Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - REUNION? Should Jayhawks and Andy Kotelnicki Reunite in 2026 for Kansas Football?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Would it make sense for Kansas to bring back Andy Kodlnicki? Would it make sense for him to come back to Kansas? We're going to break that all down on today's Locked on Jayhawks. You are Locked on Jayhawks, your daily podcast on the Kansas Jayhawks, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. What's going on, Derek Johnson here? This is Locked on Jayhawks. is part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, now the number one sports podcast network.

Starting point is 00:00:34 And on today's edition of the show, we're breaking down, Andy Kolnicki, the four-offensive coordinator, now the offensive coordinator, and I guess interim head coach for the bowl game for Penn State, but he's out of a job at the end of this year, hasn't taken one yet. Would it make sense for a reunion? Would it make sense for Kansas to bring him back? Would it make sense for him to come back? We're going to break that all down, why it would or would it make sense, and then finish up with a little bit of some of the...

Starting point is 00:01:00 the latest in the portal that is really hurting KU volleyball. Let's start right here, because why am I bringing this up now? Well, it seems like there's at least been some, I know the other day there were a lot of people like on, I guess, social media going over, you know, flight season, like it's one of the things that makes college football different than like the NFL, for instance, is flight tracking. And it's always kind of a fun, crazy thing that you see fans get into. And there was some flight tracking stuff of, oh, did a private jet from Lawrence go to Happy Valley in Penn State?

Starting point is 00:01:35 So that was kind of, you know, prevalent. And I think just in general, like there's enough dots that you could connect, not necessarily that Kansas is going to land him and that he would take the job. But there's enough dots that you could connect to at least be like it would make sense to have a possible reunion. Now, there's some other reasons why it wouldn't make sense. We'll get into all those here. But I think the first part of this is for KU, especially if you're not going to spend the money to, for instance, buy out D.K. McDonald's, could you use that money to, like, is that one way to excite the fan base, too, of saying, hey, I know a lot of people would like you to maybe pay that buyout. What if instead you use that money to instead of subtract ad and bring on an Andy Cohen? Who knows, right? And I don't know if the money even works there. everything, but like, could you have him come in? And I don't know the situation of some of the assistant coaches. I know some of them, they're like contractor up. Like, is there an opening and the offensive

Starting point is 00:02:36 line coach? Could you do some reason? Obviously, part of this is the idea that you would have to move around some of the different coaches. And that would make it a hurdle, right? And I think in general, the first response would be, okay, Jim Zabrowski and Matt Lubick are your co-offensive coordinators. they just got promoted to that job, are they really going to take it to motion? And I think it all depends how you term it. For one, I mean, this is a make-or-break year for Kansas, so you're going to have to kind of check egos at the door. Two, is there a chance that, and I don't know this for facts,

Starting point is 00:03:13 I have no idea. Is there a chance that Jim Zabrowski prefers just being the quarterback's coach than the offensive coordinator anyway? Again, I don't know the answer to that. But like, he was the quarterback coach for a while with KU. I'm sure he got to laugh for an offense coordinator. job elsewhere. So I don't know. Maybe he does want to be the offense coordinator, right? Could you make him co-offensive coordinator with Andy Kodlnicki? What would that mean? And like at the end

Starting point is 00:03:35 of the day, does the title matter if the money's there? You know, what if you said, hey, Jim Zabrowski, you're going to go back to just being the quarterback's coach. Matt Lubick, you'll stay on as the tight ends coach or will move you to a different position and have Kodlniki back at tight ends where he was before. But Koldeniki, maybe you could have him as the offense line or whatever it is to make it work. And if you're changing the titles for Zabrowski and Lubik from co-offensive coordinator to just their position coach, but you keep paying them the same amount of money they were making last year, is there as big of a fuss? I don't know. Again, that's something that Lance Leipold to have a better idea of, right? And I think it's clear when you look back, statistically, KU had their

Starting point is 00:04:14 best offenses with KOLNiki as opposed to without him, right? So 2021, which was the first year of the light pulled era, but it was really year zero with how late they took over. If you just look at ESPN FPI offensive efficiency, Kansas finished 91st that year. And then immediately after that, when they actually got a full off season for the first time with Andy Cole and Nikki in this offense, it was amazing the turner. I mean, they became an elite offense. They were eighth in the country in offensive efficiency in 2022. They were seventh in the country in offensive efficiency in 2023. Then he leaves, goes to Penn State in 2024. Kansas, still good, but they drop a bit. They go from eighth to seventh to then dropping a tad to 16th and then 2025 this past year,

