Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Brian Borland Retires, KU Football Hires DK McDonald as New Defensive Coordinator

Starting point is 00:00:00 On today's Locked on Jayhawks, Brian Borland retires, KU has a new defensive coordinator, did they make the right hire? You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson, you can find me on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio. Blue Sky, Derek Johnson. And this is Locked on Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day. Thank you to the everydayers catching each and every show.

Starting point is 00:00:32 We are free and available anywhere you get your podcasts. And find us on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And on today's edition of Locked on Jayhawks, we're going to be breaking down the new defensive coordinator position for KU because their current guy has retired. Their new guy has been promoted into the system. So we're going to break down what went down. We're going to break down what KU has in DK McDonald.

Starting point is 00:00:55 And then we'll finish up as well because, you know, if you caught any of our bonus episodes, thank you to you. But also there was a lot that went on over this past week with players transferring, the players coming back coaching moves and we're going to recap it all in case you missed any of it on this episode of the show which is brought to you by fan duel sportsbook you can start the season with a big return on fan duel new customers can place a five dollar bet and you'll get started with 150 in bonus bets if you win your first five dollar bet just visit fanduel.com to get started today.

Starting point is 00:01:26 All right, let's start right here. So the news from the day, among many other coaching news, it's very apparent that Lance Leipold is somebody who likes to work quick, that he wants to get resolutions to things quickly, which I think is a good trait to have. I think that's a good thing to do as a head coach, right? You don't want things lingering. You don't want questions in recruiting. Who's going to be the coach?'s going to happen here especially in today's day and age the transfer portal who's going to be coaching you right that's an important trait to have to be able to make decisive and quick decisions and that's part of the thing that's difficult as a coach that you get judged on those quick decisions that you have to make probably

Starting point is 00:01:58 faster than you would like but that's also why you make millions and millions of dollars. So here's what went down. Kansas Cent coach Lance Leipold announced that Brian Borland is retiring from coaching. He's going to be succeeded by D.K. McDonald, who is the co-defensive coordinator. Jordan Peterson leaves last year for Texas A&M. They hired D.K. McDonald. We'll get into his coaching background, but he was most recently at Iowa State and with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Starting point is 00:02:25 They hired him to be the quarterbacks coach and be the co-defensive coordinator. The fact that they gave him the co-defensive coordinator title, that maybe that was just something that was required to get him to take the job. Maybe that was partially about a money involvement thing that with that title comes a bigger payday again to get him to take the job. But maybe also part of this was the idea, part of the plan, was that he was going to be the defensive coordinator in waiting. Now, that was never publicized in any way, but maybe that was kind of a handshake agreement like, hey, if you do well, there's a good chance that you're going to be the eventual defensive coordinator here.

Starting point is 00:02:58 You look at Brian Borland. He obviously is getting a little bit older in the coaching days. Not necessarily like a – I don't know. He's not to to a point where um it's like oh he has to retire like he could have still coached for another handful of years age-wise and then been totally fine but he had the health thing that went on last year that caused him to miss the first game Jordan Peterson calling plays uh instead of him and so you wonder if it was more of interest for him to be like I'm going to retire and move on. Also, in addition to that, his contract was up at the end of this season. So Kansas would have had to extend him. And maybe it was just one of those situations where for Kansas you go, yeah, the defense kind of plateaued from this year to last year. It's probably best for all parties involved. Like we might be wanting to go in another direction anyway but obviously lance light pulled and brian borland very close they've worked together for so many years in the time at buffalo like brian borland was actually uh a more successful coordinator if you look at where

Starting point is 00:03:53 their defense is ranked like the defense actually ranked higher if you look at like points or per game or points allowed per game the defense ranked better than the offense did in a majority of the seasons there um so like you know had a successful career with him uh overall and that it's kind of that hey um let's retire here let's let's not leave on bad blood or anything like that right so he spent four seasons as the kansas defense coordinator all four in lance lightbulb's time here at kansas he was six seasons at buffalo with Leipold, and in total, 18 seasons for Borland with Lance Leipold between Wisconsin, Whitewater. He was his first defensive coordinator. Jim Zabrowski was his first offensive coordinator.

