On Sunday afternoon, news broke that Ohio State Buckeyes defensive coordinator Jim Knowles was leaving the team to become the defensive coordinator for the Penn State Nittany Lions. But the details of his departure aren’t exactly pleasing to Buckeye fans.
Bill Rabinowitz of The Columbus Dispatch reported on Saturday that Ohio State offered Jim Knowles a new contract that would make him the highest-paid defensive coordinator in college football with Alex Gleitman of On3 reporting that the country could have even exceeded the $3.1 million Knowles is now getting from Penn State.
However, despite the massive contract offer from Ohio State and the program’s willingness to pay to keep him, Gleitman reports that Knowles “was fully intent on leaving Columbus no matter what.”
Gleitman reports that Knowles and head coach Ryan Day had a bit of a falling out and “got into it a little bit” after the team’s loss to Oregon back in October when Day “was really hard on the defensive staff” and demanded changes after the team gave up 32 points in the loss.
According to Gleitman’s report, Knowles was not simply poached away by Penn State, but he was actually the one who initiated the conversations with both Penn State and Oklahoma; it was Knowles’ choice to leave Ohio State.
The timing of it all was undoubtedly frustrating to the Buckeyes, too.
On Sunday afternoon, the Buckeyes celebrated their national championship victory with a celebration in their home stadium in front of thousands of fans. Knowles, however, was absent for the celebration, and the news of his departure to Penn State broke before the celebration was even over.
According to a report from Ohio State insider Jeremy Birmingham of Rivals.com and THE Podcast, Knowles stopped communicating with Ohio State, did not even respond to the massive contract offer, and the Buckeyes did not even know whether or not he was going to attend Sunday’s national championship celebration.
The move seemed to catch Ohio State’s players by surprise, as well, with several players offering surprised reactions on social media, though many of those reactions have since been deleted.
Needless to say, it was a surprising move, leaving Ohio State searching for a new defensive coordinator.
