I think Poindexter is gone the second VA offers him no matter what the finances are.
Football Penn State set to hire Ohio State DC Jim Knowles as Defensive Coordinator
- Thread starter Richie O
- Start date
Ask Notre Dame, Ohio State, Michigan and Oregon. We've been out schemed in several big games.
You are probably right though O assume Pointdexter probably got a nice raise as well...no way from a n organizational standpoint..Franklin came in and said "ok we just need this much money for JK"...Kraft , Director of Football Operations one would think went down the list ( like any organization does) and started identifying the risks and who was need to keep around and thus give more money too...once Knowles was brought in or even offered..
How about Deon Barnes? He also deserves a raise.
Did AK get a raise? Seems that when you bring in big guns, they'll expect big bucks. Who should be paid more, the DC or the OC or the same?
AK flirted with WVU IIRC. My understanding is that they wouldn't let him coach PSU through the playoffs and that ended his candidacy. I would expect AK to be gone after this coming season.
reports are that the contract is a three year deal fo $9.3m. But Knowles had two years left on his $2.2/year tOSU contract. There will end up being a $1.5m buyout so the contract ends up being a $2.6m/year contract to Knowles if there wasn't a buyout.
So all those losses were because of defensive scheme? Good grief. This is a great hire but people here are taking crazy pills.
Everybody loses games and defenses make mistakes (like DBs falling down). In Jim Knowles' first year at OSU they gave up 30 to Maryland (!), 31 to us, 45 to Michigan, and 42 to Georgia. Was that bad defensive scheme? I'm wondering how Jim Knowles would have stopped Michigan's running game with our tiny DTs, because he couldn't do it with OSU's defense and all their 5 star players either.
Some of these threads seem to be a series of wild overreactions on both sides. Our defense has been great overall, NOT a significant problem, and now we have another great coach that could bring in some good players just on his name alone. Franklin made a big boy hire here but this guy isn't going to be the immediate savior of our team like some people are saying.
Actually, I've heard-read the same about Knowles and recruiting....his asst-position coaches did almost all of the recruiting as he came across as one that refused to kiss 18 year old butts ---- and their parents (kind of like Mike Vrabel). His Xs and Os, though, are as strong as his recruiting was weak. He's getting up in age and I can see where he would want younger coaches to interact with teenage recruits
Pretty sure I read somewhere that Caleb Downs mentioned Knowles as one of the big reasons he chose OSU. Not that JK recruited Downs but just seeing his defense and JK's reputation made a big impact.
Losing to Michigan in 2022 was definitely the fault of Knowles scheme. Way too aggressive and gave up something like three plays over 50 yards to nobody receivers and runners.
Overall a great coach and a great hire by you guys. I trust Ryan Day to make another very good hire,-- his first hire was Jeff hafley who had the number one defense in Day's first year. Big mistake was hiring legendary DB coach, Kerry Combs as defensive coordinator when he was way over his head. I assume that Ryan Day has learned his lesson from that disastrous hire, , which undoubtedly was substantially motivated by loyalty to a long time OSU coach.
That's kind of my point. People here are saying our defense has been a liability and then point to Jim Knowles as the savior as though he hasn't had his own struggles at times. Our defense has been great overall and hopefully in time can take the next step with JK.
I don't see OSU having any issue finding a replacement, although the timing isn't great.
All of this bullshit narrative on why Knowles left is fine and dandy, but guess what?
None of it explains why he turned down Oklahoma and Notre Dame, for what would have been MORE money at OU as head coach, or equivalent money at ND.
Keep splainin buckeyes... 😂
From my perspective, as an outsider, Penn State's problem is whether they have a quarterback who can make the big play when needed. Would a coach trust Drew Allar to make the throw that Will Howard made at the end of the Notre Dame game. To win a national championship you need those plays. Personally, I think Allar is a good kid and hope next year's season is successful other than the game against Ohio State.
Oh for Christ sake there's no world on this earth in which Will Howard is anything close to Drew Allar. Will Howard had an NFL all pro receiver room and Drew Allar had Eastern Michigans.
