Wearing a shiny leather jacket with a Jayhawk logo on the left breast, new Kansas University offensive coordinator Ed Warinner took a break Monday just to talk football.

Even before the Jayhawks officially announced Warinner as their new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, the 45-year old former KU assistant was hard at work. Doing research, watching film, meeting with his colleagues – the smoother the transition, he assumes, the better. And hard work irons out the wrinkles better than anything.

“Something I started today was the process of evaluating what they did this year, what’s changed,” Warinner said Monday, “and then start looking at what direction or what things we might adjust, change or tweak a little bit.”

Warinner started his second stint at Kansas after he was hired to replace Nick Quartaro, who resigned last month. Warinner served as KU’s offensive-line coach in 2003 and 2004, and though the KU apparel sports a new blue since he was last here, there remains an overwhelming feeling of familiarity.

“That’s an advantage for me,” Warinner said. “When one of the coaches says, ‘This is what we’re running,’ I know what they mean. I have a visual of what it is. I can adjust and go back to the terminology instead of asking 45 offensive players to learn a whole new language.”

Warinner spent the last two seasons as run-game coordinator and offensive-line coach at Illinois, elevating his stock through solid recruiting and punishing production out of the Illini’s ground game.

He was a finalist for Air Force’s head-coaching opening last month that eventually went to Troy Calhoun. Then, about 10 days ago, he was talking to KU head coach Mark Mangino – as he often does – about possibilities for the Jayhawks’ vacant position as cornerbacks coach. That’s when Warinner learned of the coordinator opening.

“When I was aware of that, I let him know that I had interest,” Warinner said. “I called him back the next day and told him that I would be very interested in that and I would like to put my name in the ringer. It took legs from there.”

Warinner now will coordinate the offense and coach the quarterbacks, something he hasn’t done since his last two years at Army in 1998 and ’99. Being a former quarterback in high school and college allowed Warinner to have a grasp of coaching all the skill positions. His extensive experience in coaching the line takes care of the rest of the offense.

He also could bring a boost to recruiting. He has a number of connections in talent-rich Texas, and he has recruited Ohio for years. Though it’s still to be determined if KU goes after Ohio recruits in the future, Warinner will start assisting recruiting efforts right away before taking over his own zones after signing day.

“I’ll be out on the road periodically,” he said. “My role will not be the same as the other coaches. But coach and I are going to go out later this week.”

Warinner’s No. 1 job, though, will be to put a jolt into an offense with hit-and-miss success the last five years. And one of the ways he plans to do that is to stay one step ahead of the competition.

“Football’s evolving. It never stays the same,” Warinner said. “So if you don’t evolve and adjust and bring new things to the table every year : teams are too well coached, people are too knowledgeable about what’s going on, they’re going to have the answers for what you do.”