STATE OF THE PROGRAM: Kansas Faces Steep Climb To Meet Expectations Under Re-energized Les Miles
By Mitch Sherman
LAWRENCE, Kan. — Sunlight beckons through 10 giant garage doors on the east side of Kansas’ new indoor practice facility, modern and complete with painted end zones, a sky-high ceiling and plenty of room for big dreams.
Gone forever, as of February with the opening of this 89,000-square-foot structure built for $26 million, are the days of rolling up the carpet on which the Jayhawks practice.
“This puts us right in the mix of being competitive,” first-year Kansas coach Les Miles said.
If only it were so simple.
Miles, 65, knows as well as anyone that the road remains long for Kansas football. The former LSU and Oklahoma State coach, he takes over a program that won six games in four seasons under former coach David Beaty and has not enjoyed a winning record since 2008. In fact, KU has not won more than three games in a season during the past decade. It has four Big 12 wins in the past eight seasons.
But the arrival of the Mad Hatter in Lawrence finally brought some sizzle. People talked about Kansas as something other than a doormat. How the Jayhawks capitalize on this surge of momentum will shape their future.
Miles, one of five active coaches with a national championship on his résumé — the others are Nick Saban, Dabo Swinney, Jimbo Fisher and Mack Brown — hired Les Koenning and D.J. Eliot to run the offense and defense, respectively.
Koenning, 60, spent last season as the running backs coach at Southern Miss after a stint as coordinator at UAB following a run of jobs that included 12 years as a coordinator at Alabama (2001-02), Texas A&M (2003-07) and Mississippi State (2009-13). Eliot, 42, had spent the past two seasons as the coordinator at Colorado; before that, he had been coordinator at Kentucky for four seasons.
The Jayhawks beat TCU last year, the high moment in a 3-9 season while playing Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas State and West Virginia within two scores.
Losses to graduation, particularly on the defensive side, were significant. Three-year starter Joe Dineen at linebacker, a second-team AP All-American, is gone; so are linebacker Keith Loneker, first-team All-Big 12 defensive tackle Daniel Wise and starting cornerback Skakial Taylor.
Top receivers Steven Sims, Jeremiah Booker and Kerr Johnson also departed. And the status of running back Pooka Williams, the Big 12 offensive freshman of the year in 2018, remains uncertain after he signed a diversion agreement to avoid conviction in the wake of his arrest for domestic battery in December.
Kansas continues to lag with its scholarship count, a problem that dates to the Charlie Weis coaching era in Lawrence and involves injuries, attrition and mismanagement of the roster.
Miles appears unfazed, though, as he enters the fray in a high-powered league that has produced two consecutive Heisman winners at quarterback.
“I want us to take the field with the desire to win every game,” Miles said. “We want to play for championships — bowl game championships, divisional championships, conference championships. We’ve got a long way to go. We’re developing a winning team. But these guys are busting their tails.
“They want to be a part of something different.”
Biggest on-field question
What are the Jayhawks going to do offensively? Miles is purposefully coy on the subject.
“I don’t think there’s any reason” to divulge details on a scheme, Miles said.
Junior college transfer Thomas MacVittie, who signed in December and went through spring practice, seems likely to be the starting quarterback for the Jayhawks. (Jeff Jacobsen / Kansas Athletics)
Koenning, who was OC at Mississippi State during Dak Prescott’s first season as the starting quarterback, is on the record as saying Kansas quarterbacks will operate under center and from the shotgun — a shift from the spread system employed for the past four seasons by Beaty.
Junior college transfer Thomas MacVittie (6 feet 5, 225 pounds), who signed with Pittsburgh out of high school before moving on to JC, will enter preseason camp as the frontrunner to start. MacVittie, who enrolled in January and went through spring practice with the Jayhawks, is a versatile signal caller, Miles said, but again, no great hints at a style of offensive system.
Fullbacks Hudson Hall and Sam Schroeder remain on the KU roster, so expect some emphasis on physical play.
“We’re going to be physical and more aggressive overall,” senior left tackle Hakeem Adeniji said.
Kansas ranked last in the Big 12 in scoring offense (23.8 points per game) and passing yardage (192.2 per game) a year ago.
Even without Williams, the Jayhawks look deep at running back and up front, with 41 starts out of 60 back on the offensive line. And no matter the scheme preference, Miles said, he’ll always coach to the strength of his players.
