Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - KU JAYHAWKS PROMOTE JIM ZEBROWSKI TO OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR + DT Gage Keys Boomerangs Back to KU?

Starting point is 00:00:00 On this bonus Locked on Jayhawks, why Jim Zabrowski, who should have been the offensive coordinator hire a year ago, now he gets the job 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. I'm Derek Johnson. You can find me on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio. Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. I'm Derek Johnson. You can find me on Twitter at DJohnsonRadio. This is Locked On Jayhawks. Thanks for making it your first listen every day.

Starting point is 00:00:34 You can find our show wherever you get your podcasts, including on our YouTube page where you can like and subscribe to the show. And on this bonus episode, another bonus episode of Locked On Jayhawks. Thank you if you've already caught a bunch of our other ones or all of them with the other ones that we've been doing here. We're going to be talking about Kansas moving quickly. They promoted Jim Zebrowski to the new offensive coordinator role. There was the port yesterday with Pete Thamel where they're, I guess, sitting off its coordinator. Jeff Grimes is interviewing and in deep talks with the Wisconsin job. Sounds like he is taking it.

Starting point is 00:01:03 Jim Zebrowski, who is the previous quarterbacks coach for Kansas. And I guess technically he was previously the co-offense coordinator. He got promoted to that last offseason or I guess before the bowl game when Andy Kotelnicki left. Now he becomes the full-time offense coordinator. So we're going to break that down, what we know about what he has done as an offensive coordinator. And then also to finish up, Gage Keyes,

Starting point is 00:01:25 the former KU defense tackle who transferred to Auburn last year. Sounds like he's going to be coming back to Lawrence. So we'll get into all that on this episode of the show. So Zebrowski gets promoted here. Here's the quote from Lance Leipold in the KU release. Jim and I have worked together for more than 10 years, and he has a great knowledge of the game and our offense. Jim has been instrumental in our success

Starting point is 00:01:46 and will continue to push our program forward. He's a quality mentor to our student athletes and takes pride in being a Jayhawk. Here's what Jim Zabrowski had to say. Quote, I am thankful to Coach Leipold and the University of Kansas for the opportunity to serve as offensive coordinator. I'm so excited for this opportunity

Starting point is 00:02:01 to continue to work with our staff in developing our student athletes and moving the Kansas football program forward. Let's go, Rock Chalk. All right, let's talk about what he has done as offense coordinator and what we can expect from him at KU and why I think this was a move they should have probably just made 365 days ago, a year ago, on Lock on Jayhawks.

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Starting point is 00:02:54 game time picks download the game time app create an account and use code locked on college for 20 dollars off your first purchase terms apply again create an account. Redeem code LOCKEDONCOllege. L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N-C-O-L-L-E-G-E. That'll get you $20 off. Download GameTime today. What time is it? GameTime. All right. So Jim Zabrowski basically was promoted to offensive coordinator,

Starting point is 00:03:20 and he will be the new offensive coordinator. So what is his profile? Obviously, he was co-offensive coordinator qb coach so he actually um lance lightpool took over as the head coach of wisconsin whitewater in 2007 and that was his first year as a head coach his first offensive coordinator it was jim zabrowski uh brian borland was his first defensive coordinator who's currently the ku defensive coordinator we'll see if that continues this year that one might be a little bit different we'll wait wait and see. But anyway, this is about the offense coordinator. So he ended up staying with Lance Leipold at Wisconsin Whitewater

Starting point is 00:03:50 from 2007 through 2009. So he was there three years as the offensive coordinator. And in that three-year span, the team at Wisconsin Whitewater went 42-3, including 15-0 in his final season there. So obviously very successful. Now, unfortunately, if you go to the Wisconsin Whitewater website, the team stats only go back to, I think, 2011. So we don't have individual stats about what were they doing.

Starting point is 00:04:13 But I don't know how helpful that would be anyway. That was running offense 15 years ago. Obviously, he has probably evolved and changed some of the stuff of how he would call plays. So then he goes from there, takes the Northern Illinois quarterback job in 2010. And then eventually he, he winds up reuniting with Lance Leipold when Lance Leipold is at Buffalo. That doesn't come though,

Starting point is 00:04:34 till 2017. So the, the history of, you remember Lance Leipold takes the Buffalo job in 2015. And in the first year, Lance Leipold's offense averages 26.7 points per game. That's 82nd nationally. They go 5-7.

Starting point is 00:04:47 The next year, in year two in 2016, they go 2-10. They're only averaging 16.5 points per game, 126th of 128 teams nationally. So Lance Leipold goes out, finds his former guy, Jim Zebrowski, brings him on. Andy Kolenicki, the offensive coordinator, the wonder camped offensive coordinator is kind of going around right now at penn state now at this point um he was the offensive coordinator in 2015 and 2016 but lance leibold said okay maybe you need some help you know you're still going to be calling plays but i bring in jim zabrowski as as whatever quarterbacks coach co-offensive coordinator whatever you're going to call him and immediately that first season where again it's kolenicki calling the calling the plays, but Zabrowski is now on staff.

