After working under Ryan Day during Ohio State’s national championship season of 2024 and under James Franklin during Penn State’s imploding season of 2025, veteran defensive coordinator Jim Knowles decided this past December that Tennessee might be a promising next stop in his career.
He quickly encountered a first impression by Volunteers head coach Josh Heupel that was unlike any other.
“Our head coach is as genuine and as real as anybody I’ve ever been around,” Knowles said Thursday afternoon during his first news conference since his hiring. “He’s the farthest thing from a ‘me’ guy or an ego guy. He’s extremely down to earth and communicates well.
“When I flew in here, he picked me up himself and took me to his home, which I had never done before in that circumstance.”
Knowles, who was college football’s highest-paid assistant last season at $3.1 million, will be making $2.2 million this year with the objective to return Tennessee’s defense to top-10 status.
The Vols under former coordinator Tim Banks ascended to the nation’s No. 6 total defense (allowing an average of 293.2 yards per game) and the No. 7 scoring defense (allowing 16.1 points per game) in 2024, when they posted a 10-2 regular season before falling to Knowles and the Buckeyes in the College Football Playoff. Tennessee plummeted under Banks last season, however, ranking 92nd in total defense (397.2) and 91st in points allowed (28.8).
Knowles was asked Thursday whether anything would be carried over from the Banks era or if everything would be entirely new.
“I’ve done it differently at different places,” he said. “Here, we are starting from a clean slate, but that doesn’t mean we don’t use some things that they’ve used in the past. I try to listen to maybe a certain way that they called a certain thing, and I can change on that if they’re already familiar with a certain term.
“In general, though, I would say we’re starting from a clean slate.”
Knowles chose to lay low during Tennessee’s practices for the Music City Bowl against Illinois, evaluating the players from a distance. That is no longer the case after assembling a staff that contains Anthony Poindexter as co-defensive coordinator and secondary coach, Derek Jones as cornerbacks coach, and Andrew “AJ” Jackson as edge rushers coach.
All three have worked previously for Knowles, including Poindexter and Jackson last season at Penn State, which could result in a quicker implementation of his system this spring.
“We can go faster than in other situations I’ve been in, because I have a lot of coaches who have worked with me before,” Knowles said. “That’s a huge advantage, and we have a few players — which is really crazy in this day and age — who have been in this system, and really at all levels of the defense.
“They can help, too, so there is that opportunity to go faster, and we try to throw a lot at them early.”
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Tennessee’s new assistants are eager to keep working with Knowles at this new locale.
“I know you guys may see him as a crusty, old man, but he actually has a big personality,” Jackson said. “He’s one of the funniest people I’ve ever been around. He’s a good human who loves what he does. He loves teaching, and he’s a perfect leader of men.”
Said Poindexter: “Coach Knowles is a brilliant mind when it comes to defense, and I was honored that he wanted me to come with him.”
Knowles retained defensive line coach Rodney Garner and linebackers coach William Inge from the previous staff. He described Garner as a “legend” and said that Inge’s linebacker room during his evaluations in December was “the best room on defense and maybe the whole team in terms of how close they were and how they worked together.”
The four players who followed Knowles from Penn State to Knoxville were defensive lineman Xavier Gilliam, edge rusher Chaz Coleman, linebacker Amare Campbell and safety Dejuan Lane. The Vols will start spring practice on March 16, with the Orange & White Game set for April 11, and Knowles is ready to get going.
“Having answers is the most important thing,” he said, “because you’re always going to have situations in a game where you have to have answers for how they’re hurting you or attacking you. You’re also going week to week in college football where offenses change, and that’s my job.
“We’re going to have answers for anything an offense can do to us.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.