Oregon squared off against defensive coordinator Jim Knowles twice last season when he was at Ohio State with mixed results.
Now Knowles is at Penn State after bolting the Buckeyes for a three-year contract worth more than $9 million.
Ducks coach Dan Lanning sees a lot of similarities between the 2024 Buckeyes and the third-ranked Nittany Lions, who meet Oregon Saturday night at 7:30 (TV-NBC) at Beaver Stadium.
“I’ve seen a lot of scheme variation, which he (Knowles) had at Ohio State,” Lanning said Monday night, “but it’s a lot of the similar scheme they carried at Ohio State.
“He always has a new wrinkle. Every week you see something new that you haven’t necessarily seen on film, that he’s able to pull from and that he thinks defends you well. That’s always going to present a good challenge.”
The Ducks rolled up 496 yards in a 32-31 victory over Ohio State last September, when Knowles was with the Buckeyes. The script flipped three months later in the Rose Bowl, where Ohio State held Oregon to 276 yards in a 41-21 rout in a College Football Playoff quarterfinal.
With Knowles guiding the defense, Penn State has held Nevada, Florida International and Villanova to 17 points, including 14 that came in the final seconds in two games. The Lions’ first-team defense has not allowed a touchdown.
“I’ve said it before, but defensively they’re as multiple and disruptive as anybody we’ll play,” Lanning said. “They have great edge play and good play in the back end as well.”
Lanning has a superb 39-6 record in his fourth season at Oregon after serving as Georgia’s defensive coordinator from 2019-22.
He guided the Ducks to an 11-0 regular season last year and a 45-37 victory over Penn State in the Big Ten championship game before the loss to Ohio State. He’s very familiar with the…
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