Kansas offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes said on Tuesday that it is more likely than not that he and co-offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Jim Zebrowski will switch their physical positions for upcoming games.
“We’ve talked about it, and I think we may make that switch,” Grimes said. “We haven’t made that decision for sure, but we’ve talked about it. We talked about it even prior to the last game (against UNLV).”
That would move Grimes up to the box and Zebrowski down to the field.
Grimes, who is in his first year at KU, has coached both from the field and the box during his career. He has said that he and Zebrowski are both comfortable with either position. However, Zebrowski’s location in the box for the first three games of this season was a new development after he previously stayed on the field during Andy Kotelnicki’s tenure.
Grimes has been relaying play calls to Zebrowski, who in turn feeds them to quarterback Jalon Daniels via the new in-helmet communication system.
Grimes had previously said he thought it was best for the team for him to be on the sideline because one of his great strengths as a coach is the ability to “look in a player’s eyes and see if he’s in need of a challenge or a hug.”
However, making the change, he noted, would most importantly allow Daniels to interact with the coach “who’s with him every day, certainly more than I am.” Secondarily, it gives Grimes the chance to “get upstairs and get in a more sterile environment and see it a little bit better.”
The prospective move comes as KU’s offense has taken a step back through the first three games of Grimes’ tenure, even while maintaining a fundamentally similar scheme to what it ran under Kotelnicki. The Jayhawks are throwing for 76 fewer yards per game and scoring less on average so far in 2024, while Daniels, only recently returned from a back injury, has thrown six interceptions compared to just five in his previous 12 appearances.
On Tuesday, Grimes said that the offense has been extremely effective in a number of areas in practice but has struggled to translate those results to games.
“I think you have to address two things,” he said. “I think you have to address the players’ emotional side, and mentality, and meet them where they are.”
He added that “in a more pragmatic sense, you have to address the things that are holding you back. We had five drives (against UNLV) where we didn’t either turn the football over or have a major penalty, and we scored points on four of those five. And then we had five that were otherwise.”
Ultimately, Grimes said he took responsibility for the offense failing to reach its potential against the Rebels.
“I told the guys this after the game,” he said. “I just said, ‘You know, it’s my job to prepare us to play and to put every player in the best position possible to have success,’ and I said I didn’t do that well enough, and so it’s on me.”
He and Zebrowski will have a chance to potentially debut their new arrangement — and hope to revitalize the offense along the way — when the Jayhawks travel to face West Virginia on Saturday.
Carter Gaskins/Special to the Journal-World
