One day during spring football, Jalen Todd showed up late. The early-enrolling cornerback had committed a faux pas that was, as head coach Lance Leipold put it straightforwardly, “not good in our program.” “So Jalen was late and kind of heard about it,” Leipold said, “and from that day on, I think Jalen was in the building every day about like 6 a.m. and left at noon.” The head coach summed it up ...
Kansas linebackers coach Chris Simpson knows there's really no substitute for in-game experience. "It’s kind of like becoming a parent," he said on Tuesday. "Or maybe even a head coach, or whatever. It’s hard to say that you really know until you do it.” The 2024 KU linebacker room has the outward impression of an experienced group; the players expected to serve as its foremost contributors are two ...
Before he took his current job at St. John’s, Greg Youncofski had sported just about every possible assistant coach title except for “director of basketball operations.” Now, having joined Rick Pitino’s staff in that role in June, he’s completed the set — though, he concedes, “I know they keep coming up with all kinds of crazy titles in college basketball.” Before Youncofski was a program ...
Kansas co-offensive coordinator Jim Zebrowski had to apologize Monday morning to legions of quarterbacks he's coached over the years for a particular bit of praise he was about to give Ben Easters. "One of, if not the best, guys in the quarterback room I’ve had," Zebrowski called him. That's high praise for a player entering his redshirt junior season with one career drive to his name. But since arriving as ...
Kansas cornerback Damarius McGhee watches every rep he can of the Jayhawks' two starters, Cobee Bryant and Mello Dotson. "Because what they do in the game, they do at practice as well," McGhee said on Sunday. "So it’s like they know what’s happening before the offense even knows. So I just try to take certain stuff from Cobee, take certain stuff from Mello and just put it in my bag.” For different kinds ...
The year in Kansas sports begins unofficially on Sunday, and that may be a little early from the perspective of the team for which it is beginning. Within a week of getting all his players on campus for the first time — a group that includes 11 freshmen and three more transfers who will be new to Lawrence — first-year KU soccer coach Nate Lie will take them to Fayetteville, Arkansas, for an exhibition ...