Jim Knowles hopes to return to 'Silver Bullets' level of defense at Ohio State

From 1990 through the mid-2000s, the Ohio State defense lived up to its “Silver Bullets” moniker, churning out NFL Draft talent at a high level during that time. But after questions swirled about the defense last season, Jim Knowles wants to bring the Silver Bullets back to Columbus.

The term “Silver Bullets” came about in 1996 when the Buckeyes held opponents to 10.9 points per game en route to a Rose Bowl victory over Arizona State. But questions rose about the Buckeyes defense last year under former coordinator Kerry Coombs. Now, Knowles is in from Oklahoma State and he’s made it clear he’s ready to get back to that level.

In fact, it’s a regular conversation.

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“We talk about it all the time,” Knowles told reporters. “It’s the first thing that comes up when we have our unit meetings. We talk about that legacy. It’s mentioned every day. We don’t talk about the past at all. I wasn’t here, I wasn’t a part of it. If you’re not in that submarine, you don’t really know. We don’t talk about it at all. But we do talk to creating something special with the defense, reviving that Silver Bullet culture, having a defense that the fans can be proud of and their parents and the rest of the team can look at as a strength. Really, there’s no reason not to.

“Everything else at The Ohio State is top five, and why shouldn’t the defense be? Then, you watch them on the field, and then when you go over their mistakes and things that happened, you can tell that they take the pride there because they’re serious about it, they want to fix it, they want to answer why it happened and I think that’s all part of living up to that legacy.”

The new-look Buckeyes defense will have a chance to make an early impression in Week 1 when they take on No. 5 Notre Dame at The Horseshoe Sept. 3 at 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC.