Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks OC Jeff Grimes to Wisconsin??? Who Replaces Him? Plus, Sevion Morrison To Transfer

Starting point is 00:00:00 On this bonus episode of Locked on Jayhawks, Jeff Grimes, Kansas offensive coordinator to Wisconsin. What does it mean for KU football? You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Airs catching each and every show. We're free and available anywhere you get your podcasts and find us on YouTube where you can like and subscribe to the show. On this bonus episode of the show, Jeff Grimes to Wisconsin, question mark.

Starting point is 00:00:37 I don't know, by the time I'm done recording this, maybe it's not even a question mark. Maybe it has officially happened, but we're going to go into what exactly that would mean. Possible offensive coordinator candidates for KU should he leave. What effect does this have possibly on Jalen Daniels and some personnel for KU? And then we'll finish as well, because there was some news earlier this morning where Savion Morrison left the program going into the transfer portal. And you had the Savion Morrison news.

Starting point is 00:01:03 You had some of the stuff yesterday, and it felt like things were really going downhill from the news cycle for ku recently plus they just lost in football and basketball uh where it felt like things were a very big downhill trend it feels like people are starting to feel like an upswing is happening now between this news and uh there there's been some news possibly about uh you know some other things that could be happening in the works that that getting KU fans certainly happy from here on. So let's start here. Here is the report from Pete Thamel this afternoon. Pete Thamel of ESPN.

Starting point is 00:01:34 Wisconsin is targeting Kansas offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes as the school's new offensive coordinator. A deal is not complete, but the sides are talking and those talks are expected to intensify in the near future. So, obviously, you look at this. Jeff Grimes is under a ton of heat through the first, I guess, half of the season, the first four or five games of the season. Things were not going well for KU. Things were not going well for the offense. He low-key improved a big deal, I think. The offense improved a big deal in the second half he ended up being

Starting point is 00:02:05 the offensive coordinator of the play caller for the offense that actually led the big 12 in yards per play during conference only games so from that standpoint you know you would think this is some huge loss um and you could also say oh but i didn't like the red zone play calling yes there were certain drives that was the key hands actually ended up one of the better red zone touchdown offenses in the big 12 too but based on the early struggles for the offense and the early struggles for jaylen daniels getting acclimated with this type of offense right i think the biggest difference because kansas did try to infuse a lot of what they did with andy kodelnicki into this offense there were still a lot more there were screen plays reverse plays there were

Starting point is 00:02:43 a lot more deep shots there weren't as much I would say like um yard after catch plays for the receivers or intermediate or throw over the middle plays that were as beneficial as in the Cody Lakey offense to this one um but you just wonder how much of the you know improvements that happened in the back half of the season versus what we saw in the first half were just I guess Lance Leipold and the other coaches and Jim Zabrowski whoever infusing back to what ku was doing in previous seasons and you know putting him under more of those guidelines you also wonder how much of the offense's success being first in the big 12 in yards per play how much of that was jeff grimes how much of that was just the talent for ku how much that was just the talent for KU? How much of that was having Devin Neal and having Jalen Daniels?

Starting point is 00:03:27 You know, when you have an honorable mention, all big 12 running back, that's certainly going to help things, tongue in cheek, big time there. But I definitely thought that, you know, going into this, like I thought Jeff Grimes earned another year as the offensive coordinator at KU based on how they finished and the overall results. But that said, I certainly am not upset, and I don't think a lot said, I certainly am not upset, and I don't think a lot of KU fans are very upset at the idea that you get to reset an offensive coordinator.

Starting point is 00:03:51 And if you get a buyout out of this too, I mean, that's just kind of candy on top. The idea that there was a large celebration among KU fans that's happening, and you can understand why Jeff Grimes would want to do it. He probably took a lot of heat early in the season and is like, you know what? I can go somewhere else and yada yada yada um I think this works out for both parties I would I would say because um you look at the idea that

Starting point is 00:04:15 going back to the okay so what did this offense do like I said they didn't leave the big 12 in yards per play still though if you are under the idea of what was the reason for that was it because of the play caller or was it because of the talent i do tend to lean more toward it being about the talent um and this is why they were basically the same team in 2023 as they are in 2024 roster wise yes jason bean versus jaylen daniels in certain games um but it was a very very similar roster overall and yes you had like dom pooney but like you had had Logan Brown on this team who was also very good so you look at the 2023 team and again the only differences here are basically the coordinators right um points per game in 2023 34.8 points per game in 2024 29.7 so you went down over five points per game with very similar personnel yards per game you

Starting point is 00:05:02 went from 446 to 420 so you're minus 26 in yards per game yards per play 7.2ards per game, you went from 446 to 420. So you're minus 26 in yards per game. Yards per play, 7.2 to 6.6. You led the Big 12, but you were actually down over half a yard per play this year from last year. The completion percentage went down from 64% to 58%. So you're down six percentage points in completion. Not as easy to complete passes in the offense. Pass yards per game went down 31 per game from 240 to 209. Pass yards per attempt down from 10 yards per attempt to 8.2 yards per attempt. So minus 1.8 per pass. Pass air yards per attempt.

Starting point is 00:05:34 So the yards that it is going past the line of scrimmage on average went from 10.0 yards per attempt to 7.2 minus 2.8. That might be surprising because Jeff Grimes liked to throw deep a little bit more but the reason why is you were more consistently throwing to the intermediate with the previous offense under Andy Kotelnicki rushing yards per game and yards per attempt went up slightly plus five rushing yards per game plus 0.1 yards per attempt but again that might just be because Devin Neal is really good and came back for another season so you look at it and overall the offense even though it actually posted okay numbers this year in the end was considerably worse in all those areas than it was a season ago and with very similar personnel I think it's easy

Starting point is 00:06:16 to kind of point the finger and point the finger with some of the early season losses not giving the ball to Devin Neal against Illinois the the bad screen play to Luke Graham and just overall that game that happened against UNLV that you could have easily been in a bowl game if you didn't have some of those early season struggles so I thought he earned another year to come back for KU but I think this is good for both parties and I think this could be a really good thing for KU to basically reset here and maybe find somebody who can you know play to the strengths of what the offense is going to be just a little bit more uh for next season and now the question how does this affect jaylen daniels right

Starting point is 00:06:50 um if i were a wisconsin fan i wouldn't be getting my hopes up that you're going to be bringing jaylen daniels with you because i don't think the uh i don't know that they like hate each other or anything but i don't think jaylen daniels is like yeah jeff grimes like that's my guy like i love playing that offense i don't think that's the case at all um now does this increase his chances of coming back it's possible i i think that probably would be a separate decision but um we will see how that affects there of course it does have a personnel decision impact on you would think on graydon grimes who's his kid who ends up coming to the Then again, his other son ended up staying at Baylor despite him coming to Kansas. So we'll see if Graydon Grimes ends up leaving with his dad or sticking around. I don't know if Graydon Grimes is going to be a defense lineman, offense lineman.

Starting point is 00:07:34 I think at one point it was like a tight end in high school. So we'll see there if he ends up sticking around. All right. Possible early offensive coordinator candidates for KU. We'll get to that. This is Locked on Jayhawks. This episode of the show is brought to you by GameTime, which is a new feature called GameTime Picks that makes getting tickets to see your favorite teams play live even easier.

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Starting point is 00:08:33 Again, bonus episode here. And you can be listening to this. Again, this was the report from Pete Thamel by the time this releases, or maybe by the time you're listening to this, he has taken the job officially at Wisconsin. And I think a lot of this, all of this stuff just applies the same way because I'm kind of approaching this as if he has got like that stuff doesn't come out if it's, you know, not close to happening. So who are some early possible offense coordinator candidates against?

Starting point is 00:08:56 I don't have a long list. The reason why is because Lance Leipold tends to go with guys that he is familiar with, that he's comfortable with. I think he likes to hire from within. But obviously, last season, like Scott Fuchs leaves for another job. You have a new offensive line coach in there. I don't think with the receiver coach or the running back coach, you viewed those as being guys who were like candidates to be the new play caller. Maybe Jim Zabrowski would be the one. So Jim Zabrowski, I think, is a real internal candidate. He's been the quarterback coach for ku he seems to have a great relationship with the quarterbacks he seems like somebody that the quarterbacks trust

Starting point is 00:09:30 and really like and that obviously goes a long way um he also did really well when he was the play caller in the bowl game for kids when they beat unlv and you look at it in the two matchups this year versus unlv last year versus unlv i mean that was a very big difference in the output from what your offense put up in those two games. And yes, you could say, oh, well, UNLV got better this year on defense and yada, yada, yada. Yeah, I would probably agree with that. UNLV was a better defense this year than they were a season ago.

Starting point is 00:09:54 But were they better enough that it should have led to that big of a difference? I don't know about that. And that was even like in the bowl game, they stopped your running game. You were still able to put up 49 points. In this year's version, you didn't really stop the running game, but you only put up, what was it even like in the bowl game, they stopped your running game. You're still able to put up 49 points in this year's version. You didn't really stop the running game, but you only put up, what was it like 20 points in this one. So Jim's a brass could, I think, be a very good candidate to be the possible offensive coordinator, the other guy, and this wouldn't be highly hiring internally, um, from a, I

Starting point is 00:10:21 don't know, I guess by technicality, it would be hiring internally is I guess what I'm trying to say. Matt Lubick. So Matt Lubick is the Nevada offensive coordinator right now. And you might, if you don't know who Matt Lubick is, you might go look in Nevada and go, oh, they went three and 10 this year. You know, what's the big whoop? They average under 400 yards per game. They average 23 points per game. What's the big deal? Well well matt lubick was an analyst with ku before taking the office coordinator job at nevada this season and he was somebody who might have gotten the office coordinator job even over jeff grimes had he not been going through some cancer treatment i believe it was leukemia i i don't know that for sure he underwent some cancer treatments in the

Starting point is 00:11:00 offseason to where he just wasn't sure what his availability was going to be. He gets through that. KU obviously had to make a move by then. You hire Jeff Grimes. Lubick ends up branching off and taking the Nevada job. Now, he has other, you know, plenty of other college football experience before he was at Kansas. There's some Nebraska stuff and yada, yada, yada. He's a very good coach, and he is a big reason why Andy Kotelnicki had some of the option elements into his game, that he was a big proponent of that. He was basically the guy that added it to the offense, the guy who infused it into the offense. So this is a guy who knows his football in a very real way and knows a lot of the concepts that have made Kansas a really good football team. And so you look at it, and again,

Starting point is 00:11:40 the Nevada stuff doesn't look great, but it only doesn't look great on surface. Once you start examining the Nevada stuff that he did at Nevada in his first year at offense coordinator, according to expectations, it's actually pretty impressive. So Nevada went 3-10. That was actually over their Vegas over-under win total. So they exceeded expectations by that metric. They won two games the year before, so they won a game more. They improved in that regard.

Starting point is 00:12:09 Also keep in mind, Kansas in year one with Lance Eichel and staff, they went two and ten. Year two is where they saw their biggest jump getting to a bowl game. So it's possible that if Matt Lubick stays at Nevada for another year, they see that big jump. But here's where the jump came offensively. In 2023, they averaged 17 points per game. In 2024, after hiring Matt Lubick as offensive coordinator, it went up to 23 points per game in 2024 after hiring matt lubick as offensive coordinator it went up to 23 points per game i mean that's a touchdown increase which it's still overall low numbers but like that is a real difference that's that's you know if you improve this kansas offense by a touchdown they'd be even better than they were in 2023 if you're talking about heading into 2025 um and it's with a lot of similar players overall

Starting point is 00:12:46 for Nevada. Here's the big one. So they improved from 2023 Nevada, 3.4 yards per carry to 4.6 yards per carry. And overall, they went from 300 yards of offense per game to over 370 yards of offense per game. They improved by 76 yards per game that is a gigantic leap so the offense got a lot better with matt lubick i think you'd be a great hire for ku plus he knows everything with formerly being around uh the program outside of that like i said there weren't a ton of interviews last year at least public interviews so i'm not sure who else that guy would be the other question becomes what happens at the defensive coordinator spot now for ku but we'll leave that for another episode all right let, let's finish up some bad news for KU earlier today.

