"I did not want to put anyone, including myself, in a position to have to deal with it immediately following the national championship game," he said. "And that's the way it happened."
It created a situation, he said, that eventually turned "awkward."
"Season's over, everything coming to a head again quickly," Knowles said. "Ohio State hasn't come forward with a deal, and it's like, OK, if I'm going to act on this or at least explore it, I have got to make the call."
"I was asked not to go to the parade, and I respect that," Knowles told ESPN during an April interview in his office at Penn State's Lasch Football Building. "I'm not trying to be a secretive guy. Here's this offer, there were a couple others that were every bit as much money, and then there was Ohio State's offer, which was still great money, but not as much, so then you have to sit with it."
"Maybe I'll take less because Ohio State's a great place," he said, "but then they asked me not to come to the parade. So then you're like, 'OK, honestly, the writing is on the wall.' Now it becomes something. It's always something on the outside world, but now it's become something here, too. I hadn't made any decisions, but you just kind of feel like -- I wouldn't say I'm not wanted here -- but you just feel like, OK, now it's gotten awkward."
Knowles said a new deal at Ohio State was "really under question" in the days leading up to the national championship game, but nobody ever said his contract wouldn't be extended. It just hadn't happened as early as Knowles would have preferred.
"Ohio State didn't want to do it," he said. "And so then all of a sudden it becomes a rush at that point because people are trying to make decisions on other jobs. They want to know whether you're interested or not."
"I don't think it did," Knowles said, referring to the pressure of coaching at Ohio State and if that affected his decision. "I mean, if I'm honest with myself, I don't think it did. You become accustomed to it. It didn't keep me up nights or anything like that. I'm up nights trying to get it right. But I did that when I coached at Cornell or Western Michigan. I was the same way. You grind over those details for the players because you don't ever want to put them in a bad position or not have coached them something. You just become accustomed to the environment."
When Knowles was first hired at Ohio State, he said former friends and teammates who were in the Columbus area tried to warn him "this is an incredibly difficult and highly scrutinized place to coach," he said. "Fans are tough.
"I kind of blew it off," Knowles said. "I'm like, 'I grew up in Philly. I've been around Eagles fans. We threw snowballs at Santa Claus.' But yeah, when you're in, it's really tough."
"It's real," he said. "Anybody who works there will -- if they're being honest -- will tell you that it's real. It's almost like a badge of honor there. It's like, 'Oh yeah, well this is Ohio State. This is what you have to expect. This is just the way it is here.' If you give up a touchdown but you win 63-7, somebody somewhere is going to have something to say about it."
