Penn State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles settling in quickly with the Nittany Lions

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) — It didn’t take long for Jim Knowles to confirm what he believed was true when Penn State hired him to be defensive coordinator just three months ago.

Then, Knowles was fresh off coaching Ohio State’s defense to a national championship win not long after the Nittany Lions failed to advance to that game, losing in the College Football Playoff semifinals. The Philadelphia native thought Penn State had all the pieces to do one game better. He thought he could help.

Now that he’s had a chance to go hands-on during 15 spring practices, he doesn’t hesitate when asked if this team, specifically a defense that needs to replace star linebacker Abdul Carter, can win a national championship.

“Yes,” Knowles said. “Next question.”

How much will be different, and how much needs to be for a squad that ranked near the top of every major defensive category and helped dictate playoff games last season?

“I think we’ve made a lot of progress in a short time, blending new concepts with some of the old concepts,” Knowles said. “They were very good here on defense, so we’re using what we can to try and keep things on similar terms for the players.”

While Penn State’s defense was really good, the Buckeyes were a bit better. Knowles’ last defense allowed the fewest points (12.9) per game, gave up the fewest yards (254.6) per game, finished second in sacks (53) and second in red zone defense (60%) during the Buckeyes’ championship season.

Penn State defenders were aware of their new coach’s recent success with their biggest rivals and were determined to make good first impressions as soon as practices started earlier this month.

“We’re in Year 2 on offense and what, three months on defense and it’s been really competitive out here,” Franklin said. “So I think that’s a real positive for us to lay a really good foundation.”

Knowles is soft-spoken when compared to his predecessors — the excitable and gravelly-voiced Tom Allen and the man who held the job before both of them, the quick-talking, intense Manny Diaz.

Allen and Diaz both kept Penn State’s defense competitive, and those who played for them have insisted each man left behind big shoes to fill.

In the opinion of linebacker coach Dan Connor, who joined Diaz’s staff as a defensive analyst in 2022, Knowles can definitely fill them.

“Incredibly smart guy. Makes everyone around him better,” Connor said. “You come to work and you’re on edge because you know, I have to perform my job as a coach, my players have to perform because he’s seen it done right. He’s seen the final picture.”

Penn State’s spring practice period concluded with Saturday's Blue-White intrasquad scrimmage. Knowles has proven to be a quick study, developing plenty of knowledge from mostly observing and listening.

He’s quietly made his way around the team’s indoor facility and three outdoor practice fields, staying well behind formations to maintain a wide field of view on personnel matchups each practice. He’s already envisioning what multiple position groups will look like heading into training camp.

“Really, just trying to pick up on their strengths and weaknesses and what they grasp,” Knowles said. “I try to stay out of the picture a lot in practice because I’ve scripted it all, I’ve set it all up. So now I like to watch how it all comes together. It gives me kind of a big picture feel about how they’re picking up the concepts.”

And while Connor agreed that Knowles is one of the more mild-mannered coaches he’s been around, Knowles can step in and be just as demonstrative and fiery when he needs to be.

“Every good coach I’ve been around has edge and he’s got edge,” Connor said. "The players obviously respect him for his accomplishments and respect him because he comes in here with really good schemes and super high expectations and has a high standard and that’s what guys come to Penn State for.”

What did Knowles come to Penn State for after winning it all with the Buckeyes? A nice raise on the multi-million-dollar salary Ohio State paid him was surely alluring. But he was also attracted to the idea that he could be the man to push a program he once revered to its ultimate goal once and for all.

“Penn State, for me growing up in inner-city Philly, was the epitome of college football,” Knowles said. “I was never talented enough to make it to Penn State as a player, but given the opportunity now as a coach, it’s really where I want to be to continue my career and bring any expertise that I can to the organization.”

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FILE - Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles watches the team during an NCAA college spring football game on April 16, 2022, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete, File)

ALEPPO, Syria (AP) — First responders on Sunday entered a contested neighborhood in Syria’ s northern city of Aleppo after days of deadly clashes between government forces and Kurdish-led forces. Syrian state media said the military was deployed in large numbers.

The clashes broke out Tuesday in the predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid after the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on how to merge the SDF into the national army. Security forces captured Achrafieh and Bani Zaid.

The fighting between the two sides was the most intense since the fall of then-President Bashar Assad to insurgents in December 2024. At least 23 people were killed in five days of clashes and more than 140,000 were displaced amid shelling and drone strikes.

The U.S.-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Islamic State group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria's national army. Some of the factions that make up the army, however, were previously Turkish-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.

The Kurdish fighters have now evacuated from the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood to northeastern Syria, which is under the control of the SDF. However, they said in a statement they will continue to fight now that the wounded and civilians have been evacuated, in what they called a “partial ceasefire.”

The neighborhood appeared calm Sunday. The United Nations said it was trying to dispatch more convoys to the neighborhoods with food, fuel, blankets and other urgent supplies.

Government security forces brought journalists to tour the devastated area, showing them the damaged Khalid al-Fajer Hospital and a military position belonging to the SDF’s security forces that government forces had targeted.

The SDF statement accused the government of targeting the hospital “dozens of times” before patients were evacuated. Damascus accused the Kurdish-led group of using the hospital and other civilian facilities as military positions.

On one street, Syrian Red Crescent first responders spoke to a resident surrounded by charred cars and badly damaged residential buildings.

Some residents told The Associated Press that SDF forces did not allow their cars through checkpoints to leave.

“We lived a night of horror. I still cannot believe that I am right here standing on my own two feet,” said Ahmad Shaikho. “So far the situation has been calm. There hasn’t been any gunfire.”

Syrian Civil Defense first responders have been disarming improvised mines that they say were left by the Kurdish forces as booby traps.

Residents who fled are not being allowed back into the neighborhood until all the mines are cleared. Some were reminded of the displacement during Syria’s long civil war.

“I want to go back to my home, I beg you,” said Hoda Alnasiri.

Associated Press journalist Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed to this report.

Sandbag barriers used as fighting positions by Kurdish fighters, left inside a destroyed mosque in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Burned vehicles at one of the Kurdish fighters positions at the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

People flee the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

A Syrian military police convoy enters the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Burned vehicles and ammunitions left at one of the Kurdish fighters positions at the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)