Heupel breaks down his new hire.
For one of the very few times during his time in Knoxville, Josh Heupel went outside his comfort zone and made a big time staff change. Tim Banks, the guy he called the head coach of his defense, was let go after a disastrous 2025 regular season. Banks had been with Heupel since the beginning back in 2021.
Making a move like that requires a big move to follow, and Heupel did just that. The situation at Penn State offered up one of the most accomplished defensive coordinators in the country, with Jim Knowles becoming available. Heupel pounced quickly, hiring Knowles in just a matter of days after firing Banks.
For Heupel, it was an easy decision.
“I think, you know, first of all, it’s gotta be a guy that shares a vision of the culture that you want to create,” Josh Heupel said on the Mike Keith show this week. “And that’s in your team room, it’s in your position rooms. Gonna play with physicality and aggressive on the defensive side of the football. A guy that has done it different ways at some of his stops.”
His stops include Duke with David Cutcliffe, where he turned around the Blue Devils defense. He coached with Mike Gundy at Oklahoma State, eventually turning the Cowboys into a top unit in the nation and narrowly missing the College Football Playoff. Ohio State came calling, and Knowles was able to use that elite talent and eventually win a national title.
“We have really good personnel here,” Heupel continued. “We gotta take advantage of the traits. He’s got the ability to tweak it and make it fit, the body types and the athletic traits that you have inside of your defensive meeting room.
“And then his ability to change and evolve, but build the elite defenses that allow you to go compete for championships. You tie all those things together. His experience, success, culture, his understanding of offensive football and how you have to attack it from the defensive side and being able to be multiple in it. Went through a couple of different installs with him, his teaching progression. Really excited about all of those pieces to help our players go be their best.”
We’ve seen Tennessee reach that elite level of defense before under Heupel. Anchored by a deep defensive line that featured James Pearce and a dynamic Jermod McCoy at corner, Tennessee rode that 2024 defense to a spot in the College Football Playoff. Ironically, that group was ousted in Columbus by Jim Knowles and Ohio State.
Knowles now goes to to work at his new home, just in time to attack the transfer portal and plug some holes in his personnel. He’ll be replacing a handful of names in the secondary and on the defensive line, along with team leader Arion Carter at linebacker. There probably isn’t a spot on the entire defense that Tennessee can’t add to over the next month.
Knowles is learning his unit now, which started on this week.
“Just got here on Monday,” Heupel said of Knowles’ arrival. “You start onboarding with just general campus and then gets an opportunity to watch our guys from the season, produce cutups on those guys, get a chance to watch those guys practice here. Gets to sit in on the position meetings and get to know our players, get to know our staff, too, and ultimately be a part of some things that we need to go get inside of the transfer portal.”
Tennessee has the Music City Bowl coming up where William Inge will lead the defense. From there it’s full steam ahead to the transfer portal, which let’s be honest, is already ongoing. The official open date for the transfer portal is January 2nd though, which is where we’ll start to see how Knowles shapes his year one defense in Knoxville.
Category: General Sports
