Familiarity key for Jim Knowles in year one at Tennessee

Believe it or not, Tennessee is just a few weeks away from spring football getting underway. The Volunteers will be working through a new defensive install, with Jim Knowles now calling the shots. The veteran coordinator has been regarded as one of the top defensive coordinators in the nation over the past several seasons, thanks to his work at Duke, Oklahoma State, Ohio State and Penn State.

Tennessee, which moved on from Tim Banks following the 2025 season, will be putting Knowles’ defense on the practice field for the first time in a little under a month. That means new language, responsibilities and hearing it from a new voice for the first time.

“I’ve done it differently at different places,” Knowles said of his defensive install. “But here we are starting from a clean slate. That doesn’t mean that 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. But in general, I’d say we’re starting from a clean slate.”

Something that will make things a little easier for Knowles this time around will be familiarity on staff and on the roster. Knowles was able to build his defensive staff in Knoxville, along with keeping on Rodney Garner and William Inge.

Chaz Coleman, easily Tennessee’s biggest pickup in the transfer portal, gives him a potential big-time pass rusher that can can toss on the edge. Knowles went to work with him last year at Penn State, working to develop the former 5-star prospect.

“He’s explosive,” Knowles said. “He’s difficult to block. He has a little bit of an invisible cloak, you where he can twist, turn, beat guys one-on-one. He has great initial quickness off the ball. So he’s a guy that can create havoc for an offense and really creates a matchup issue.”

The 6-4, 246 pound edge rusher will be joined by three of his teammates. Tennessee added Xavier Gilliam on the interior, Amare Campbell at linebacker and Dejaun Lane at safety.

“We can go faster than other situations that I’ve been in because of the fact, like you said, that we have a lot of coaches who have worked with me before,” Knowles said. “So that’s a huge advantage. So definitely faster than other places. And we have a few players, which is really kind of crazy in this day and age, that you have a few players that have been in this system, really at all levels of the defense. Xavier, Amare , DayDay, Chaz. At all levels, they’ve been around, so they can help.”

Now it’ll be about getting the rest of the roster up to speed.

“We do try to throw a lot at them early,” Knowles said of his install plan. “It’s a whole, part, whole philosophy. You know, kind of start out, throw a lot at them, see what they can take, shrink it down. Once you figure out their strengths and weaknesses and how they learn, it’s really important how they learn. And then hopefully build it back up to whole on the other end. But how you get to the other end is really based on the players and how they pick it up. But I’ll put in a lot, shrink it way down, to see what they know, and then take it step by step to build it back up.”

Knowles’ units have historically taken a year or two to get rolling, at least statistically. He built the Oklahoma State defense into a top five unit by year four and followed a similar path previously at Duke. Knowles capitalized on elite talent at Ohio State, finishing third and first in total defense in his two seasons in Columbus.

Tennessee went from a top-ten unit statistically in 2024 to one of the worst units in the SEC in 2025. Now with a completely remade depth chart, it’ll be very interesting to see how much different Tennessee looks on that side of the ball this fall.