Oklahoma State Hires New Defensive Coordinator, Five Other Coaches

Oklahoma State has filled its defensive coordinator vacancy, Mike Gundy annouced on Twitter on Monday. It appears that Jim Knowles who has spent the last eight years as the defensive coordinator at Duke will take over the Cowboy defense.

Proud to announce six new members of the Oklahoma State family. #GoPokes #okstate

Shane Eachus (Ursinus College)
Jim Knowles (Duke)
Greg Richmond (Fairmont State)
Brian Rock (Holy Cross)
MK Taylor (Jacksonville State)
Chris Thurmond (Formerly Rice) pic.twitter.com/uqUAWuYgYa

— Mike Gundy (@CoachGundy) January 29, 2018

Jim Knowles – Defensive Coordinator

Knowles who was reported to be the favorite to land the job last week — and as reported by Robert Allen of GoPokes.com — will take over the DC position vacated by Glenn Spencer. Knowles produced the ACC’s third-ranked scoring defense last year. Knowles spent time as the DC at Western Michigan and was previously the head coach at his alma mater, Cornell. We did a Q&A with Adam Rowe who covers Duke for 247Sports last week.

Greg Richmond

Richmond returns to Stillwater where he played defensive end at Oklahoma State. He has been the D-line coach for Fairmont State for the past three seasons. After two years with the Philadelphia Eagles, Richmond spent time on OSU’s strength staff under Rob Glass. It appears Richmond will fill the 10th position coach that was recently made available to college teams.

Shane Eachus

Eachus joins Gundy’s staff from Division-III Ursinus College where he spent the last three years as defensive coordinator and coached the secondary.

Brian Rock

Brian Rock was the interim coach for Holy Cross this past season, also serving as offensive coordinator. He was named American Football Coaches Association Assistant Coach of the Year for the football championship subdivision.

Chris Thurmond – Defensive Analyst

Thurmond is a Sand Springs, Oklahoma native who played at Tulsa. He spent time as a high school coach at several spots in Oklahoma before moving on to college and has experience in the Big 12 and all over with stops at Alabama, Texas A&M, Houston and most recently as the defensive coordinator and cornerbacks coach at Rice. It appears Thurmond will take up the vacancy left by Brian VanGorder who was expected to join the staff as a position coach before being hired as DC over Louisville.

MK Taylor – Special Teams Analyst

Mike Gundy is bolstering his special teams staff, it appears. Taylor comes from Jacksonville State where he served as a defensive analyst. He was a long snapper at Alabama from 2010-2014.

Phillip Slavin contributed to this post.