Howard was the most valuable player of the championship game and even before his great playoff run he was third string quarterback in the Big ten and Drew Allar was not even in the top three in the Big ten All conference selections. His pro potential ceiling, and I emphasize ceiling, is not as high as Allar's, but his actual play in 2024 and the playoffs was substantially better than that of Allar.
LOL. Kurtis Rourke was the second-team QB. Give me a break. Howard had three WRs that will play on Sunday, two will be first round picks. He also had several OL that will play on Sundays and two RBs. Howard, Gabriel and Rourke are just fine but don't have the upside of Allar and, honestly, didn't outplay him given the talent and schedules.
I'm not saying Knowles is leaving but where does everyone think Knowles is magically going to go after 1 or 2 years? Could he leave? Sure but I don't sense right now any desire from him to be a head coach (he's most definitely had opportunities) and while I'm sure there's part of him that wants to coach at the NFL level, he would have to take a pay cut to do so. Could another college offer him more money? Sure but right now there's only one school paying a coordinator over $3 million and it's Penn State. With the commitment that the university is now showing, they're going to be competitive in retaining him as well. Plus, there are very few programs that can offer him what Penn State is right now from beyond a money aspect.
If Allar can't improve his play in clutch moments in the biggest games then we will still be good but most likely will lose to both Oregon and Ohio State.
I thought after the USC game he had turned the corner and was ready for the big games to put the team on his shoulders but it did not materialize. We have had a weak WR group and that has not helped but nonetheless his play needs to improve in these big games. The ND game was a big disappointment. Even if we had pulled it out maybe in OT his performance was shaky. But with that final pick it turned out to be a pretty disastrous performance. We just cannot afford that type of QB play next season from such a "high ceiling" guy.
I have basically seen Allar play in two games against Ohio state. In the first game, he was terrible. In the second game, I don't remember any big plays. I remember you guys commenting about big plays in the USC game. Any other big plays against comparable competition, not clearly overmatched teams. Howard made big plays all throughout the playoffs .
there seems to have been some undercurrent on the tOSU staff including LJ and Day. Reports are that Knowles initiated the conversation. If so, coming to PSU is a giant FU to tOSU. LJ left PSU when BO'B didn't try to retain him after Paterno was fired. It sucked he want to tOSU as it was too close to PSU. This has a similar feel to it.
And the expectations surrounding his performance in his new assignment are just as large as his new compensation package. With the personnel that we have returning on both sides of the ball, there will expectations for excellence in year 1.
We have played great defense over the last several years. But the defense has come up short in critical junctures of the game. My most recent recollection being the finish of the OSU game where, in wrestling vernacular, they essentially road us out until the match was completed.
there are things you have to layer in. First, Allar is 20 years old. Howard is 23. That is a lot when it comes to maturity and leadership. Second, both Oregon and tOSU had far, far better WRs than Allar. Against elite defenders, it really showed. the PSU WRs couldn't get off their blocks and if they did, the route was inconsistent causing the QB to have to wait until they made their cuts in order to know they they'd be in the right place.
Allen, last night, was horrible except for a handful of throws. he'll, he should have been picked off three times in the first drive. Howard, had a brain fart that may have well cost tOSU both the Oregon and Michigan games.
People expect too much from their QBs. And when they win, they are geniuses. Fact is, there are 21 other guys on the field not counting the special teams (and the Chiefs have seven more if you count the refs).
No matter how you analyze it, 13 for 13 in the biggest game of the year and the biggest game of your life is an extremely good performance under a great deal of pressure. On top of that, Howard's running was very important and impactful.
Last two minutes of 1st half vs ND and the second half vs ND was weak. First quarter vs Oregon was horrendous. Ohio State effort was decent (pick 6) but yeah they folded the last 4 minutes in not being able to get the ball back.
The defense is a little like Allar. Generally good but have not performed in clutch time and/or played well enough to win the biggest games.
I agree. The thing is if we could just have one side of the ball step up while the other is struggling.
Unfortunately, the struggles for us on both sides of the ball generally happen during the same game.
