Recruiting Forum Football Talk IX

Signature Traits of a Jim Knowles Defense
  1. Aggressive, Multiple 4-Man Pressure Packages
    • Heavy user of simulated pressures (showing blitz, dropping into coverage) and true 5+ man blitzes.
    • Loves to send pressure from the second level (safeties, nickels, even corners) while keeping only 4 on the line.
    • Ranked top-10 nationally in havoc rate every year since 2021.
  2. Quarters (Cover 4) as the Base Coverage Foundation
    • His calling card is “pattern-match quarters” (also called “split-field match”).
    • Extremely adaptable vs. spread/air-raid offenses — great at taking away deep crossing routes and RPOs.
    • Forces QBs to throw short underneath, then rallies to the ball (his units are excellent tacklers in space).
  3. Disguise & Post-Snap Rotation
    • Pre-snap he almost always shows single-high safety looks, then spins to two-high (or vice versa) after the snap.
    • Confuses pre-snap reads for RPO-heavy teams (e.g., Ole Miss, Tennessee previously) and air-raid teams.
  4. Elite Third-Down Defense
    • Consistently top-5 nationally on third down every stop:
      • 2021 Oklahoma State: 1st
      • 2022 Ohio State: 3rd
      • 2023 Ohio State: 1st
      • 2024 Ohio State: 2nd
      • 2025 Penn State: top-10 again
  5. Bend-Don’t-Break Red-Zone Efficiency
    • Will give up yardage between the 20s at times (especially when playing top-10 offenses), but elite at forcing field goals inside the 20.
 
Knowles runs a pro-style, NFL-trending scheme that is exceptionally good against modern spread offenses, generates pressure without sacrificing coverage, and gets off the field on third down at an elite level. Tennessee fans are getting one of the two or three best pure defensive minds in college football right now (the other being Glenn Schumann at Georgia).
 
Signature Traits of a Jim Knowles Defense
  1. Aggressive, Multiple 4-Man Pressure Packages
    • Heavy user of simulated pressures (showing blitz, dropping into coverage) and true 5+ man blitzes.
    • Loves to send pressure from the second level (safeties, nickels, even corners) while keeping only 4 on the line.
    • Ranked top-10 nationally in havoc rate every year since 2021.
  2. Quarters (Cover 4) as the Base Coverage Foundation
    • His calling card is “pattern-match quarters” (also called “split-field match”).
    • Extremely adaptable vs. spread/air-raid offenses — great at taking away deep crossing routes and RPOs.
    • Forces QBs to throw short underneath, then rallies to the ball (his units are excellent tacklers in space).
  3. Disguise & Post-Snap Rotation
    • Pre-snap he almost always shows single-high safety looks, then spins to two-high (or vice versa) after the snap.
    • Confuses pre-snap reads for RPO-heavy teams (e.g., Ole Miss, Tennessee previously) and air-raid teams.
  4. Elite Third-Down Defense
    • Consistently top-5 nationally on third down every stop:
      • 2021 Oklahoma State: 1st
      • 2022 Ohio State: 3rd
      • 2023 Ohio State: 1st
      • 2024 Ohio State: 2nd
      • 2025 Penn State: top-10 again
  5. Bend-Don’t-Break Red-Zone Efficiency
    • Will give up yardage between the 20s at times (especially when playing top-10 offenses), but elite at forcing field goals inside the 20.
👀
We need to run more Cover 1 Robber/Rat, man-match quarters or split-field match (all db man/safety zone concepts). Idk why we go full blown zone so often, especially on 3rd/4th down, especially, especially with a Rodney Garner DL.
We should be running a bunch of split-field match on defense this game, preferably with some "palms" coverage. I'm still hoping they run some 1-rat with Perlotte as the rat or cover 1 robber with Boo blitzing and launching matter into orbit..
 
Imagine..... you make millions of dollars to coach a football team. You have a beautiful wife. A beautiful home. Twins (?). And all you have to do to keep it is not have an affair with your secretary and get her pregnant.
Doesn’t matter how good some people have it. They always want more, or Moore...
 
Signature Traits of a Jim Knowles Defense
  1. Aggressive, Multiple 4-Man Pressure Packages
    • Heavy user of simulated pressures (showing blitz, dropping into coverage) and true 5+ man blitzes.
    • Loves to send pressure from the second level (safeties, nickels, even corners) while keeping only 4 on the line.
    • Ranked top-10 nationally in havoc rate every year since 2021.
  2. Quarters (Cover 4) as the Base Coverage Foundation
    • His calling card is “pattern-match quarters” (also called “split-field match”).
    • Extremely adaptable vs. spread/air-raid offenses — great at taking away deep crossing routes and RPOs.
    • Forces QBs to throw short underneath, then rallies to the ball (his units are excellent tacklers in space).
  3. Disguise & Post-Snap Rotation
    • Pre-snap he almost always shows single-high safety looks, then spins to two-high (or vice versa) after the snap.
    • Confuses pre-snap reads for RPO-heavy teams (e.g., Ole Miss, Tennessee previously) and air-raid teams.
  4. Elite Third-Down Defense
    • Consistently top-5 nationally on third down every stop:
      • 2021 Oklahoma State: 1st
      • 2022 Ohio State: 3rd
      • 2023 Ohio State: 1st
      • 2024 Ohio State: 2nd
      • 2025 Penn State: top-10 again
  5. Bend-Don’t-Break Red-Zone Efficiency
    • Will give up yardage between the 20s at times (especially when playing top-10 offenses), but elite at forcing field goals inside the 20.
Yeah this is a true NFL defense and a Saban esque defense. Man match and Zone match (no more just covering grass hoping for a dropped ball)

Cover 4 pre snap shells which helps with disguise and simulated pressures and run support.

I geeked out to this stuff when I thought about helping coach defense. Super excited about this hire!
 

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