College football insider confirms one thing that Josh Heupel told Jim Knowles before hiring him as Tennessee’s defensive coordinator
The Tennessee Vols made a huge move this week by hiring Jim Knowles after their new defensive coordinator.
On Monday, On3’s Chris Low tweeted that he expected the Tennessee Vols’ search for a new defensive coordinator to move “pretty quickly.”
Low, as is usually the case, nailed it.
News broke on Wednesday that Tennessee was planning to hire former Ohio State and Penn State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles to replace Tim Banks.
UT announced the hire on Thursday.
Jim Knowles was told by Tennessee that he can make some defensive staff changes
Banks is the only defensive staff member who’s been let go by Tennessee since the end of the regular season. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be more changes on that side of the ball.
Low joined WNML’s Josh and Swain on Thursday, and he noted that Knowles was told he’ll have a big say in what Tennessee’s defensive staff looks like in 2026.
“I think one of the things that was appealing to Jim to come here is that he’s going to get [to make] a couple of hires,” said Low. “He’s been told he’s going to get a couple of hires….I’ve told you guys for a couple of weeks that there were going to be changes on Heupel’s staff. And I felt confident in that all along. And I don’t think this changes with Tim Banks leaving and Jim coming in. I think there will be more. And I think that was a part of the whole deal. I don’t blame any coordinator, when you go into a situation, to want to have the latitude to bring in a couple of your guys. It just makes sense.”
Interestingly, Knowles didn’t bring any on-field coaches with him when he left Ohio State for Penn State after the 2024 season (he only brought a couple of analysts). But Knowles obviously has deep connections across college football, which makes it difficult to predict who he plans to keep from Tennessee’s staff and who he plans to bring with him.
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The Tennessee Vols officially hired Jim Knowles as their new defensive coordinator on Thursday.