Miles took heat for what many observers viewed as an outdated offensive system toward the end of his 12-year run at LSU. His initial choice as OC at Kansas, former Auburn coordinator Chip Lindsey, appeared to suggest that he would not delve deep into change. Lindsey left about five weeks after he was hired at KU to become coach at Troy.
Away from coaching the past two seasons, Miles said he wouldn’t let the Big 12 “dictate to us who our best players are.” In other words, if they fit into the league’s up-tempo style, fine. If not, that’s OK.
“We’re going to do the things that we can do with our talent,” Miles said.
Depth chart analysis
Quarterbacks: Thomas MacVittie(pronounced MACK-Vittie) threw for 1,064 yards and 16 touchdowns last year at Mesa (Ariz.) Community College. He signed with Pitt in 2016 out of Cincinnati Moeller after attracting attention from Miles and LSU; he redshirted in 2016, then transferred after playing three games on special teams in ’17 as a redshirt freshman.
“He can run it,” Miles said of MacVittie, “and he can throw it.”
Senior Carter Stanley isn’t far behind, the coach said. Stanley has played in 25 games at KU, starting nine times, and thrown for 2,371 yards. Sophomore Miles Kendrick and dual-threat true freshman Torry Locklin factor in the quarterback room, too.
Also joining the mix is graduate transfer Manny Miles, the coach’s eldest son who walked-on at North Carolina and threw a “Hail Mary” touchdown last season in a win over Western Carolina.
“We think competition truly is the way to go there,” Les Miles said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if more than one quarterback plays.”
The eligibility of Pooka Williams, who was third in the Big 12 in rushing last season, is of vital importance to KU’s offense. (Jay Biggerstaff / USA TODAY Sports)
Running backs: Kansas officials expect resolution with Pooka Williams before preseason camp opens in August. He was suspended from the program in December.
Miles has said little through this offseason on the situation with Williams. “He’s gone through what was asked of him,” the coach told The Athletic in a recent interview.
The return of Williams, a New Orleans-area native who was a first-team All-Big 12 pick, would provide a massive boost to the offense. He rushed for 1,125 yards — the eighth-highest single-season total in Kansas history — and seven touchdowns, averaging 6.9 yards per carry, and caught 33 passes for 289 yards as a true freshman.
Against Oklahoma, Williams ran for 252 yards on 15 attempts.
Junior Dom Williams and senior Khalil Herbert also return after combining to rush for 730 yards last season. KU adds junior Donovan Franklin, who sat out last year as a transfer from Army. Freshman Velton Gardner is expected to make a push to bypass a redshirt.
Wide receivers/tight ends: The cupboard is not bare without Sims, Johnson and Bopoker, who caught 114 passes for 1,188 yards in 2018. Junior Stephon Robinson played well in his first season out of junior college, with 28 catches for 330 yards. But he and Daylon Charlot, an Alabama transfer who caught two touchdown passes at KU last season, face stiff competition from Iowa Central CC transfers Ezra Naylor and Andrew Parchment.
Junior Kwamie Lassiter and sophomore Takulve Williams also return with experience and appear in line to split time in the slot, while junior Jack Luavasa and senior James Sosinski fit in the offense at Miles’ version of the tight end spot.
Kenyon Tabor, who redshirted in 2017 and left the team last year because of injuries, remains in the transfer portal.
Senior tackle Hakeem Adeniji gives Kansas a solid building block up front. He will be a four-year starter for the Jayhawks. (Michael C. Johnson / USA TODAY Sports)
Offensive line: The Jayhawks return three full-time starters in senior Hakeem Adeniji, a second-team All-Big 12 pick last year, senior Kevin Feder and junior Malik Clark, plus senior Andru Tovi, who started six games in the interior spots. But only Adeniji at left tackle and Clark at left guard appear entrenched.
KU ranked 79th nationally in rushing offense last season at 158.6 yards per game.
Api Maine, who toggled between guard and center before redshirting last year out of junior college, is battling Tovi at center. The right side is wide open as juniors Chris Hughes and Adagio Lopeti play guard with Feder. Seniors Clyde McCauley and Antoine Frazier will bid in August to hold off 6-8 redshirt freshman Nick Williams at the spot opposite Adeniji.