Starting point is 00:05:00 they're 32nd. I've said this before. I do think the drop from 7th to 16th was, I think, dropping from Kodalnicki to Grimes. I think the drop this year from 16th to 32nd, I actually like Zabrowski as a play caller better than Grimes. but the difference is you didn't have like a Devon Neal, you lost some key players in the offensive line. So it was kind of combination of things why you dropped these last two years, but still, in the meantime, over in 2024, Cotolinkie had Penn State finishing fifth in the country and offensive efficiency on ESPNFPI. This year, they were 26th. So, you know, you're kind of taking a step backwards, but is it just as easy to say as, hey, your quarterback who

Starting point is 00:05:41 was supposed to be in the Heisman race this year ended up being out for the season with an injury and wasn't playing too well before that. And then your head coach was fired in season. There's all sorts of drama to deal with. And even then, even with all of those excuses you could point to, Kodolniki's offense was still ranked higher than at Kansas this year, right? And again, all of these things correlate to player personnel and whatnot. But look at what Kansas could have this upcoming season in 2026, like personnel-wise.

Starting point is 00:06:09 And one of the things that I look saying, and again, it depends who gets picked at quarterback. but I think Isaiah Marshall is the best runner and has the most explosiveness on the ground with his legs. David McComb, I think, is a really underrated runner. And Cole Ballard is kind of a gritty runner who is a good runner in kind of a different way. Regardless of what you're looking at there, I feel like you have legs from the quarterback position with a little more unproven in the passing game from no matter who you pick. Then you look at for KU not having a ton of returning talent at the receiver position, like it makes sense to me for this to go back to more of a ground and pound type team who's

Starting point is 00:06:51 running more option who's running the ball a good amount of time and if you can get andy kodlniki back then you're talking about getting the gang back together with kodlniki jim zabrowski and mat lubic and it's not just that kansas went from you know kodlniki to jeff grimes between 2023 to 2024 that same offseason you also lost matt lubic to nevada and so from that perspective, it's not just that you'd have the ability to, you know, bring Kodolniki back. It's that you'd have a chance to have the full gang back together for when this was the most well-oiled machine on the offensive end of the ball that we've seen during the Lance light pulled era, right? And again, tight ends were the position that Kodalniki coached. That's what

Starting point is 00:07:37 Lubick is coaching. Again, do you make some shuffling? Lubick has some past coaching more so at the receiver positions, right? Or do you have, I don't know, if, for instance, if Darylod Palsa, if his contract is up, do you put Cotonliki's offense a line if you were to make this work, right? And this is all hypothetical and I don't know how this all works. And in terms of the contracts and who has what and who they're going to renew and everything. But I think there's ways that you could at least make it work. Like I don't think if your biggest challenge is, well, how would Jim Zabrowski take? Again, this is football. This is a business. This is a million dollar business. And this is a make a break year.

Starting point is 00:08:11 If some guys' egos have to get checked at the door, that's how it is to try to get the best results possible here, right? And I like Jim Zabowski and everything. So if you want to keep him as co-offensive coordinator and quarterback's coach and bring Kotliniki, like whatever you have to do to make this work, I think to me it makes a lot of sense. And if that involves naming Kodlnicki the head coach and waiting, whatever, man. I mean, LaFleipold is 61 years old.

Starting point is 00:08:35 It's a different sport, but like Rick Petino is 73 and he's still coaching. So who knows if Leipold is going to coach and has over a decade left or if he has a couple of years left, right? Like nothing would be crazy at this point. And so if you're naming a guy head coach and waiting, it at least makes it feel like you have coverage in the future. And here's the big thing. I've seen so many times where a head coach in waiting or the coach was giving that tag and didn't actually end up being the head coach. The one that I always think of first when I think of this is Will Must champ. He was the defensive coordinator.

Starting point is 00:09:09 He was like a, at the time he was the up-and-comer defense coordinator was hired to Texas with Mack Brown. He got named head coach and waiting. Ended up leaving before then for the, was it the job of Florida or did he have the South Carolina job first? I can't remember. I think he was the Florida job. To be the head coach there because he was done waiting. If we're being honest, if everything goes well and they have a good enough offense, Koldenik, he'll get a head coaching job somewhere else and he won't even, you know, he'll take that job before that ends up happening.