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Starting point is 00:14:04 Make every moment more with Fanduel, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL and the Locked On Podcast Network. Going a bit long on this bonus episode, but I think you understand why. Thank you for sticking with us if you have. So there was some, I guess, down news for KU. I feel like this is good news for KU. It feels like the down news for KU. I feel like this is good news for KU. It feels like the down news came this morning. Savion Morrison decided to enter the transfer portal.

Starting point is 00:14:29 Former four-star recruit, originally went to Nebraska, transferred to KU in the beginning of the Leipold era, played at Kansas for three seasons, and played sparingly over those three seasons. Only 60 carries over the three seasons. They have really good, like like yard per carry totals 391 yards on 60 carries so like six and a half yards per carry um he had four touchdowns and but over the final half of this season he finally kind of started to get run like daniel highshaw like left the program and and he got 18 carries over k who's final five games he had that

Starting point is 00:15:02 big touchdown the first one of the game for kansas against kansas state he had 18 carries over KU's final five games. He had that big touchdown the first one of the game for Kansas against Kansas State. He had 11 carries in their penultimate game of the season. And so it becomes, okay, well, if you view it from a standpoint of, oh, you had a guy who lost to, was averaging 20 carries per season over three years, like what's the big whoop here? But that's because you had Devin Neal and Daniel Hyshaw in front of him. This year, or I guess the upcoming season, 2025, you were expecting him to be one of the top two running backs now I don't know if you would have started you know when kids added LaShawn Williams on that episode I kind of

Starting point is 00:15:32 said that I would expect LaShawn to be the starter but I expected Savion Williams to get carries all right LaShawn Williams would be that your thunder and lightning he gets overused with running backs all the time well like LaShawn Williams would be the thunder power back with a little bit of breakout speed but you know not nearly as much as like Savion Morrison who would be more of the breakaway guy and so it becomes interesting like was this one of those moves where the Kansas coaching staff kind of showed him the door and said hey you have one more year of play I think he's a dad like go do you go do what you what's going to make you successful I can't guarantee you're going to even be that number two running back because we really like Harry Stewart and Johnny

Starting point is 00:16:08 Thompson and these two freshmen coming in and John Kelly and Justin Thurman. Right. And that we can't guarantee that you're going to even be the running back number two. Right. And if that you could totally understand that from both parties, if that's the case. But if this is a situation where that's not really the case, and i think the way that we'll know the answer is how ku goes from here if kansas goes out into the transfer portal and brings in another um i guess if you're viewing this from a tier like another leshawn williams level running back a guy who you view coming in and being like yeah that guy is going to be expected to play a big role then you're probably going to view this as yeah you didn't want to lose him but if kansas goes out

Starting point is 00:16:42 there and let's say they do add another transfer portal running back and it's a like Dylan McDuffie, right? Dylan McDuffie got brought in, not really expecting him to be the starting running back, but they expected him to be the third running back and play special teams. And that's exactly what he did. And he fulfilled that role in a very good way for KU. If that's the type of running back they bring in, I think that would probably signal to me KU feels good about Harry Stewart and or Johnny Thompson, along with LaShawn Williams being those top two running backs. And then if they don't add anybody, I think that also would kind of signal that sort of thing. So I think we'll learn more based on how KU approaches it from here. But on its surface right now, I went into the season expecting Savion and LaShawn Williams to be your top two running backs.

Starting point is 00:17:22 So not fun to sort of lose that guy. But also, you know, it feels like Kansas has typically done well at the running back position. And I like Harry Stewart and Johnny Thompson's profiles coming in. You know, it seems like there's been enough positive noise about them during offseason ball that I still expect Kansas to have a good running back room. It's just going to be very young this season, which can work both ways, right? If it ends up being a really good running back room and it's young,

Starting point is 00:17:45 it's even better, right? And at least you have some experience now knowing LaShawn Williams is in the fold. That'll do it for this episode of Locked on Jayhawks. You can find our show anywhere you get your podcasts, including our YouTube page. We'll be back this weekend for a KU Missouri recap. But who knows? The way things are going right now, it wouldn't shock me if there's more breaking news by then. And if so, we'll get to it when we get to it.

Starting point is 00:18:05 See you then. This is Locked on Jayhawks.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - Kansas Jayhawks OC Jeff Grimes to Wisconsin??? Who Replaces Him? Plus, Sevion Morrison To Transfer

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