CHEEZ-IT BOWL: OKLAHOMA STATE VS MIAMI

December 27, 2020

Jim Knowles

Camping World Stadium

Oklahoma State Cowboys

Q. Wondering if you could address the challenges that D'Eriq King poses for your defense.

JIM KNOWLES: Well, he's extremely mobile. I mean, as you know. He's a guy who can make plays with his arm. You know, make all the throws. His arm talent is high and he's just a danger; I don't think there's anything he can do. He stresses a defense in all aspects and he's really a complete quarterback when it comes to the modern-day college football game.

Q. How did this year with the challenges and hardships you encountered, how did this year change you as a coach?

JIM KNOWLES: I mean, it really helped me become more patient. Typically coaches aren't very patient people and I know that's always been a challenge for me, and I think when things are out of your control, you know, you learn how to practice that patience in your life that we all could use.

Q. Looking at the regular season, how do you feel your defense held up throughout game one to the last game of the regular season this year?

JIM KNOWLES: I thought overall, we improved. I definitely thought that the team and the fans could rely on our defense, you know, not every game, we were not perfect, but many of the games we were reliable. You know, that we proved that we could win a game on defense on a number of occasions, and I think that's a big step forward for us. We had a struggle with the explosive plays for a two- or three-game stretch, which is something we had made great improvements on. I thought we corrected that. Did a great job in the last game.

But overall, we took a step forward to establishing a defensive culture here that matches the culture of our offense and that Coach Gundy and Coach Dunn have established and the culture of our weight room, which Coach Glass and all the strength coaches have established. We took a step forward to bring in the defense up to that level.

Q. When you talk about the improvement and upgrading of the culture and everything you guys have done, how much of that is increased talent and how much of that is culture and doing the right things and all that kind of stuff? And whatever the answer; how does that project to next year? Does the same look good for the coming years?

JIM KNOWLES: Yeah, I don't know what the talent was like before I got here, so I can't comment on that. I know that we played a bunch of young guys my first year. So I think it's a combination of experience and that they bought into what we were selling in terms of, you know, making the decision on the field for the defense to be in charge of the flow of the game, and to be able to take control of the game. And they studied.

I think we got a good batch of guys who really were interested in learning football. And I do think that we have enough of them coming back next year where we'll be able to continue that, and that's -- you're never going to have them all but we have enough. We have enough where it can carry over, because it's got to be passed down from player to player. That's what culture is.

So I think we have enough of them to keep on and continue that next year.

Q. Just to follow up on your answer about things you might see differently moving forward because of this year and the challenges, is the relationship between you and your kids or players any different?

JIM KNOWLES: I don't know if it's different but it's stronger. I guess that is different. But we always had a good relationship. But we really came to rely on each other more and to be more caring of each other and to just talk more with all the events of the past year, just to have greater communication.

So through the adversity of 2020, I definitely think our bonds, our player/coach bonds got stronger.

Q. You're ranked among the top in third downs. Is there something that you've been preaching to your guys that you can attribute to your success on third down?

JIM KNOWLES: It's something we've been selling since I got here and now you get into year three and guys understand the system, right. We've been talking about it, if it's third and five and they get five yards, it's no different than if they get 15 yards. We don't want to give up an explosive play, but we do want to defend the line and our guys have bought into that and they have experience.

So they know where they fit in the defense, and I think that has a lot to do with third down stops is understanding where you fit in the defense so that you have 11 guys working together.

Q. Is it following up on what I asked early about D'Eriq King, how challenging is it to rush and be aggressive with a player like him when you're trying to attack him?

JIM KNOWLES: You know, it is, it's challenging. It's a Catch 22. You have to pull your trigger and you have to take your shots when you have them, otherwise you'll be completely ineffective. At the same time we have to balance the rush and have different calls to make sure that we have options to present different looks for him and see how he's handling different things.

You have to be able to change it up, but you do have to -- you do have to take your shot when you have it, too.