Starting point is 00:09:36 So, like, I wouldn't be worried about tying yourself down with that. If that's to get the deal across the line, get it done. And right now from the Kotalnicki perspective, like, okay, you don't have a job right now. Maybe he'll end up with another one lined up. But if you go back to Kansas and I don't know, maybe there were burnt bridges and stuff like that, but there's too many millions of dollars and opportunities here to just say no to an opportunity. If you do go right back to Kansas and like he was. already at the top of, obviously, he got the Penn State job off of what he did at Kansas

Starting point is 00:10:10 his first go-round. Able to repeat that success at Kansas now, where you'll be able to future jobs point to and say, hey, look, I was there for these years. We were great on offense. I left. They got worse. I came back. We got good again.

Starting point is 00:10:27 That's a heck of a resume booster, if you're Coton-Nicky. So let's get to why it might not make sense for him. And for Kansas, we'll get to that next and a little bit on KU Volleyball's Transfer Exodus on Locked on Jayhawks. This episode of the show is brought to you by Rocket Money. Ever feel like money just disappears each month? It happens fast. A few subscriptions here and impulse by there,

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Starting point is 00:11:16 small things before they turn into the big expenses. Take control of your finances and cancel your unwanted subscriptions with Rocket Money. Go to RocketMoney.com slash locked on today. That is rocketmoney.com slash locked on rocketmoney.com slash locked on. Thanks good for joining us here on Locked on Jayhawks, making us your first listen every day. Thank you for making Lockdown the number one sports podcast network. You already live your team every day. You can actually take it up a level and go add free here. Visit locked onpodcast.com slash every dayer.

Starting point is 00:11:52 You can join the EveryDayer Club. If no interruptions, members only Discord access and more, add free, all for just $5 a month, $50 a year. Again, hit up Lockdownpodcast.com slash every day. every day or that link will be available in the show notes as well. All right. So KU in a position where they don't have an open office of coordinator spot. Andy Kodlnicki doesn't have a job. And I think that is the first hurdle. Like I said earlier, like to me, if you have to do some shuffling, you do some shuffling. This is college sports is basically minor league sports at this point in time. It's basically professional sports, right? Just to a slightly lesser degree than

Starting point is 00:12:33 say the NFL. That is the nature of the beast and that is why these guys are getting paid hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars, right? And so if you have an opportunity to make yourself better, you take it, right? And that's the thing here. But yes, it would lead to uncomfortable conversations. It might lead to maybe a coach leaving or something like that. That is something that you kind of have to deal with. The other part of this is, of course, the money aspect. Like Andy Colnick, he's making really good money at Penn State. And for Kansas to put together competitive offers, probably going to have to be good money. In Kansas, from everything that was kind of out there, it sounds like they made a really, really competitive offer when he was going

Starting point is 00:13:13 to Penn State to try to keep him around. And maybe that leads to some per bridges. But I guess that gives me the hope at the very least that, like, they can get the funding there. Now, again, this is something that we've brought up with the D.K. McDonald's stuff. If Kansas is using a big amount of money, to bring on Andy Kodlnicki. What does that mean in terms of the available spend on the portal? Like, for instance, would you rather have Andy Kodlnicki as offensive coordinator and maybe, I don't know, a couple like more middle tier, like average starters or not have Andy Kodlnicki and be able to bring on a, I don't know, like a receiver

Starting point is 00:13:56 who was all conference at a mid-Madlinger. and a running back who had like 900,000 yards last season his previous style. Like, what would you rather do, right? And that's something that, again, you have to kind of take into account a lot of these different things and kind of put it all together, right? Beyond that, some other reasons it wouldn't make sense. Like, are we over exaggerating the impact here? I mean, Penn State just went six and six, which, you know, and you could take 26th,

Starting point is 00:14:28 an offensive efficiency. That wasn't that different than the 32nd from KU. And also from a standpoint like, what does Andy Kodaliki look like with internally recruited guys? Because to this point, what he did at KU, his first stretch was with Les Miles guys who ended up being a lot of diamonds in the roughs there. And what he did at Penn State were Franklin's guys who were four and five star recruits a lot of times. What does that mean for now that you'd be coming over to what feels like right now a little bit more of a depleted roster that could just be because it's a younger roster. So it has a little more unknowns to it. So that is something you have to measure, right? Again, especially measured against what the costly sum would probably