There was definite improvement by our team this season an dam hopeful that our upward trajectory continues.
Success has a way of begetting more success - and confidence.
Yep...but it was one game. I thought tOSU could have score 50 if they didn't try to just run the ball. The ND corners had no chance of covering the WRs. Looked to me like ND tried to take away both PSU and tOSU's run game and putting their corners one-on-one with the WRs. Lots of man-to-man coverage. tOSU was able to exploit that strategy with wide-open receivers who were running great routes. PSU's WRs, not so much. And yes, Allar had a bad game but again, he's only 20 and didn't have a single WR that would play significant time if they were on tOSU's roster.
When I look at Rourke, I see a QB who didn't lead his team to a single challenging victory (UM was probably their best). Gabriel is probably the best of the lot. But he is actually 24 years old. However, at his size, the NFL will be a challenge for him.
LJ (along with Vanderlinden) stayed to coach with O'Brien. He left when Franklin was hired - Johnson was actually the interim HC in between BOB leaving Franklin coming on board.
Notre Dame and Texas both had extremely good defensive backs. One of the two had the best pass defense in college football. Not withstanding that Howard played extremely well.
Your arguments about age are illogical in that they don't matter in assessing who was the best in 2024. Obviously, age would impact NFL future success but we are talking about who was the best in 2024.
Allar had a couple great games but all against overmatched teams. He did not play particularly well against OSU, Oregon, or any of the other playoff teams.
I thought the Rourke comparison was interesting so I looked up their stats to see how laughable it really is to say that Rourke was the second best QB in the conference this year. Here is a stat comparison just for this year.
| QB | Yd/Gm | TD | INT | Comp% | QBR |
| Allar | 208 | 24 | 8 | 66.5 | 77.5 |
| Rourke | 254 | 29 | 5 | 69.4 | 85.1 |
It also should be noted that the top 5 WRs for Indiana this year had the following Rivals star ratings coming out of HS: 2, 4, 3, 2, and 2.
Comparing the ceilings of the two QBs is a mismatch but nobody can honestly say Allar had the better year.
How do you rate ND's DBs? Who were the great, hell just good, WRs they played this year. Let me know. Here are the teams they played
TA&M
N ILL
Purdue
Miami (the Ohio one)
Louisville
Stanford
GA Tech
navy
FSU
VA
Army
USC
Indiana
GA (without their QB)
PSU
Hell, USC played their second-team QB and had 360 yards passing.
And back to age, why did tOSU recruit Howard and not play a younger player? Indiana this year, Washington last year, Oregon last year AND this year, ND this year....the trend is to let smaller schools develop QBs then get them in the portal for their Senior years. To give you names: Penix, Nix, Howard, Leonard, Gabriel.... how in the world can you say that age doesn't make a difference? The majority of the final 8 teams this year and four last year and transfer QB's older than age 22.
🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣
This is pure gold, Jerry!
As a Buckeye, I'm just sad that we didn't get to experience a real QB this year, and were stuck with Will Howard. Sigh. Allar has torched us, all while Will Howard can't complete more than 73% of his passes.
Now excuse me while I watch re-runs of Howard hoisting the national championship trophy and his NCG MVP trophy. The absolute worst 4,000 yard, 35 TD natty season you'll ever see! 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣
(if this is a troll post, I'll admit you got me. Well done. And I actually like Drew Allar....)
No, if you watched the game you wouldn't say that. Howard played with tremendous consistency and poise. Allar so far hasn't played with that much consistency against good defenses. Not happy about this but Howard has probably played himself into a 1st round pick. Allar at this point would be a project, someone for the practice squad trying to improve his footwork, speed up his decisionmaking and throw the ball more consistently. I like Allar, he's tough, he gives full effort, and he will improve incrementally. But people need to be realistic about what he can and can't do. He's not a freshman any more and what he can't do now he probably won't be able to do this fall.
Here is what is telling. No one thought Allar was coming back at the beginning of the season. Yet here we are because he is not close to NFL ready and has totally underperformed in big games.
