State to become head coach at Virginia Tech. Knowles wound up going to Ohio State and the Lions ended up hiring Manny Diaz, who enjoyed two very successful seasons before he became head coach at Duke.

With the Ohio State Buckeyes still needing to replace Jim Knowles as defensive coordinator, they apparently tried to poach D.J. Durkin away from Auburn, but Hugh Freeze was not about to let that happen.