Starting point is 00:04:33 Brian Borland was his first defensive coordinator at Whitewater. Goes to Buffalo, then KU, and 40 seasons of coaching in total for him. It is a long career. I know it doesn't end the way KU fans wanted it to. And obviously there are some questions and, and, you know, I had questions over the course of the season about why are they doing this? Or I like it when they're more aggressive or, you know, why are you playing corners off the ball too much? Yada, yada, yada. But the overall is if we are looking big picture with Brian Borland in, he took a defense that was giving up over 40 points per game in his first year and he leaves the program in a situation where they were giving up 26 points per game this year so yes did again it feel like the

Starting point is 00:05:10 the defense plateaued from this year to last year and that maybe you had questions about what is the ceiling of what this defense could be those are all totally fair but if we're also being fair brian borland raised the floor and where this program is at on the defense side of the ball right it's the players too and it's other things but like he did contribute to that you can't just say like it's one thing or another so so credit to him for that but i think this is also the right time to maybe try to take that next step on the defensive end of the football field and here's why you look at the points allowed per game again 42.2 points allowed per game in 2021 that was 129th in the country then 2022 he gives up 35 and a half points per game in 2021. That was 129th in the country.

Starting point is 00:05:47 Then 2022, he gives up 35.5 points per game. So he improved by a touchdown, but that's still 124th in the country. 2023 gets even better. 26.5 points per game allowed, 67th in the country. But then this year, they actually gave up less points per game this year, 26.0, but the ranking was worse. So if you look at points per game allowed, you would say would say oh they still got a little bit better this year uh but the points per game ranking went from 67th in 2023 to 76th in 2024 so if you're comparing it nationally but regardless that is kind of around the same total of what you're giving up but then when you look at the yards per allowed per play 2021 7.4 yards allowed per play i was 128th 2022 6.3 yards allowed per play. 2021, 7.4 yards allowed per play. That was 128th. 2022,

Starting point is 00:06:26 6.3 yards allowed per play. That was 120th, so they improved. 2023, you get to 5.6 yards allowed per play. That's 74th. This year, it went down to 6.1 yards allowed per play. That is 104th in the country in yards allowed per play, and that's with even having two all Big 12 first team multiple time selection corners and having some talent. And yes, is this the deepest defensive talent team in the conference? No. Is this a team loaded with NFL draft picks on the defensive side? No. Is the linebacking core one that you're going to write home about? No. But like they have enough pieces there that they should be better than the 104th best defense in the country especially a 30 ranking drop in yards allowed per play so things just kind of plateaued from last year to this year and yes you could say well they lose austin booker and yada yada but you still had a lot of players back um and and like i said i i think you give credit to brian borland for helping get this defense up to a higher floor for for the next guy to take over but also i think this is the right move to kind of move forward and get a fresh eyes on thing uh is whether it's modernizing

Starting point is 00:07:31 things or i don't know just just the difference in aggressiveness or play calling we don't exactly know what it's going to look like like formation wise what's going to be different ryan borland was running kind of a 4-3 defense that at times became kind of a 4-2-5 defense with three safeties. At other times, it's kind of a 4-3 where it's a third linebacker. At other times, it maybe was a 4-2-5 with another corner in there. So we'll see what the new guy does, and I want to get into that coming up on the other side. You're listening to Locked on Jayhawks.

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Starting point is 00:09:16 Thanks for making it your first listen every day. You can check out our KU Missouri recap or some of our other coaching or player news. We'll get into a recap of it later in this episode, but if you want a more detailed approach, check out those videos. And check out Locked On College Football. Get you ready for the playoff and bowl season here as well. Okay, so the new hire, Brian Borland out, retiring. DK McDonald is the new defensive coordinator for KU.

Starting point is 00:09:38 So he was previously on staff this past season. And I think this is very interesting because it continues a trend where Lance Leipold promotes from within. Now, this can work two ways. I think it is a healthy work environment when you consistently promote from within. Think about it. You might be at a job somewhere where they don't ever promote. And maybe you're getting a little bothered by it at work, right? And you're like, man, I wish I had somewhere I could go a little bit more vertically, right? It's a good thing. It creates a healthy workplace that they promote from within that you feel like when you accomplish something that you feel like when you work hard, you were

Starting point is 00:10:14 rewarded for that. I think that's a very good thing that Lance Lightpool does. There is a line though, where it's like, you know, you still do have to interview other candidates, get different scopes on things, get different opinions, right? Maybe the best coach isn't the guy who's in your own building necessarily, especially for a KU defense that did struggle relative to probably what the talent was in the secondary and this year's team. So, like, there's a line there where you like to promote that, but that doesn't mean you have to do it each and every time. And I definitely think this one gets a little bit more heat like i i think you know maybe you were leaning matt lubick over jim zabrowski maybe you had your favorite offensive coordinator leaning but i i think for the most part the pulse of ku fans is that jim zabrowski

