Is Jim Knowles going to Duke? Ohio State DC's latest coaching rumors explored

Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles joined the Buckeyes last year after spending four seasons in the same position with Oklahoma State. And under, the Ohio State defense became one of the top-ranked defenses nationally in the world of college football.

However, after Texas A&M announced former Duke head coach Mike Elko as the replacement for Jimbo Fisher, the rumor mill has been churning that Jim Knowles could be a potential candidate to be the next head coach of the Blue Devils.

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Is Jim Knowles going to Duke?

In an article by 247Sports' Brad Crawford, he listed Jim Knowles as a potential replacement for Mike Elko for the Duke Blue Devils. He went on to talk about how Knowles served as the defensive coordinator for the team for eight years (2010-2017) back when David Cutliffe was the head coach of the program.

No doubt, he is a very likely candidate. But, according to their sources, they are unsure if Knowles is looking to transition into being a head coach at this point in his life.

"Jim Knowles previously served on David Cutliffe's staff at Duke for nearly a decade, but sources tell 247Sports that they're unsure if he's interested in being a head coach at this stage of his career. He's done wonders for Ohio State's defense since coming over from Oklahoma State two seasons ago", Crawford wrote.

At the moment, these reports remain rumors as Duke continues their search for the replacement of Elko. Sportskeeda will update its readers with the latest news as soon as a decision is made.

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Jim Knowles' coaching career

Knowles began his coaching journey as a defensive lineman coach for the FCS team, the Cornell Big Red, back in 1988. He stayed with Cornell up until the 1996 season across various roles (running backs and linebackers coach) before joining Western Michigan as their defensive lineman coach in 1997.

Knowles was then promoted as the defensive coordinator of the team in 2001 before being hired by Ole Miss in 2003 as their LB coach and recruiting coordinator. After just one season, the 58-year-old returned to make his head coaching debut with Cornell in 2004.

Knowles spent six seasons (2004-09) as the head coach of Cornell and compiled a 26-34 record with the team. He was then hired by Duke as their defensive coordinator in 2010 where he spent eight seasons before joining Mike Gundy's staff in the same position at Oklahoma State in 2018.

During his three-season stint with the Cowboys, the defense continued to improve drastically.

In the 2021 campaign, the defense finished in the top ten rankings in various areas of defense, such as team sack percentage, sacks per game, and others. Jim Knowles then accepted the DC position with Ohio State in December 2021 and has been a part of Ryan Day's staff ever since.