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James Franklin got the phone call at 5:40 a.m., two days after the national championship game.
It was about Jim Knowles, Ohio State’s multimillion-dollar defensive coordinator. The man who had orchestrated the nation’s No. 1 defense, helped it run through the College Football Playoffs to a title victory over Notre Dame.
The one Penn State football wanted to lead its defense.
“That’s when I thought it may be real,” Franklin said. “That we may have a chance.”
Before that call on Jan. 22, Penn State reportedly had no communication with Knowles or one of his representatives or agents.
Less than a week later, the Nittany Lions had their man. They had pulled hiring coup of the offseason, reportedly making Knowles the highest-paid assistant in college football history.
Penn State’s courtship of former Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles lasted less than a week, according to Nittany Lion head coach James Franklin.
On Tuesday afternoon, Franklin detailed the hiring process of Knowles for the first time during an annual winter media day session.
Before that phone call, “We had been talking to a ton of other guys, vetting and going through the process. But it’s kind of a twisting and a winding deal,” Franklin said. “There’s guys you think you may be able to get, and you can’t. We looked at NFL guys, we looked at college guys, kind of kept narrowing the list down, hadn’t made any offers − and then this became a possibility.”
The following few days was about “getting to figure out both sides’ interest level … and, ‘Are you actually going to be able to get it done?” Franklin said.
In the meantime, blue-blood programs such as Oklahoma and Notre Dame, both also in need of defensive coordinators, were reportedly in the hunt for Knowles, as well.
“What I think helped with this,” Frankin said, “is we had spoken a couple years…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/james-franklin-explains-penn-state-222053344.html
Author : York Daily Record
Publish date : 2025-02-11 22:20:00
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