That article is rife with interesting quotes in there. It's not quite as bad as some of the Mensa pieces we read a few years back, but it's an odd piece. Lacks depth, IMO, but it is a WSJ Sports piece....
"Jim Knowles studied in the Ivy League and worked on Wall Street. Then he found his true calling: inventing new ways to hammer quarterbacks"
He attended Cornell, the LSU of the Ivy League. I kid.
"At Ohio State, Knowles pulled off an even bigger miracle. Before Knowles arrived, the Buckeyes had just the 38th-ranked defense in college football."
"Bigger miracle" might be a bit of hyperbole. In 2019, tOSU was top-5 in scoring and total defense. In 2015-2016, they were top-5 in scoring and top-10 in total defense. Not exactly a miracle. Shoddy research.
"That’s when the mad scientist truly began experimenting. He designed schemes built to do exactly what sophisticated financial algorithms are supposed to manage: Spot inefficiencies and ruthlessly capitalize on them."
The article refers to him as an experimenter and mad scientist a couple of times, but cites nothing other than throwing blitzes that wreak havoc. No examples of exploiting inefficiencies.
“Jim, basically, is a very, very intelligent man,” said former Western Michigan coach Gary Darnell. “I wouldn’t want to play poker with him.”
[Darnell nod referred to by @notre dame joe]
There are a few references to him figuring out how to snuff out offenses with inferior talent while at WMU and Cornell, failing to cite that some of that is because he is playing against inferior talent. The testimonial of a WMU/Florida game where his WMU team caused 2 interceptions left out an important detail: WMU lost 55-26. Sure, the game was 31-26 at one point. But WMU had zero sacks while giving up 600+ yards.
Sure, Knowles is effective, but the article seemed a little lazy.