By the Numbers: A Look at Jim Knowles’ Duke Defenses

Oklahoma State’s defense has not been up to par over the last several seasons. That was plain to see and Mike Gundy and OSU took the steps they felt were needed and said goodbye to five-year DC and 10-year staffer, Glenn Spencer.

On Monday, Gundy announced the hiring of Duke defensive coordinator Jim Knowles via his Twitter account, along with five other staff additions. While the 13th-year head coach was reticent to formally announce Knowles as the DC, that’s being reported by multiple outlets and honestly would make no sense for him to take a demotion to leave Duke and head to Oklahoma State.

So what can we expect from Knowles and his future OSU defenses? Let’s take a look at some key defensive numbers for his Duke teams and how they ranked nationally.

The 2017 Blue Devils got it together, at or near the top 20 in scoring defense, total defense and third-down defense — a noted bugaboo of OSU’s squad this last year.

The DFEI rating is from BCF Toys and basically accounts for opposing offenses drives based on starting field position and adjusted for strength of opponent. Again, last year was good, the previous were okay. For reference, OSU ranked 4th, 80th, 56th, 47th and 57th in DFEI during his time in Stillwater.

All offenses aren’t created equal and Knowles hasn’t had to game plan for the Oklahomas, the Baylors (of old) or Texas Techs of the world, either. Knowles will need to get used to the speed played in the Big 12.

Here’s a look at the average plays his teams have had to defend per game compared to OSU’s during that span.

Aside from the 2014 season when Oklahoma State didn’t field an Oklahoma State-like offense, the Cowboys’ defense has seen considerably more reps during that time. It’s why teams in the Big 12 recruit a little different (and a lot of times worse) along the defensive line.

It also (inevitably) leads us to the beloved points per drive stat. It’s basically the one number that puts Big 12 DCs on a level playing ground with those from other conferences. Scoring offense looks better when you’re defending 3-4 less possessions than the other guy.

Here’s a look at Duke’s points per drive allowed compared to Oklahoma State’s over Knowles’ time as DC there.

Knowles’ teams fared much better during the second half of his tenure. This last season was by far his best in PPD, coming in at No. 22 nationally. But his only other Duke defense in the top 50 was in 2014, when they came in at 35th.

Not exactly inspiring. But there are other contributing factors like personnel and recruiting — which Kyle Boone took a look at — and the scheme and style that will need to be modified to before looking across the field from Lincoln Riley and the like.

Does this mean it’s a bad hire? Does it mean anything about Knowles’ fit at OSU? That’s hard to say at this point with any certainty. It’s obvious that Mike Gundy wanted to move to someone proficient in a 4-2-5 system. And Knowles has shown that he can change scheme to fit his personnel when needed.

But, by the numbers, he’s only fielded one defense that I would consider to be “really good” and it didn’t come close to sniffing Spencer’s best year. At least Knowles appears to have been trending in the right direction.