Starting point is 00:10:57 you're happy with that higher being an internal promotion this one seems to be a little bit more polarizing with dk mcdonald and i think part of it maybe he hasn't been around kansas long to see the successes right it's easy to point jim zabrowski uh on his staff at wisconsin whitewater it's easy to point to the staff when he when he joined buffalo that andy kotelicki and and the buffalo offense struggled the first two years but then when zabrowski joined year three and on is when they really took off it's easy to point to the bowl game and say look at look at what he did in the bowl game on the offensive side. You don't have that as much with DK McDonald. So it becomes more of a little bit of an unknown there on the defensive

Starting point is 00:11:33 side of the ball. But this guy, he played at Edinburgh from 1997 to 2000, then was the DBs coach there later for a couple of years. Eventually he moves up the ranks. He got his first, I believe William and Mary is a D1 job at the FCS level in 2011 then he becomes the corners coach for toledo from 2012 to 2015 then he gets the iowa state cornerback and pass game coordinator job from 2016 to 2018 he then becomes the safeties coach and pass game coordinator job i don't know if that's defense pass game coordinator for iowa state from 2019 to 2020 and when i think about iowa state defenses i think about having some really salty defenses and not necessarily having they typically have good corners who go on to the nfl and you know we've seen the occasional other player like will mcdonald for instance was a

Starting point is 00:12:16 first round pick for them but they don't typically have just a you know a cacophony of five-star recruits four-star recruits coming into that defense that is littering it. And they typically have really good defenses and they have a very, what was I think, cutting edge scheme that a lot of other teams have tried to kind of replicate from here moving forward. And so that becomes interesting that he has that background in there for a handful of seasons, if he can bring some of that stuff over. Because think about if you had, you know, maybe not full what Iowa State's been defensively these last handful of seasons, which is like consistently one of the best defenses in the conference. But think about if you could bring some of that, if you could bring 90% of that to this

Starting point is 00:12:53 Kansas team with where the offense has been recently, like that would be quite the recipe for success, don't you think? So anyway, he goes from Iowa State, then goes to the Philadelphia Eagles for 2021 to 2022, where he was the assistant DB coach. Now, that's where things get a little bit sticky because when he's at Iowa State they're doing so well on the defensive end of the ball when he gets to Philadelphia things did not go well on the defensive end of the ball and specifically in the secondary now in the NFL I guess this is true to every level

Starting point is 00:13:19 of sports but like in the NFL specifically sometimes you only have so much control because in college it's like oh if you don't have good enough players in the secondary go recruit better players you know go to the transfer portal in the nfl to a certain extent it's like well we have this salary cap limits we're only drafting late in the draft like there's only so much we can do so how much of that was was that i don't know um but they certainly struggled at that end anyway he gets the philadelphia eagles db job 2023 2021 2022 there they were good on defense but 2023 when he was the DB's coach was when they certainly struggled at the back end and on defense but again was that him was that the the players right it's it's it's not entirely sure to

Starting point is 00:13:56 know it's like you can be the the best quarterbacks coach in the world and I think um you look at like uh Garrett Riley the the brother of Lincoln Riley. He was what, offense coordinator? I forget what position coach he was at KU. It's not like everybody was sitting there when he was at KU going, man, we got to hire this guy away. Like, look what he's doing with the quarterbacks at KU. And then all of a sudden he goes to TCU and they're playing for a national championship and he becomes the hottest coordinator out there and Clemson pries him away and yada, yada, yada.

Starting point is 00:14:23 Right? So like the players do matter there. Right. It might not have been DK McDonald's fault, but it is an interesting note and discussion. So then he takes over with Kansas this past season, comes the co-defense coordinator. To what level was he involved in the defensive game planning? Was that just a title thing, as we talked about earlier? And he was the cornerbacks coach as well. Now, by all accounts, it sounds like he was somebody who approached the corners from a very professional level that with Kobe Bryant, Melo Dotson, he treated them because they wanted to be NFL players, professionals.