Click here to enlarge
Defensive line: Kansas boasts a trio of seniors in position to start up front, as Codey Cole, Jelani Brown and Darrius Moragne return with 12 games of experience apiece from a year ago.
That explains Miles’ optimism about the KU defensive line. He said he expects the groups up front on offense and defense to lead.
Problem is, those seniors, in addition to Willie McCaleb behind Cole at end, recorded a total of 23 tackles last season. So Kansas will look for immediate help from freshman end Steven Parker, a four-star signee out of Dallas who was a national top-350 prospect. Junior Sam Burt at nose tackle and sophomore Jelani Arnold, who was hurt and redshirted a year ago, also provide depth.
And redshirt freshman Spencer Roe is getting a look at an edge spot, though he could fit on offense as a fullback if needed.
Azur Kamara flashed some big-play ability last season. He needs to consistently show off that part of his skill set this fall. (Scott Sewell / USA TODAY Sports)
Linebackers: How do you replace Dineen, a hometown kid who led the nation in solo tackles in each of the past two seasons and meant everything to the Jayhawks on defense? You don’t, senior Bryce Torneden said.
At least, not with one guy. “Somebody’s going to have to step up,” said Torneden, who followed Dineen from Lawrence’s Free State High to KU. “I think it’s a process. You don’t just move in and fill what he did in one day or with one player.”
First up at middle linebacker is a familiar name — sophomore Jay Dineen, Joe’s brother. Sophomore Cooper Root, yet to play for the Jayhawks, fits in the middle, too, alongside junior Dru Prox and redshirt freshman Cody McNerney, a converted safety, at the Will position.
Senior Azur Kamara returns with the most experience of the KU linebackers after contributing five tackles for loss last season. Classmates Najee Stevens-McKenzie and Kyron Johnson also play on the outside.
Torneden ranked behind only Joe Dineen with 88 tackles as a nickel back last season. Eliot’s 3-4 scheme leaves Torneden in that position, and it also allows him and senior Shaq Richmond to step into a fourth linebacker spot against run-heavy foes like rival Kansas State.
A player to watch is freshman Gavin Potter of Broken Arrow, Okla., snagged on signing day in February over Kansas State and Texas Tech.
Defensive backs: Kansas led the Big 12 with 16 interceptions a year ago. But foes completed 64.8 percent of their throws against KU, the highest figure in the league.
The Jayhawks like their returning pieces, and for good reason. Torneden, seniors Mike Lee at safety and Hasan Defense at corner and sophomore corner Corione Harris earned honorable-mention All-Big 12 recognition last season. Sophomore Davon Ferguson seems likely to move into a starting role at safety after he played in four games in 2018.
Kyle Mayberry and Elmore Hempstead at corner look set to fill top backup jobs alongside safeties Ricky Thomas and Jeremiah McCullough.
Competition is fierce in the secondary, Torneden said. And there’s no alternative against a Big 12 schedule because you never know from where the next Heisman contender might materialize.
“If you want to be the best, come here and you’ll have an opportunity to play the best,” Torneden said. “It appeals to our competitive nature.”
Senior Hasan Defense, who had three picks and seven pass breakups last season, will be in his third season as a starting cornerback. (Courtesy of Kansas Athletics)
Special teams: Junior Kyle Thompson returns at punter after averaging a Big 12-best 43.3 yards per punt, with 26 kicks dropped inside the 20-yard line.He earned second-team all-league honors and is a weapon.
Kicker Gabriel Rui is gone, set to be replaced by junior Liam Jones, who handled kickoffs last season.
Pooka Williams and Lassiter held the top jobs last season on kickoff and punt returns, respectively.
In a coaching transition, special teams often suffer. Kansas can’t afford to struggle in the kicking game.
How the Jayhawks have recruited from 2016-19
Using 247Sports’ Composite rankings, here is how Kansas’ recruiting classes have fared nationally and within the Big 12 over the past four years:
Click here to enlarge
Miles looks well-positioned to give Kansas an immediate injection of energy in recruiting. He already did, in fact, piecing together a decent class in short order — and doing it after he lost his newly hired offensive coordinator between the December and February signing periods.
