This offseason, Josh Heupel took a big swing. He fired defensive coordinator Tim Banks and replaced him with highly-touted defensive play-caller Jim Knowles. So far, it’s looked like maybe the best decision of his career.

Tennessee football has emerged as one of the best defenses in the country, and just rode it to a critical 26-10 win over Alabama in the Third Saturday in October rivalry this past weekend. The Tide were limited to just 10 points in the game after not converting on a single third down in the first half and being held scoreless in the second.

As a result, Knowles is getting much-deserved praise. This included being named the SEC’s coordinator of the week by CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz.

Our @CBSSports conference coordinators of the week: https://t.co/WKN91jO9np

— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) October 19, 2026

There’s been plenty of praise for Knowles inside the Tennessee facility, too. After the win over the Tide, Heupel sang his praises for how he was able to impact the game. Then, on Tuesday, cornerbacks coach Derek Jones went into detail about his unit’s early success.

“I think bringing three guys with him has really helped,” Jones said. “Because one of the things you want as a position coach and a coordinator, you wanna have guys in your room that are leaders. Guys in your room that are captains. Guys in your room that can watch film with other people and be able to explain exactly what’s going on. When you’ve been in a system at a place for a while, you have continuity. So you’re hoping your juniors and your seniors are those guys.

“But when you come to a place in one year, and with the transfer portal having a lot of guys coming in, I think it’s very important that you have guys in the room who can explain what’s going on and talk about things. And I think the other piece of the puzzle is Coach Knowles, for the first time in a long time, has a lot of us that have coached with him, understands what he wants. He doesn’t have to worry about coaching us as much as he probably has some other places. So I think when you combine all those things together, you’re starting to see the benefits of it.”

Next, Knowles’ defense will have a challenge performing on the road. Tennessee takes the trip to play at South Carolina at 3:30 p.m. ET, with the game airing on ESPN.