Jim Knowles Updates: Stats Look Good, But There's More To Do

COLUMBUS — Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles met with reporters on Tuesday to discuss the Buckeyes’ win over Michigan State, the upcoming game against Iowa, and how his defense is performing overall. The highlights of everything

Is Sonny Styles settling in at the rate you thought he would? “Yeah, I’m very pleased with Sonny.” He is being asked to do a lot of things and playing three different linebacker spots at times. If he looks off or a play goes wrong, that’s on Knowles. “When I look at a play, I say, ‘Okay, he should have done this.’ Then I have to look at myself and say, ‘Okay, how many times was he put in that position in practice.'” They have really good players and really good kids. They listen. Styles is employing a myriad of techniques. They need to do a better job of coaching the details.
How long does it take to nail down the nuances of moving from safety to linebacker? “At Ohio State, we don’t have time for year three” like Knowles had at Oklahoma State in developing players. They have to be ready sooner.
Iowa RB Kaleb Johnson is a fantastic back who runs downhill and breaks tackles.
How do you decide to play 3 LBs and pull Jordan Hancock off the field? It’s not easy to pull him off the field but it really is personnel based. It’s not that Hancock can’t handle it because he can. Knowles has had time in his career when he stayed in nickel because those were his dudes, but they have more options here.
In preparing for an opponent, you can expect something and not see what you practiced for. “It’s like what the hell?” There are also times when things you thought would work didn’t work and you have to change what you’re doing and adjust.
“We’ve started slow the past couple of weeks and I blame myself for that.” There are thousands of permutations of what can happen, so it comes down to how many times were players prepared for what they actually see in a game. “It happens a lot to coaches.” The beginning of games, you get some unpredictable things. You want your players to always default to your training. So you look at the plays where you failed and ask why it happened.
On punching the ball out: “We’d love all of them to do it.” They forced two fumbles on Saturday that they trained for a lot in spring and preseason. “Those are deliberate. Those do not happen accidentally. Lathan Ransom is lethal with that and I want him to keep it up.”
Are you satisfied with how you are getting to the quarterback right now? “Never satisfied. Never satisfied. But they are executing what’s called.”
Have you ever been nitpicked like you have at OSU? “My father was a Philly cop so I got nitwhacked.”
What did you like about the three linebacker sets? “I like the fact that they can all work together” off the field as well. The tackling needs to get better at linebacker, particularly this week. They need to be knock-back tacklers. This RB is the king of falling forward and getting two extra yards on every carry.
On the CBs playing off coverage: That’s a constant thought and adjustment. “We’ve been solid on explosive play, so I think you can’t forget that because that wins games.” They need to play press coverage more though.
They activated Caleb Downs on Saturday and they will continue to do so. What you may not see is when they don’t activate him, the offenses won’t attack downfield.
On preparing for a more unpredictable Iowa offense: You got back and look at what a new OC has done in the past, but you go mostly off of what you see this year.
It’s a call for Cody Simon to make that fourth down stop on the QB sneak. He’s told to go high. They can’t practice that though.