Kansas snuck past Texas Tech to avoid the cellar in the Big 12 rankings with its 2019 class. But in order to climb to the level necessary to win regularly, a formidable hill stands before the Jayhawks, whose consensus national ranking of 67th over the past four years sits last in the conference.
“The 12-1 Orange Bowl team (in 2007) was built by high school players who committed and stayed three to four years,” Miles said. “That’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to recruit the footprint of Kansas. We’re going to recruit better than anybody else. It will provide us with the strength of our program.”
Miles said he wants to target Dallas, Houston, Detroit and Kansas City. And it goes without saying that he has plans for Louisiana, where he maintains strong ties. In addition, running backs coach Tony Hull, a former New Orleans high school coach who is entering his fourth season at KU, already has established a Louisiana-to-Lawrence pipeline.
Kansas traditionally has struggled to keep the best players from its own state away from Kansas State and traditional powers to the north and south. Miles said he believes KU eventually will win these battles because of its academic commitment to student-athletes.
“And I think the best players in this area are going to want to stay near their families,” he said. “We’re going to give them that opportunity.”
Impact of coaching changes
Miles is the fifth coach at Kansas since 2009, following Beaty (2015-18), Weis (2012-14), Turner Gill (2010-11) and Mark Mangino (2002-09). Each of the previous four have played a role in delivering to KU its most dismal decade of football since World War II.
The difficulty in fielding a full roster of 85 scholarship players has hit Kansas especially hard. Miles said he believes rules that dictate scholarship distribution deserve a full review in light of increased numbers of early departures to the NFL, the advent of the transfer portal and more attention to head injuries.
Coaching vet Mike Ekeler will be in charge of the inside linebackers for Les Miles. He and Miles worked together for three seasons at LSU. (Jeff Jacobsen / Kansas Athletics)
“You lose kids in a number of ways,” he said. “The number of 85 was healthy, but I think you need to maintain that number.”
In addition to Hull, Miles retained assistant Clint Bowen to coach safeties. Bowen is a fixture at KU, entering his 21st season on staff — a remarkable achievement amid the turnover in coaches.
Aforementioned coordinators Eliot and Koenning come with significant experience at the highest level of the sport. The rest of his staff mixes assistants directly from the Group of 5 or FCS level (offensive line coach Luke Meadows from Eastern Michigan, defensive backs coach Chevis Jackson from Ball State and tight ends coach Jeff Hecklinski from Indiana State) and the Power 5 ranks (receivers coach Emmett Jones from Texas Tech, defensive line coach Kwahn Drake from Colorado and inside linebackers coach Mike Ekeler from North Carolina).
Schedule analysis
Click here to enlarge
Nothing is a given, including the Jayhawks’ opener against FCS member Indiana State. In fact, the only given is that the Sycamores, who return Iowa transfer Ryan Boyle as a fifth-year senior quarterback, will test Kansas.
Things get real in Week 3 as Kansas visits Boston College, which limped to the finish last season but still won seven games and features one of the top running backs nationally in A.J. Dillon.
The Big 12 was nice to offer the Jayhawks a week off after a rough three-game stretch to open league play against West Virginia, TCU and Oklahoma. It was not so forgiving to send Kansas straight to Texas out of the rest.
A Week 10 visit from Kansas State figures to set the tone in a new chapter of this rivalry that pits Miles against Chris Klieman, who built his national-championship pedigree at FCS powerhouse North Dakota State and has replaced the legendary Bill Snyder.
“I came here to turn the program around,” Torneden said. “Our goal was to change the program and get to a bowl game. So my senior year, I think it’s bowl game or bust.”
The path to a bowl game, unrealistic as it appears, goes on the road for two November games at Oklahoma State and Iowa State. To reach six wins — or even four — KU likely must pull an upset in Stillwater or Ames before finishing at home against Baylor.
Final assessment
This could be rough for Miles, who surely in 2016 envisioned his return to coaching at some place other than a school that requires such a giant overhaul.
His hire came with a solid dose of excitement. “There’s still a lot of buzz,” Torneden said. “The excitement within the team is there day to day.”
And the transition looks to have gone smoothly, with few defections. “Everybody’s bought in,” Adeniji said. “The one thing that’s preached a lot around here is to play for the team and not the individual. What I think (Miles) is trying to get at is the synergy, to teach us what we can do collectively.”
