It’s early in the college football offseason, but Penn State football’s 2025 foundation is already being set. Hiring defensive coordinator Jim Knowles from national champion Ohio St certainly is intriguing, but they just lost successful running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider as well.
After having an encouraging run to the college football playoff, the Nittany Lions have gotten good news with the return of star running back duo Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen. And despite big defensive pieces leaving, they still have returned some key names like Dani Dennis-Sutton and Zane Durant along the defensive line.
To go along with next season’s group of players, there will be new coaches. Former defensive coordinator Tom Allen went to Clemson for the same position, but Penn St went all in to bring Ohio State’s Jim Knowles to State College and be the highest paid defensive coordinator in college football with a salary of over 3 million a year.
Knowles’ 2024 national champion defense was the best in the country. Penn St has only gotten one offensive touchdown in the last two seasons against his defenses, none in 2024. Even with Ohio State’s great talent, they were especially dominant this past season.
Overall, Penn State’s defenses have been well respected now for most of Franklin’s tenure. Unlike the offensive coordinator position the last five years, the defensive coordinator position at Penn St has led to greener pastures for whoever has held it.
Brent Pry was the defensive coordinator from 2016-2021 then left to be the head coach at Virginia Tech. Manny Diaz was then hired and the defense only got better, with his success he got a head coaching job at Duke in 2024, and Allen took over after getting fired at Indiana.
Allen led a strong group that had a vaunted front seven in his lone season. Now, Penn St has the guy being paid to be the best defensive coordinator out of all of them. The big question is if what he did at Ohio St can translate to Penn St.
Penn St has great players, but Knowles won’t be working with the same talent and depth that he had at Ohio St. Great defensive coordinators can figure out ways to get great results through different means though, that will be Knowles’ challenge.
Also in the news, long time running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider has taken the same job with Notre Dame. Seider deserves a ton of credit for the running back rooms’ success the Nittany Lions have had.
He took over the job in 2018, right after Saquan Barkley left. Seider has gotten big recruiting wins over the years and has been the key to developing one of the strongest running back rooms in the country. They still have Singleton and Allen next season, but it will be hard to find as much success in the future without Seider.
Penn State is capable of winning a national championship in 2025. If Knowles is what he is paid to be, and weaknesses from last year can improve (looking at you wide receivers), then there is a lot to look forward to.