Starting point is 00:05:26 They start to get better as an offense. They go up to 28 and a half points per game, 63rd in the country, 2018. They go up to 34.6 points per game, 29th in the country, 31 and a half points per game, 46 in the country,

Starting point is 00:05:37 2019, 2020. They average 43 points per game, fifth in the country. All of Andy Kodalicki's most successful seasons with Lance Leipold, whether it was at Buffalo or Kansas, it came with Jim Zabrowski on staff helping him out. I think that's an important thing to remember.

Starting point is 00:05:52 I mean, there were articles, there were stories talking about from Buffalo, like, you know, blogs and stuff and papers, should they move on and find a different offensive coordinator. But they brought Jim Zabrowski in, and yes, I'm sure part of it was Konolicki, was Leipold reevaluating things, was players maybe getting better, getting their recruits in the program. But it's hard not to draw the line between when they started having success offensively under Lance Leipold was when they brought on Jim Zabrowski as the quarterbacks coach. And obviously he stuck with Lance Leipold moving over to Kansas in 2021, where he's been

Starting point is 00:06:24 the quarter's coach ever since. Then, as I mentioned, last December, Andy Kodelnicki takes the Penn State job, and Jim Zabrowski is promoted at that point to co-offensive coordinator, which was a title that they eventually, obviously shortly thereafter, hired Jeff Grimes to be the offensive coordinator, and they had him basically watch over the bowl practices and try to get in sync with everything Kansas wanted to do. But they had Jim Zabrowski call plays for the bowl game, and I'm sure it came with, obviously, it was a title upgrade. I'm sure it came with a little bit of a payday upgrade also.

Starting point is 00:06:55 But he called the plays for the bowl game, and Kansas puts up 49 points, and that's even putting up 49 points. I know not all of these turnovers were on the offensive side of the, or not turnovers, sorry. I know all these penalties were not on the offensive side of the ball. They had 216 penalty yards, right? Some of those were defensive. Some of those were, you know, unsportsmanlike, whatever.

Starting point is 00:07:14 But even in a game where you had 216 penalty yards, some of it was on offense, you put up 49 points. Even in a game where you threw three interceptions and were minus one in turnovers you put up 49 points and we saw kids play that same unlv team in uh week three of the season this year and they only put up 20 now unlv was much better defensively this year than they were last year like that that is fact when you look at some of the stats across the board a lot of the personnel was very similar for ku yes it was jason bean over jaylen daniels i kind of think the height the best version of

Starting point is 00:07:43 jaylen daniels is still better than the best version of Jason Bean maybe Bean's final season at a higher floor than what we saw from Jalen this year but like I don't know you you didn't even have Dominic Poonie in the bowl game though either like he opted out of the game so um you know you could even argue your offensive line was in better shape this year because he had Logan Brown he was injured for the bowl game so from that perspective you see that they had 22 first downs. They were 6 of 12 on third down, 1 of 2 on fourth down, 591 total yards of offense for Kansas against UNLV in the bowl game. I think what was most pleasing and interesting to me

Starting point is 00:08:16 is that he wasn't one of those guys who, hey, I'm going to try to fit a square peg into a round hole. Again, this is kind of over-evaluating one specific game, and maybe this isn't going to be totally indicative. fit a square peg into a round hole again this is kind of over evaluating one specific game and maybe you know this isn't going to be totally indicative but in a game where kansas you know had 3.6 yards per carry as an offense um where devin neal had you know 71 rushing yards but it took 20 carries 3.6 yards per carry he said you know what we're gonna throw a deep a bunch average 16 yards per pass they throw for 449 yards even in a game where being through three interceptions he had a 90.1 qbr and yes part of

Starting point is 00:08:50 that was jason being through a great deep ball and the receivers were making big plays there were a lot of plays though that were just dialed up where guys were running wide open in the secondary right go back and watch that kid there are guys that are just running wide open and i think a big credit to that goes to the offense and with jim zabrowski. This is the move that they, I mean, it's easy. Hindsight is 2020, right? But they probably should have just made this move last December. Do they end up making a bowl game this year if Jim Zabrowski is the offensive coordinator? I think so. We talked about this on the earlier episode. I think Jeff Grimes did actually a pretty good job over the final seven games of the season. It was still a downgrade from what you had last season but because you had some of those struggles adjusting in the first five

Starting point is 00:09:28 games of the season right you think about the illinois game which was close you think about the unlv game you think about i don't know maybe the west virginia like overall the offense was good in the west virginia game but it didn't close the game as you wanted to so maybe that would have been different i don't know um very easily if jimmy rousey's calling plays in the first half of the season, I'd like to think you win at least one more game and you're going bowling right now. And then you're getting those extra bowl practices and all the important things that come with playing for a bowl game. I think they'd be in a better shape should they do it. But you're not