The plan is sound, to be sure. But just like that beautiful practice facility and the Jayhawks’ bid to regain relevance … if only it were so simple.
By Mitch Sherman
LAWRENCE, Kan. — Sunlight beckons through 10 giant garage doors on the east side of Kansas’ new indoor practice facility, modern and complete with painted end zones, a sky-high ceiling and plenty of room for big dreams.
Gone forever, as of February with the opening of this 89,000-square-foot structure built for $26 million, are the days of rolling up the carpet on which the Jayhawks practice.
“This puts us right in the mix of being competitive,” first-year Kansas coach Les Miles said.
If only it were so simple.
Miles, 65, knows as well as anyone that the road remains long for Kansas football. The former LSU and Oklahoma State coach, he takes over a program that won six games in four seasons under former coach David Beaty and has not enjoyed a winning record since 2008. In fact, KU has not won more than three games in a season during the past decade. It has four Big 12 wins in the past eight seasons.
But the arrival of the Mad Hatter in Lawrence finally brought some sizzle. People talked about Kansas as something other than a doormat. How the Jayhawks capitalize on this surge of momentum will shape their future.
Miles, one of five active coaches with a national championship on his résumé — the others are Nick Saban, Dabo Swinney, Jimbo Fisher and Mack Brown — hired Les Koenning and D.J. Eliot to run the offense and defense, respectively.
Koenning, 60, spent last season as the running backs coach at Southern Miss after a stint as coordinator at UAB following a run of jobs that included 12 years as a coordinator at Alabama (2001-02), Texas A&M (2003-07) and Mississippi State (2009-13). Eliot, 42, had spent the past two seasons as the coordinator at Colorado; before that, he had been coordinator at Kentucky for four seasons.
The Jayhawks beat TCU last year, the high moment in a 3-9 season while playing Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas State and West Virginia within two scores.
Losses to graduation, particularly on the defensive side, were significant. Three-year starter Joe Dineen at linebacker, a second-team AP All-American, is gone; so are linebacker Keith Loneker, first-team All-Big 12 defensive tackle Daniel Wise and starting cornerback Skakial Taylor.
Top receivers Steven Sims, Jeremiah Booker and Kerr Johnson also departed. And the status of running back Pooka Williams, the Big 12 offensive freshman of the year in 2018, remains uncertain after he signed a diversion agreement to avoid conviction in the wake of his arrest for domestic battery in December.
Kansas continues to lag with its scholarship count, a problem that dates to the Charlie Weis coaching era in Lawrence and involves injuries, attrition and mismanagement of the roster.
Miles appears unfazed, though, as he enters the fray in a high-powered league that has produced two consecutive Heisman winners at quarterback.
“I want us to take the field with the desire to win every game,” Miles said. “We want to play for championships — bowl game championships, divisional championships, conference championships. We’ve got a long way to go. We’re developing a winning team. But these guys are busting their tails.
“They want to be a part of something different.”
Biggest on-field question
What are the Jayhawks going to do offensively? Miles is purposefully coy on the subject.
“I don’t think there’s any reason” to divulge details on a scheme, Miles said.
Junior college transfer Thomas MacVittie, who signed in December and went through spring practice, seems likely to be the starting quarterback for the Jayhawks. (Jeff Jacobsen / Kansas Athletics)
Koenning, who was OC at Mississippi State during Dak Prescott’s first season as the starting quarterback, is on the record as saying Kansas quarterbacks will operate under center and from the shotgun — a shift from the spread system employed for the past four seasons by Beaty.
Junior college transfer Thomas MacVittie (6 feet 5, 225 pounds), who signed with Pittsburgh out of high school before moving on to JC, will enter preseason camp as the frontrunner to start. MacVittie, who enrolled in January and went through spring practice with the Jayhawks, is a versatile signal caller, Miles said, but again, no great hints at a style of offensive system.
Fullbacks Hudson Hall and Sam Schroeder remain on the KU roster, so expect some emphasis on physical play.
“We’re going to be physical and more aggressive overall,” senior left tackle Hakeem Adeniji said.
Kansas ranked last in the Big 12 in scoring offense (23.8 points per game) and passing yardage (192.2 per game) a year ago.
Even without Williams, the Jayhawks look deep at running back and up front, with 41 starts out of 60 back on the offensive line. And no matter the scheme preference, Miles said, he’ll always coach to the strength of his players.