Starting point is 00:15:15 be to bring him back. And then the other part of it is, yeah, has all been forgiven. Like what is the relationship like there with Lance Leopold and Andy Codolinkie? What is the relationship like there with the KU Athletic Department in Andy Codolinkie? The donors in Andy Codolinkie, right? Those are all fair questions that I don't have the answer to. Might be great, right? Time heals all wounds. So who knows? You'd also have to do the shuffling of the different coaches. And what would that mean with, you know, would you have to pay any more pie outs? Is that adding to the money that you're kind of spending there. And then even though it would be a familiar coach, it still would be your fourth offensive coordinator in four years, albeit really third in four years, but it would

Starting point is 00:16:00 be your fourth different guy. Like, I don't know, in a weird way, for a lot of the young players, like, you know, if you joined the team in 2024 later, which is a lot of the team in 2026, you wouldn't have been around when Kodonik was the offensive coordinator. So realistically, it is your fourth offensive coordinator, your third in three years or whatever. And that would be a challenge in its own, even though it would be a familiar one. Now, all of this to say is a lot of those things are kind of nitpicking, to say the least. And to me, this would be a home run higher if you could do it. It'd be a home run higher on the field.

Starting point is 00:16:35 I think Kodolniki, I still think very highly of him as an offensive coordinator. I think it would be a home run in terms of fan support. And as you're going into a season in which you're going to have probably reduced capacity because of the construction going on, you are coming off back to back five and seven seasons where, you know, the fan support is waning at least a little bit here, right? It's not not back to where it was in the 2010s, but it's not quite as high as it was after, say, 2022 or 2023 right now. This will be a way to kind of have a little bit of a win back. And that's not how you should make every higher. So it shouldn't be the be all end all right. You don't win in

Starting point is 00:17:13 the press conference. But it feels like this would win on the field and the press conference. conference. And so I think this would be a really smart move. K. You could make it, but obviously there's a lot of people that have to say yes. It's not just Kansas having to say yes. It's not just Lance Lippold having to say yes. It's not just moving around some of the assistant coaches who have to say yes. It's the money has to be right. It's the situation has to be there. It's other schools have to not have offered Kodlnicki, a head coaching or an offensive coordinator job. It's him deciding, hey, I'll take this job over that job, right? There's a lot of decisions that have to come into this. But point being, if Kansas can get it done, it would be a home run to bring him back.

Starting point is 00:17:51 Let's finish up here with the little latest portal moves for KU football and KU volleyball. This is locked on Jayhawks. This episode of the show is brought to you by Wayfar. The holidays always show up faster than we expect. And if you're still putting together gifts, last minute decor or getting your home ready for guests, Wayfair has you covered. Whether you need a quick room refresh, new betting, or those final seasonal touches. Wayfair makes it easy to get what you need fast. Wayfair is truly your one-stop shop for everything home, decor, furniture, kitchen essentials, gifts for every style and every budget. It's all delivered quickly and easily. Great for picking out a Christmas gift,

Starting point is 00:18:34 too, right? Like if you're trying to get something for somebody, you can probably find something pretty good on Wayfair. I mean, the selection's huge. Betting, decor, kitchen gear, kids room updates. You find everything in one place, right? Wayfair items, you order. will instantly refresh your space without a big project. Get last minute hosting essentials, gifts for all your loved ones, and decor to celebrate the holidays for way less. Head to Wayfair.com right now, shop all things home. That's Wayfair.com, W-A-Y-F-A-I-R dot com, Wayfair, every style, every home. Thanks, Jim for joining us here on Locked on Jayhawks.

Starting point is 00:19:10 You can join the Everydayer Club, and thank you for being a Everydayer who makes it your first listen. every day. Don't forget you check out Lockdown College basketball or Locked on College Football for your second listen every day. All right, some quick touching on some of the latest KU football transfer losses since we've last spoken about it. We're actually on Friday show going to dive deeper into all of these latest losses. Jamil Croft, Logan Brantley, Graydon Grimes, Lake Juan Robinson. If you are on Every Day or you caught our episode last week about John John Kamara leaving, Lyric Rawls left, so we had an episode about that and some of the player Stain. And those are the bigger losses. These ones, again, Croft, probably not projected