Starting point is 00:09:59 going to bat 1,000 on decisions, right? I mean, it's for for us from the outside to play armchair quarterback monday morning quarterback you're never going to go 100 on decisions but they ripped the band-aid off i know part of it was you know the band-aid getting ripped off for you by grimes getting offered the wisconsin job but you you resurrected any mistake i thought matt lubick from from nevada would have been an excellent choice to be offensive coordinator too but i think this is an excellent choice as well and i think this is making the decision um and we'll see i mean there's no guarantee that it is going to work but the short sample size has been that he has worked as an offensive coordinator play caller and i think

Starting point is 00:10:35 beyond that it seems like guys really like him in the locker room and it seems like the position he's been coaching quarterback which is you know the guy who's calling the plays the guys just making audibles the guys he's communicating with the most seem to really like him, which is very, very important when you're running that position, whether it's for, you know, keeping guys from entering the transfer portal, whether it's recruiting guys, whether it's just having the trust and having that chemistry with your quarterback is so critically important. And I think this is a home run for KU to promote from within for Jim Zebrowski. All right, let's finish up here. Gage

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Starting point is 00:11:45 That's at Fanduel.com. Never waste a hunch and make every moment more with Fanduel, an official sportsbook partner of the NFL. Finishing things up, don't forget you can check out our bonus episodes on the Jeff Grimes getting the Wisconsin interview where we talked about what went wrong with the offense and why it's probably best for both parties. We had an episode talking about jalen daniels coming back for another season for ku so check both of those out and also uh mixed into it was like sabian morrison

Starting point is 00:12:13 transferring away and everything uh now gage keys who is a former kansas defensive tackle former minnesota defensive tackle i guess technically he is a transfer from auburn at this point sounds like he's going to be back with KU. Keys is officially listed as, and I think at Auburn, he might've played like strong side defensive end, 6'4", 291. At Kansas, he's more of used as a defensive tackle. He's got good size. He's got good athleticism for his size. Started his career in Minnesota, ended up transferring to KU. he came along with austin booker those two guys really good friends really tight booker goes off to the nfl he's gets offered a bag in the transfer portal the rumors that were coming around were that he got like 200 000 in the transfer

Starting point is 00:12:55 portal i don't know if there's there's truth to that or if it's around that number or what but like you can understand why a guy like gage keys who he's not popping up on nfl draft boards as being you know this this projected third round pick would want that life-changing money i mean even if he was right i mean if i and i don't know how much was kansas offering was it 50 000 was it 100 000 was it 100 right who knows it's hard not to take that money right because that can really set you up for um life after football in a real, especially if you're not going to be a pro. So I never faulted him for taking that money. But also, I think he found out a little bit that sometimes in life, you have to make decisions. Do you want to go for the financials or the what's going to make you happy? And I think sometimes you find out the grass isn't always greener on

Starting point is 00:13:41 the other side. It seemed like he was always always invested in ku even when he left and that this was just a personal decision about finances and setting himself up which again i'm not gonna blame a guy for that like i totally understand and now he kind of gets to have his cake and eat it too because it sounds like uh he posted on some of his social medias or didn't post his like profiles on a couple of his social medias mentioned him as being like a kansas student athlete again or something like that so sounds like he's going to be boomeranging back to Kansas and he was he was really coming on in his uh one season at Kansas so he only played two games last year at Auburn didn't log a tackle he did have a quarterback hurry but the year before Kansas he had 21 tackles uh pro football focus actually

Starting point is 00:14:20 gave him 27 he had 13 quarterback pressures which um for comparison this year's ku team 13 quarterback pressures would have ranked sixth and it would have been tied second among interior defensive linemen and that was from 2023 gauge keys who was a rotational guy who wasn't playing a ton early in the season started to play more as the season went on was a rotational defensive lineman he was projected to be one of your starters you know if you would have stuck around last year and i don't know what it'll be this year because now you've had some guys emerge at that defense tackle spot but certainly he would be in the rotation you would think by adding him and you needed more depth you lost caleb taylor to graduation i believe you lose javier derrick

Starting point is 00:15:00 to graduation like you could use more depth and i think gage keys also represents somebody with a high ceiling and it seems like ku got the most out of him between any of his previous stops so i like this move to bring him back and and i think it kind of works out for all parties involved again all right that'll move for this episode of locked on jayhawks find our show anywhere you get your podcast uh more breaking news we'll be back if not we'll be back sunday for some kumazoo talk see you then

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - KU JAYHAWKS PROMOTE JIM ZEBROWSKI TO OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR + DT Gage Keys Boomerangs Back to KU?

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