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Daily Bullets (August 4) – Jim Knowles Learned with Patterson, Impact Cowboy Newcomers

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6 years ago

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Jamming with Jim Knowles

It’ll be fun to get to know the new defensive coordinator over the year and a couple of interesting wrinkles came out in this recent interview with the Tulsa World.

“He’s a great teacher,” (Mike) Yurcich said.

Perhaps that is because he puts so much thought into his lessons.

It’s not just what Knowles is teaching, the concepts of the 4-2-5 defense he first gleaned from Gary Patterson in 2000, when Knowles was a Western Michigan assistant and Patterson, still TCU’s defensive coordinator, visited Kalamazoo and shared nuances of the 4-2-5.

It’s how he presents those concepts.

“You teach the way these kids learn,” Knowles said. “You teach fast and you teach kind of in their face and social media-related. You reward them with nicknames and pictures. We do a ‘defender of the day’ and we put up a picture next to them of someone we think they look like, and we try to keep it fun and keep it going. And all that is in 15-20 minutes, man. Then move on. [TulsaWorld]

Yours’ truly was a big advocate of bringing in the TCU defensive coordinator, a Cowboy alum. But a more polished coordinator with a track record that picked Patterson’s brain seems like one heck of a consolation prize. How Knowles gets into the minds of 18-22-year-olds to motivate them was a good sign too.

Jones’ing to Play

It’s natural to assume there will be an acclimation period for guys like Michael Weathers and Curtis Jones at Oklahoma State, it’s easy to overlook the significance of a transfer year. Just look at some of Coach Boynton’s comments about Curtis Jones:

One thing’s for sure: Once eligible, he immediately becomes one of the Cowboys’ best athletes.

“You just see his level of maturity,” Boynton said. “This is usually the stage between your sophomore and junior year of college where you see a big jump in guys understanding how to contribute, getting away from some of the things that they learned before and really buying into the culture and things that we’re doing here.

“… His basketball ability speaks for itself. He’s a great athlete and he can really shoot the basketball.” [TulsaWorld]

While this isn’t a fair comparison, it was night and day difference to watch transfers like Gottlieb and Glyndon Alexander grow accustomed to the level of play so naturally compared to the freshman. Our boy Sam had a great highlight on Jones earlier this week.

OSU and NCAA Notes

Cowboy alum Brett McMurphy leading the charge on breaking news apart from the major media….Cowboy sophomores are now the vets in some instances….HCS ranked the quarterback position groups in the Big 12….Could Bob Stoops replace Urban Meyer?….The QB battles that will define 2018

Sanders making some throws:

Have mercy.

VT making his mark in Miami.

News out of Columbus keeps getting worse and worse. Urban is back peddling harder than J-Gilbert.

Boy that west end zone sure looks different.

Dillon out of Ringling, OK is the biggest recruiting miss in recent history – #CowboyCulture with the mullet.

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