Cornell Head Coach becomes Duke's Defensive Coordinator
From the Binghamton Gannett outlet.
Jim Knowles has been the Cornell head coach for 6 years. His teams this year was 2-8; he has an overall record of 26-34./ He played there 1983-87 and loves the the University. He worked for Coach Cutcliffe at Ole Miss where he was the linebackers coach, so this is a reunion of sorts. It's a step down in authority, but a step up in salary.
Hard to leave the place you love -- just for the money. At least it's not just for the money -- he must really like working with Coach Cut.
Northeast recruiting - yes
Well, I checked, and I count about a dozen players on the Colgate roster out of PA, and another 15 out of NJ. If you throw in the 15 or so from mostly upstate NY, then you have almost half the Colgate roster from what I believe to be solid football country. I do agree with NYC insomuch as New York metro, and most of New England isn't as nearly as intense on football as PA, NJ, & upstate NY. My wife is from Binghamton, near Colgate, and we used to live in Rochester, so I feel pretty good in saying there's a lot of intensity for HS FB once you get north of White Plains in NY state, especially along the Southern Tier (where Colgate is located) where they often play against PA HS teams. Certainly NJ (where PSU recruits well) and PA are first-rate recruiting areas.
Mostly, the "match" to me, in addition to him being a former Cut staffer, is that Colgate is a school not all that different than Duke in many ways, and he does bring at least some NE HS contacts, where the current staff was probably lacking a little.
Now let's just bring in 2-3 more 3-4-star recruits for 2010, and all will be good... :D