Starting point is 00:14:51 He treated them that way and held them very accountable. And that could be a good thing. They're holding these guys accountable to that level. Now, it's hard when you distinguish because you can look at it and say he again going back to the player's idea did DK McDonald have a great season as cornerbacks coach because Mello Dotson and Colby Bryant were both first team all big 12 corners you could easily point to it or you could also point to it and say they were both that the year before it is just about the players and you just kind of drove the Ferrari you didn't crash it you could also say oh well the defense should have been

Starting point is 00:15:23 better knowing you had those and there was too much off coverage but how much of that was him how much that was the play calling with brian borland so it's it's very convoluted and complicated to exactly pinpoint you know to what level dk mcdonald like you know this isn't baseball where i can point to him like shohei otani had a seven war he was he contributed to seven wins above her but i have no idea and it's impossible to know and that's what becomes a little bit difficult here because i think a lot of people saw jordan peterson going back to the idea with jim zyrowski we have tangible stuff about what he did as offense coordinator we saw a game with him play call we saw that with jordan peterson a little bit last year we saw the recruiting impact that jordan peterson had

Starting point is 00:16:00 that he was available last year i think a lot of kansas fans are sitting there going man i wish you would have brought in jordan peterson and said and jordan peterson to be clear i don't know he he might not have accepted the job like for all we know lance leipold did offer him the job and he didn't accept it and then they went to dk mcdonald i don't know or maybe they did now if they did go to dk uh mcdonald before going to jordan peterson i think that would be a mistake uh when you look at peterson his recruiting background now spending a year in a and m and they typically have really good defenses or mike elko typically has really good defenses like being around him for a year would probably be really good um that would i think you have been a home run higher you probably get dj warner to come back

Starting point is 00:16:36 out of the portal if you bring jordan peterson with you so i think that would have been the home run higher and i think that's what a lot of ku fans wanted i also think even some ku fans would have been cool if you went you know out of out of uh the internal here basically and and you know maybe for lance leipold going back to the idea that is something that he usually emphasizes right promoting from within um and probably he also saw jeff grimes being an external hire last year and that not working as much as they hoped for and maybe that spurned him a little bit i don't think you can let one thing like that you know deter you from everything in the future again for all we know he did offer it to peterson and then that that's kind of a moot point but um i i think it's a it's it's a uninspiring move while also being one that could end up being the right

Starting point is 00:17:21 move if that makes sense like i don't think this is a bad move i don't think it's the wrong move necessarily i just think it's a tbd move right it's a to be determined move and in a real sense every move you make is that but there is so much less information on this that makes it really hard to diagnose and you know it's very easy to be like oh this guy was was uh you know uh had a lower job than he's going to have now. He gets a promotion on a defense that ranked outside of the top 100 yards allowed per play, that ranked outside of the top 70 points allowed per game. Why is he getting promoted? I will say, making another, I've made a lot of cross-sport references in this,

Starting point is 00:17:57 so let's do another one. J.J. Piccolo was the assistant GM before Dayton Moore ends up getting fired, and then J.J. Piccolo gets promoted. And that was the same thing gm before dayton moore uh ends up getting fired and then jj piccolo gets promoted and that was the same thing wasn't it in theory it was oh this team's not doing well enough the front office isn't doing well enough wait so you're gonna hire from within that same front office seems to work out pretty well for for the royals and where they've gone so far so it's entirely possible dk mcdonald will have and and that becomes a thing like what are they gonna play are they gonna play that Iowa State defense which is playing like a three three five three two six at times like where it's it's it's caused a lot of

Starting point is 00:18:33 problems for opposing offenses I would be all for that but that's going to cause a major change in recruiting and what KU wants to do with some of their defense alignment like in the types of DBs KU is bringing in it might take a little bit of time um for ku to find the fits that is he going to do a mix you know for a year or two is he going to run uh three four is it going to be right like what exactly is the defense going to look like how aggressive is he going to be is he going to be way more aggressive than brian borland they're going to be way more blitzes is it going to be more man coverage more cover three more right it'll be very interesting and we don't have, again, unlike Jim Zebrowski,

Starting point is 00:19:07 much track record that it's hard to know. Now, as far as the defense he takes over, he's certainly going to have his hands full. I actually like what the defensive line could look like for KU next year, even losing DJ Warner. By Jobe, if he can take a step, basically between by Jobe, Dak Brinkley, if one of those two can take a step forward, I think you'll feel pretty good because you have Dean Miller back, all all big 12 second team at defensive end you're bringing in

Starting point is 00:19:28 two interesting freshmen and garrett martin and adrian holly now ideally they don't hit the field right away in year one and then if dylan brooks can come back healthy enough on the defensive end now they'll probably have to add more because that's a thin group right now but there's at least some interesting pieces there defense tackle i like dj with Withers, Tommy Dunn, Keenan Caldwell, Blake Harold, all guys who we saw flashes from this year. You add Gage Keys back, plus Marcus Calvin working into another year. Freshman in Josiah Hammond. I feel good about where the D-line is.