Miles took heat for what many observers viewed as an outdated offensive system toward the end of his 12-year run at LSU. His initial choice as OC at Kansas, former Auburn coordinator Chip Lindsey, appeared to suggest that he would not delve deep into change. Lindsey left about five weeks after he was hired at KU to become coach at Troy.
Away from coaching the past two seasons, Miles said he wouldn’t let the Big 12 “dictate to us who our best players are.” In other words, if they fit into the league’s up-tempo style, fine. If not, that’s OK.
“We’re going to do the things that we can do with our talent,” Miles said.
Depth chart analysis
Quarterbacks: Thomas MacVittie(pronounced MACK-Vittie) threw for 1,064 yards and 16 touchdowns last year at Mesa (Ariz.) Community College. He signed with Pitt in 2016 out of Cincinnati Moeller after attracting attention from Miles and LSU; he redshirted in 2016, then transferred after playing three games on special teams in ’17 as a redshirt freshman.
“He can run it,” Miles said of MacVittie, “and he can throw it.”
Senior Carter Stanley isn’t far behind, the coach said. Stanley has played in 25 games at KU, starting nine times, and thrown for 2,371 yards. Sophomore Miles Kendrick and dual-threat true freshman Torry Locklin factor in the quarterback room, too.
Also joining the mix is graduate transfer Manny Miles, the coach’s eldest son who walked-on at North Carolina and threw a “Hail Mary” touchdown last season in a win over Western Carolina.
“We think competition truly is the way to go there,” Les Miles said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if more than one quarterback plays.”
The eligibility of Pooka Williams, who was third in the Big 12 in rushing last season, is of vital importance to KU’s offense. (Jay Biggerstaff / USA TODAY Sports)
Running backs: Kansas officials expect resolution with Pooka Williams before preseason camp opens in August. He was suspended from the program in December.
Miles has said little through this offseason on the situation with Williams. “He’s gone through what was asked of him,” the coach told The Athletic in a recent interview.
The return of Williams, a New Orleans-area native who was a first-team All-Big 12 pick, would provide a massive boost to the offense. He rushed for 1,125 yards — the eighth-highest single-season total in Kansas history — and seven touchdowns, averaging 6.9 yards per carry, and caught 33 passes for 289 yards as a true freshman.
Against Oklahoma, Williams ran for 252 yards on 15 attempts.
Junior Dom Williams and senior Khalil Herbert also return after combining to rush for 730 yards last season. KU adds junior Donovan Franklin, who sat out last year as a transfer from Army. Freshman Velton Gardner is expected to make a push to bypass a redshirt.
Wide receivers/tight ends: The cupboard is not bare without Sims, Johnson and Bopoker, who caught 114 passes for 1,188 yards in 2018. Junior Stephon Robinson played well in his first season out of junior college, with 28 catches for 330 yards. But he and Daylon Charlot, an Alabama transfer who caught two touchdown passes at KU last season, face stiff competition from Iowa Central CC transfers Ezra Naylor and Andrew Parchment.
Junior Kwamie Lassiter and sophomore Takulve Williams also return with experience and appear in line to split time in the slot, while junior Jack Luavasa and senior James Sosinski fit in the offense at Miles’ version of the tight end spot.
Kenyon Tabor, who redshirted in 2017 and left the team last year because of injuries, remains in the transfer portal.
Senior tackle Hakeem Adeniji gives Kansas a solid building block up front. He will be a four-year starter for the Jayhawks. (Michael C. Johnson / USA TODAY Sports)
Offensive line: The Jayhawks return three full-time starters in senior Hakeem Adeniji, a second-team All-Big 12 pick last year, senior Kevin Feder and junior Malik Clark, plus senior Andru Tovi, who started six games in the interior spots. But only Adeniji at left tackle and Clark at left guard appear entrenched.
KU ranked 79th nationally in rushing offense last season at 158.6 yards per game.
Api Maine, who toggled between guard and center before redshirting last year out of junior college, is battling Tovi at center. The right side is wide open as juniors Chris Hughes and Adagio Lopeti play guard with Feder. Seniors Clyde McCauley and Antoine Frazier will bid in August to hold off 6-8 redshirt freshman Nick Williams at the spot opposite Adeniji.
