{"id":704250,"date":"2026-01-25T16:12:27","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T16:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/704250\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T16:12:27","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T16:12:27","slug":"tennessee-football-dc-jim-knowles-responds-to-notion-his-defense-is-hard-to-learn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/704250\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennessee Football DC Jim Knowles Responds to Notion His Defense is Hard to Learn"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"Jim<\/a>Photo via Tennessee Athletics<\/p>\n

Josh Heupel knew he needed to upgrade on the defensive side of the ball for the 2026 season. As a result, he fired defensive coordinator Tim Banks and replaced him with well-respected and national champion defensive coordinator Jim Knowles.<\/p>\n

While Tennessee football makes the transition to Knowles\u2019 system, one thing you commonly hear is how tough it is to pick up. The numbers support it, too. It\u2019s often the case that his second and third years at programs are when his defenses become elite, while they can run into struggles in year one.<\/p>\n

What does Knowles think about that notion, though? He\u2019s heard it and is doing whatever it takes to make this adjustment as easy as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I\u2019ve heard that. Not that I read those things, but people tell me that,\u201d Knowles said in an appearance on \u2018The Mike Keith Show<\/a>\u2018. \u201cSo I think they\u2019d go back and we\u2019re working on that now. Every new opportunity that you have to install it, you got to find better ways. So I think part of being a great coach is being adjustable and adaptable and listening.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of guys get stuck in their ways. So if that\u2019s what some players may have said, I have to take that into account. And we\u2019re looking at ways to simplify things early on so we can make more progress quickly. Now, one of the things is having coaches who have been with me, which I haven\u2019t had in the past, so that always takes time. And having some players that have been with me too. So I think we\u2019ll be way ahead on both of those counts.\u201d<\/p>\n

More From RTI:\u00a0Adding Penn State Transfers \u2018A Big Plus\u2019 For New Tennessee DC Jim Knowles<\/a><\/p>\n

Not only does Knowles have multiple coaches from previous stops with him, including co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach Anthony Poindexter, LEOs coach Andrew Jackson and cornerbacks coach Michael Hunter Jr., but he also has a handful of players who have played under him.<\/p>\n

This portal cycle, Knowles brought in four Penn State transfers who were in his defense last year. This featured edge rusher Chaz Coleman, linebacker Amare Campbell, defensive tackle Xavier Gilliam and safety Dejuan Lane.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big plus because they spent a year learning not only the system, but how I operate and my expectations,\u201d Knowles said on the quartet. \u201cAnd they\u2019ll be able to filter it down to the other guys. And I also know I\u2019ve been hands-on with those guys, so I understand what they can do and where they need to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tennessee just started its off-season workouts last Wednesday. In a few months, it\u2019ll be on the practice field for spring ball, as well, when a lot of the installation of Knowles\u2019 defense will be put into full effect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo via Tennessee Athletics Josh Heupel knew he needed to upgrade on the defensive side of the ball…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":704251,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2026],"tags":[7,2252,1209,6364],"class_list":{"0":"post-704250","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-jim-knowles","10":"tag-tennessee-football","11":"tag-tennessee-vols"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115956623755272097","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=704250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}