Starting point is 00:19:54 The corners, even losing Mello and Kobe, if you're hiring a defense coordinator who cuts his teeth there, then you should be okay because you have talent with Demarius McGee, Jalen Todd, Jameel Croft. I mean, you're bringing in these high-end three-star, low-end four-star recruits, and Jacoby Davis, Andre Gibson, Austin Alexander, Chris McCorkle. So I feel good there.

Starting point is 00:20:14 Linebacker is the one where they have work to do right now, for sure, in the portal. Maybe they can add another safety, but you have the Dye brothers back as seniors. You have Taylor Davis, who we saw get a lot of playing time at the end. I think Mason Ellis has deserved a chance to get some real playing time. So there are some questions.

Starting point is 00:20:29 They lost a lot of players, but if they can shore up linebackers specifically, I do think there is enough there that you can at least become interesting this season, and we'll see what the new defensive coordinator is all about. All right, let's continue on a little recap of the wild week that was, in case you missed it, for KU football. This episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook. Get ready to tackle the NFL action with FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook, because right now new customers can bet $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if you win. The FanDuel Sportsbook app gives you everything you need to

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Starting point is 00:21:16 Never waste a hunch and make every moment more with FanDuel, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL and the Locked On Podcast Network. Finishing things up on this episode of the show, and we will have later this week the biggest things KU football still needs to accomplish in the offseason. We're going to have a KU football transfer portal roundup of guys that they've offered so far

Starting point is 00:21:38 and get into a quick scouting reports on some of the players on the offense and defense side of the ball for some of the targets. We'll have the KU NC State basketball previews have plenty more coming at you right here this week on Lockdown Jayhawks and the way things have been going we'll probably have like five breaking news things we'll have to break down who knows okay so recap of what happened this last week uh let's start with this Jalen Daniels is back for another season so that's big for the KU offense and uh certainly uh doesn't apply as much to the defense coordinator thing here, but it might, right? If Jalen Daniels can give you a higher floor or higher ceiling,

Starting point is 00:22:08 whatever it is, it helps you on the defense side of the ball, right? Because then you have multiple ways that you can go about winning as a defense here, right? If the offense isn't very good, you just basically have to be stellar as a defense to win games. If the offense is really good for KU, there's options for DK McDonalddonald right you can be just a good defense that'd be the overall best opinion but like at the very least if you can be a turnover forcing defense or something get the ball back for a good offense so has a little bit of an impact there uh the guy calling plays for jaylen daniels

Starting point is 00:22:36 going to be jim zabrowski former quarterbacks coach we've kind of mentioned throughout the show he was promoted to oc jeff grimes heading over to wisconsin i think ku fans very happy and rightfully so with that move happening and then the transfer portal came abound and Gage Keyes sounds like he's coming back into the program for KU so DK McDonald having another defensive tackle to work with there and what I actually think should be a pretty good D tackle rotation this year and then you had players leave a couple DBs Caleb Purdy and BJ Dilworth from DK McDonald's position but seemed like they were kind of buried a little bit on the depth chart. And then you had Savion Morrison, who could have been the number two, number one running back. I think it would have been LaShawn Williams. But then again, it seems like the staff pretty high on Harry Stewart and Johnny Thompson. So maybe Savion Morrison wouldn't have ended up being that guy anyway but he ends up entering the portal and then DJ Warner that's the big one the big gut punch to lose KU's former highest rated high school recruit that they've ever gotten in the 24-7 sports

Starting point is 00:23:35 recruiting era that is a mouthful to say but he ends up entering the transfer portal and I was still holding out hope that yeah okay if they if they're able to go out and get Jordan Peterson as the DC maybe he'll withdraw, come back to Kansas. But now that DK McDonald is the guy, I can't imagine that's going to happen with DJ Warner. So that is all the latest news. And a quick recap, but if you want a more detailed recap of those things happening, what it exactly means for next year's team in the future, what's the future quarterback room look like, for instance, check those out.

Starting point is 00:24:02 We have them on separate videos right here on Locked on Jayhawks on YouTube or on separate podcasts as well and where you get your podcast with Locked on Jayhawks. And that'll do it for today's episode of the show. We'll see you next time with LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Brian Borland Retires, KU Football Hires DK McDonald as New Defensive Coordinator

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