Click here to enlarge
Defensive line: Kansas boasts a trio of seniors in position to start up front, as Codey Cole, Jelani Brown and Darrius Moragne return with 12 games of experience apiece from a year ago.
That explains Miles’ optimism about the KU defensive line. He said he expects the groups up front on offense and defense to lead.
Problem is, those seniors, in addition to Willie McCaleb behind Cole at end, recorded a total of 23 tackles last season. So Kansas will look for immediate help from freshman end Steven Parker, a four-star signee out of Dallas who was a national top-350 prospect. Junior Sam Burt at nose tackle and sophomore Jelani Arnold, who was hurt and redshirted a year ago, also provide depth.
And redshirt freshman Spencer Roe is getting a look at an edge spot, though he could fit on offense as a fullback if needed.
Azur Kamara flashed some big-play ability last season. He needs to consistently show off that part of his skill set this fall. (Scott Sewell / USA TODAY Sports)
Linebackers: How do you replace Dineen, a hometown kid who led the nation in solo tackles in each of the past two seasons and meant everything to the Jayhawks on defense? You don’t, senior Bryce Torneden said.
At least, not with one guy. “Somebody’s going to have to step up,” said Torneden, who followed Dineen from Lawrence’s Free State High to KU. “I think it’s a process. You don’t just move in and fill what he did in one day or with one player.”
First up at middle linebacker is a familiar name — sophomore Jay Dineen, Joe’s brother. Sophomore Cooper Root, yet to play for the Jayhawks, fits in the middle, too, alongside junior Dru Prox and redshirt freshman Cody McNerney, a converted safety, at the Will position.
Senior Azur Kamara returns with the most experience of the KU linebackers after contributing five tackles for loss last season. Classmates Najee Stevens-McKenzie and Kyron Johnson also play on the outside.
Torneden ranked behind only Joe Dineen with 88 tackles as a nickel back last season. Eliot’s 3-4 scheme leaves Torneden in that position, and it also allows him and senior Shaq Richmond to step into a fourth linebacker spot against run-heavy foes like rival Kansas State.
A player to watch is freshman Gavin Potter of Broken Arrow, Okla., snagged on signing day in February over Kansas State and Texas Tech.
Defensive backs: Kansas led the Big 12 with 16 interceptions a year ago. But foes completed 64.8 percent of their throws against KU, the highest figure in the league.
The Jayhawks like their returning pieces, and for good reason. Torneden, seniors Mike Lee at safety and Hasan Defense at corner and sophomore corner Corione Harris earned honorable-mention All-Big 12 recognition last season. Sophomore Davon Ferguson seems likely to move into a starting role at safety after he played in four games in 2018.
Kyle Mayberry and Elmore Hempstead at corner look set to fill top backup jobs alongside safeties Ricky Thomas and Jeremiah McCullough.
Competition is fierce in the secondary, Torneden said. And there’s no alternative against a Big 12 schedule because you never know from where the next Heisman contender might materialize.
“If you want to be the best, come here and you’ll have an opportunity to play the best,” Torneden said. “It appeals to our competitive nature.”
Senior Hasan Defense, who had three picks and seven pass breakups last season, will be in his third season as a starting cornerback. (Courtesy of Kansas Athletics)
Special teams: Junior Kyle Thompson returns at punter after averaging a Big 12-best 43.3 yards per punt, with 26 kicks dropped inside the 20-yard line.He earned second-team all-league honors and is a weapon.
Kicker Gabriel Rui is gone, set to be replaced by junior Liam Jones, who handled kickoffs last season.
Pooka Williams and Lassiter held the top jobs last season on kickoff and punt returns, respectively.
In a coaching transition, special teams often suffer. Kansas can’t afford to struggle in the kicking game.
How the Jayhawks have recruited from 2016-19
Using 247Sports’ Composite rankings, here is how Kansas’ recruiting classes have fared nationally and within the Big 12 over the past four years:
Click here to enlarge
Miles looks well-positioned to give Kansas an immediate injection of energy in recruiting. He already did, in fact, piecing together a decent class in short order — and doing it after he lost his newly hired offensive coordinator between the December and February signing periods.
Kansas snuck past Texas Tech to avoid the cellar in the Big 12 rankings with its 2019 class. But in order to climb to the level necessary to win regularly, a formidable hill stands before the Jayhawks, whose consensus national ranking of 67th over the past four years sits last in the conference.
