photo by: Henry Greenstein/Journal-World

New KU offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes addresses the media for the first time on Friday, Dec. 15, 2023.

For three pre-bowl practices now, since he arrived in Lawrence a week ago, new Kansas offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes has been observing from the sidelines, jotting down observations in a little red notebook as he surveys the personnel and schemes he’ll inherit this spring.

“I told him I’m trying to get a read on him yet,” head coach Lance Leipold said Friday. “He’s pretty tight to the vest. But that’s what I admire about him — I think he’s trying to see how we operate. And I told him that, ‘Again, as you make your notes and look at it, I want to know your suggestions and tweaks and ways that you’ve done it, and then we make our program better.'”

Defensive coordinator Brian Borland also called him “a lot more of a low-key personality.”

But Grimes is hardly a mystery to the KU coaching staff. The Jayhawks brought him in as an external hire — he was the offensive coordinator at Baylor this season — but engaged in a rigorous interview process in which he became acquainted with numerous assistants.

“Coach (Leipold) wants to make sure it’s a fit,” said co-offensive coordinator Jim Zebrowski, who said that his conversation with Grimes was more of a “sell job” extolling KU’s virtues. “Not so much a schematical fit — obviously that’s key — but a fit in terms of, can he fit with the guys that are in the room?”

Grimes, who addressed the media for the first time Friday, said he had never experienced a process like it before.

“Before we even got to the point where Leipold was ready to offer me the job, I think I’d spoken with over half of the staff on the phone,” Grimes said, adding that Leipold’s goal was in part for him to feel he could “jump in and grab an oar” right away, but also to feel comfortable.

Grimes could have been forgiven for hesitating. The KU staff has been characterized by continuity and did not lose a single position coach between 2022 and 2023, not to mention that many of its members have been with Leipold at several schools. In other words, Grimes comes in as the first major addition in over a year and has to mesh with an existing, long-tenured core of assistants.

“A lot of people might feel like that’s something that they wouldn’t want to do or be a part of,” Grimes said. “I’ve done it a couple times in my career, never in this position I don’t think, but I think it’s a positive.

“My goal would be to blend in, not stick out. And when you have something that’s been successful, the staff camaraderie piece specifically, I want to come in and hope that I can just add to that.”

Early indications have been positive.

“I think when his time comes to really step into that role, I think he’ll be good, he’ll be ready and guys will respond to him pretty well,” Borland said. “So far from what I can see, guys like him and are happy he’s here.”

Zebrowski concurred, praising his players for the way they have “kept on trucking” on offense through his own appointment as the co-offensive coordinator (and play-caller for the Guaranteed Rate Bowl) and then the addition of Grimes.

Grimes said he’s felt like a “visiting coach” in a lot of ways because he’s never taken a job so early in the cycle.

So what has he taken note of, in that observer role? “I think I can see why Coach Leipold has been successful,” he said.

“The nuts and bolts of a program are the things that give you a chance to be successful,” Grimes added. “Certainly you have to have enough talent, but the work ethic, the camaraderie, the unity, all of those things are evident.”

His on-field contributions will come much later. In describing his philosophy Friday, Grimes stopped short of dropping the “reliable violent offense” moniker that he was known for at BYU and Baylor, but did say that his players will need to establish a baseline “gritty mindset” that then allows them to “attack.”

“Attacking can mean a lot of different things,” he said. “It certainly lends itself to the offensive line and the run game and the physical presence that you’re going to have running the football, but it can also mean we’re going to throw the football and not just throw it but throw it down the field. I believe in throwing the football vertically and taking shots, any time, any place.”

It’ll be months before that approach manifests itself on the field for the Jayhawks. In the meantime, Grimes will keep on scribbling in his notebook; some notes he’ll share right away, others after the Christmas break. And he’s already been out on the road recruiting for the Jayhawks.

“I was having a conversation with a recruit not long ago and I said, ‘Hey, I was sitting in your seat not too long ago myself and trying to decide if this was the best job opportunity for me or not,'” Grimes said. “And making that decision is based on a lot of the same things that a recruit might be thinking about when he’s trying to decide whether KU is the best for him or not as well.

“So it hasn’t been difficult. I think there’s a lot to sell about this team, a lot to sell about the staff, a lot to sell about KU. I might not be able to give them a campus tour yet, but I’m working on that.”