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.

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.

Knowles had options, and Penn State had to open up the checkbook to get the well-regarded coach to Happy Valley.

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

Penn State head coach James Franklin met with the media Tuesday afternoon to preview the 2025 offseason and winter updates. Franklin discussed several topics, including the Super Bowl, hiring Jim Knowles, winter conditioning, Ja'Juan Seider's departure and much more.

The talent won’t necessarily be the same. 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.

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.