“The 12-1 Orange Bowl team (in 2007) was built by high school players who committed and stayed three to four years,” Miles said. “That’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to recruit the footprint of Kansas. We’re going to recruit better than anybody else. It will provide us with the strength of our program.”
Miles said he wants to target Dallas, Houston, Detroit and Kansas City. And it goes without saying that he has plans for Louisiana, where he maintains strong ties. In addition, running backs coach Tony Hull, a former New Orleans high school coach who is entering his fourth season at KU, already has established a Louisiana-to-Lawrence pipeline.
Kansas traditionally has struggled to keep the best players from its own state away from Kansas State and traditional powers to the north and south. Miles said he believes KU eventually will win these battles because of its academic commitment to student-athletes.
“And I think the best players in this area are going to want to stay near their families,” he said. “We’re going to give them that opportunity.”
Impact of coaching changes
Miles is the fifth coach at Kansas since 2009, following Beaty (2015-18), Weis (2012-14), Turner Gill (2010-11) and Mark Mangino (2002-09). Each of the previous four have played a role in delivering to KU its most dismal decade of football since World War II.
The difficulty in fielding a full roster of 85 scholarship players has hit Kansas especially hard. Miles said he believes rules that dictate scholarship distribution deserve a full review in light of increased numbers of early departures to the NFL, the advent of the transfer portal and more attention to head injuries.
Coaching vet Mike Ekeler will be in charge of the inside linebackers for Les Miles. He and Miles worked together for three seasons at LSU. (Jeff Jacobsen / Kansas Athletics)
“You lose kids in a number of ways,” he said. “The number of 85 was healthy, but I think you need to maintain that number.”
In addition to Hull, Miles retained assistant Clint Bowen to coach safeties. Bowen is a fixture at KU, entering his 21st season on staff — a remarkable achievement amid the turnover in coaches.
Aforementioned coordinators Eliot and Koenning come with significant experience at the highest level of the sport. The rest of his staff mixes assistants directly from the Group of 5 or FCS level (offensive line coach Luke Meadows from Eastern Michigan, defensive backs coach Chevis Jackson from Ball State and tight ends coach Jeff Hecklinski from Indiana State) and the Power 5 ranks (receivers coach Emmett Jones from Texas Tech, defensive line coach Kwahn Drake from Colorado and inside linebackers coach Mike Ekeler from North Carolina).
Schedule analysis
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Nothing is a given, including the Jayhawks’ opener against FCS member Indiana State. In fact, the only given is that the Sycamores, who return Iowa transfer Ryan Boyle as a fifth-year senior quarterback, will test Kansas.
Things get real in Week 3 as Kansas visits Boston College, which limped to the finish last season but still won seven games and features one of the top running backs nationally in A.J. Dillon.
The Big 12 was nice to offer the Jayhawks a week off after a rough three-game stretch to open league play against West Virginia, TCU and Oklahoma. It was not so forgiving to send Kansas straight to Texas out of the rest.
A Week 10 visit from Kansas State figures to set the tone in a new chapter of this rivalry that pits Miles against Chris Klieman, who built his national-championship pedigree at FCS powerhouse North Dakota State and has replaced the legendary Bill Snyder.
“I came here to turn the program around,” Torneden said. “Our goal was to change the program and get to a bowl game. So my senior year, I think it’s bowl game or bust.”
The path to a bowl game, unrealistic as it appears, goes on the road for two November games at Oklahoma State and Iowa State. To reach six wins — or even four — KU likely must pull an upset in Stillwater or Ames before finishing at home against Baylor.
Final assessment
This could be rough for Miles, who surely in 2016 envisioned his return to coaching at some place other than a school that requires such a giant overhaul.
His hire came with a solid dose of excitement. “There’s still a lot of buzz,” Torneden said. “The excitement within the team is there day to day.”
And the transition looks to have gone smoothly, with few defections. “Everybody’s bought in,” Adeniji said. “The one thing that’s preached a lot around here is to play for the team and not the individual. What I think (Miles) is trying to get at is the synergy, to teach us what we can do collectively.”
The plan is sound, to be sure. But just like that beautiful practice facility and the Jayhawks’ bid to regain relevance … if only it were so simple.
