Kansas offensive coordinator Rob Likens holds up receiver Chase Harrell before sending him on a route during spring practice on Tuesday, March 24, 2015. In back is receiver Shakiem Barbel.

Speaking with the media one day before the fifth practice of the spring session, Kansas University offensive coordinator Rob Likens did not sugarcoat anything about the installation of KU’s new offense, nor did he make any promises about how productive, efficient or exciting that offense would be this fall.

Answers to those questions, Likens said, remain in the distant future and may not even be fully known until this coaching staff’s second year in town.

What is known, however, is the objective of the Jayhawks’ new offense, and Likens was more than willing to discuss that Wednesday afternoon.

“You want to take your opponents to hell, basically,” he said of the up-tempo, Air Raid offense that, by the end of today, will be two-thirds of the way through the second cycle of installation. “You want to take them into a place where they’re like, ‘What the heck, man. This is not fun.’ Well, in order to succeed in that realm, you gotta take yourself there first. Instead of you having the reaction of, ‘Oh my gosh,’ you need to embrace that, ‘OK, we’re here, we got ’em here, let’s embrace that and let’s go put it on ’em.’ We’re giving into the fatigue ourselves on offense right now. That’s where we’re at.”

Likens said that weariness typically had come during the second half of practices, when the guys trying to absorb so much in such a short amount of time fell into old habits or wore down. But the breakdown comes from a good place, Likens said. It’s not information overload or an inability to pick things up. Instead, it’s exhaustion from trying to learn something new and perfect it.

“The kids have responded really well,” Likens said. “We haven’t had anybody resist anything. It’s been a roller coaster of emotion. It’s frustration, a lot of frustration, because, when you coach, if you’re a good coach, you’re a perfectionist. And it’s obviously not (perfect) and it’s not going to be.”

That’s not to say there haven’t been good moments. Likens said he had seem glimpses of great things throughout the first four spring practices, but most often those sneak peeks of what he hopes will become the norm have been limited to one position group at a time.

The nature of this offense makes it easier for the offensive line to pick up — “you put in a couple protections and then you run those every day,” Likens said — and more difficult for the quarterbacks and skill position guys.

That’s a problem, at least for the time being, because on any given play 10 guys can run it right but have the whole thing blow up because one guy did it wrong. Likens said moments like those have added to his frustration because coaches often only see the bad and want to fix it and can completely miss the fact that 10 other guys did well.

For Likens, though, frustration does not necessarily mean disappointment.

“I’ve got a lot of pictures in my mind of exactly what it’s supposed to look like,” he said. “… And when you don’t get that picture it’s just frustration. But they’ve been trying hard.”

The hope now, with 10 practices remaining before the April 25 spring game, is that, with everything installed, the big gains are just ahead.

“For the first three days, every day they go out there they’re doing something different,” Likens said. “Once you get through the cycles a couple times, the next week, the week after that, hopefully we’re going to see a lot more improvement.”

Players of the day

Beaty on Wednesday announced the practice players of the day for March 31. Senior wide receiver Tre’ Parmalee was named the offensive player of the day. Junior defensive end Damani Mosby earned defensive honors and junior Michael Zunica was named the special teams player of the day.

Likens singled out Parmalee as one of the offensive standouts from the first four spring practices.

“Not because of the plays that he’s made or anything like that,” Likens said. “It’s his attitude at practice and the way he approaches trying to do every detail.”

Paradise lost

Associate athletic director Larry Keating confirmed to the Journal-World on Wednesday night that KU was no longer scheduled for a home-and-home football series with Hawaii in 2016 and 2017.

Keating said KU was able to get out of the series when Hawaii announced Arizona would take KU’s place on Hawaii’s 2016 schedule. Keating is in the process of finding replacements for the 2016 and 2017 schedules.

KU neither made nor lost money by getting out of the series that was announced by former KU coach Charlie Weis during the summer of 2013.