Starting point is 00:19:49 beyond the two deep. Brantley would have been close. Graydon Grimes, again, not somebody projected on the two deep. And then Lake Juan Robinson, I guess right now he would be because they don't have a lot of safeties, but I don't know if, you know, when all is said and done with the roster movement, he would have been. So not the biggest there, but we will get into where that leaves KU on a Friday's episode. And we're going to break down what the roster looks like, what the depth chart could look like right now a lot of these different positions before the portal opens up on January 2nd coming up on I think that's a Friday at the beginning of January. Beyond that, KU volleyball has been kind of decimated by the transfer portal. So Yovana Zelaynovich, who was,

Starting point is 00:20:30 I mean, a stud, 6'7 foot 7 from Serbia, had a great freshman year, all big 12 player for KU. She entered the transfer portal. So that was a big loss for KU. Selina Laban entered the transfer portal. and already announced, I think she's going to Florida. So that one hurts. Those are two of your biggest pin players on the outside. You also lose a couple others, notably Katie Dalton, your starting setter, who made a quick decision. She's going to be going to Creighton. So a lot of quick losses for KU, I mean, Molly McCarthy, Brinker. They did add one, Olivia Hasbrook, who really good server from Ohio State, good defender, good Libero,

Starting point is 00:21:06 really good passing numbers in volleyball. There's a scale of up to three that you give basically players on their passing, which is basically, you know, in serve, receive, like do you have after your pass did the set or have one, two or three options? Essentially, this is boiled down like simplicity to get the ball to, right? And you want it to be three. Best passers are usually 2.3, 2.4, 2.5 somewhere in that range. She was at the low round of that. I think she was like 2.2 or something. which is a good number. So good passer, good dig numbers, good serving numbers. I don't know if she'll be the libero or if she'll be somebody who just comes in to be a DS and server, but either way, I like that ad for KU. But, you know, this is unfortunate because KU had a really good year in year one under Matt Omer, right? You make the Sweet 16. You have this really young team, but now, unfortunately, this really young team is transferring away. And you can understand some of it, right? Like some of these players didn't pick Matt Omer. They picked Ray Bichar.

Starting point is 00:22:08 And I don't know if this is a little bit of KU, you know, making some way for some young players, right? I mean, they've got a six-player recruiting class coming in that seem to be very well recruited. And I think they have one of the best players in the country at one of the pin positions coming in. So that certainly is going to challenge things. And I think a little more in women's volleyball than maybe some other sports like freshmen will come in and just like be the best player right away, right? it's not the same as like maybe a football where it's like, okay, it's going to take them a year or two or they'll rotate in this year. No, like you could come in and be the best player right away.

Starting point is 00:22:47 They still do have some good returners, though. And I would imagine some of the spots that are open, they're going to be able to bring in some good transfer halls or maybe some good international halls, just like they did this past off season. It just does suck that. It's like, oh, you had all this like this good stuff that happened with young players that could come back and grow in the system and now they're gone. But I think that's just kind of the nature of the beast now in. college sports, you have to be able to retool. And I'm expecting Matt Ulmer, too. I think he's a really good head coach, and I think he'll be able to.

Starting point is 00:23:14 And I think the recruiting class they have coming in is going to be really good for KU. So I still have very high expectations for where this program is going to be and where it's going to be next season, but definitely going to be some new faces. Reese Patak is going to be back, you know, some other returners, but opportunity in the transfer portal, to say the least, for KU Women's Volleyball off a Sweet 16 appearance. Are that other for this episode of Lockdown, Jayhawks, you can find our show anywhere you get your podcast, including on our YouTube page where you can like and

Starting point is 00:23:41 subscribe to the show. And if you need a last minute holiday gift or someone keeps asking what you want, make it easy. Ask for the everydayer club. Add free episodes of the show, exclusive Discord server access and more subscriptions can be gifted through our link over at locked on podcast.com slash every day. And we'll see you tomorrow on another episode of Lockdown Jayhawks talking a little more KU football, all the latest transfer portal losses. where it has the biggest hits, what the KU football roster looks like, what the depth chart looks like, where they need to add more in the portal when things do open up.

Starting point is 00:24:15 And we'll see you then right here on LOJ.

Locked On Jayhawks - Daily Podcast On Kansas Jayhawks Football & Basketball - REUNION? Should Jayhawks and Andy Kotelnicki Reunite in 2026 for Kansas Football?

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