Kansas football coach Les Miles eager to see what a full season of Brent Dearmon’s offense looks like

photo by: Kansas Athletics

New Kansas offensive coordinator Brent Dearmon cracks a smile during a recent KU football practice. Dearmon was promoted from offensive consultant to O.C. on Sunday, Oct. 6, 2019, and is the process of preparing for his first game in his new role.

The Kansas football team is now less than a week away from kicking off voluntary on-campus activities, and that means the first full season under offensive coordinator Brent Dearmon is nearing, too.

Dearmon, who took over as KU’s OC at the midway point of 2019, showed a lot of potential during his first six games in charge of the Kansas offense. KU scored 31 points or more and racked up at least 490 yards in three of the six games in which Dearmon ran the show last season.

Last season, quarterback Carter Stanley completed 61% of his passes for 2,664 yards and 24 touchdowns and became the program’s first 2,000-yard passer since Todd Reesing and the third KU player to eclipse 2,000 yards in a season since 1990. And the Jayhawks also jumped from 350 yards per game in 2018 to 424 yards per game under Dearmon, moving KU’s offense to 51st nationally during that time.

Dearmon has now had an entire offseason to fine-tune the foundation he put down in 2019, and second-year head coach Les Miles believes there’s more success on the horizon.

“I think it’s going to be better, obviously,” Miles told the Journal-World during a recent phone interview. “There’s been some changes in the offseason in terms of terminology, etc. But it’s been picked up really well by the guys on offense.”

Per Big 12 Conference guidelines, the Jayhawks will be allowed to conduct voluntary, on-campus strength and conditioning activities, including seven-on-seven sessions, beginning Monday.

And this past Sunday, Dearmon showed his excitement for the return to campus by tweeting a video of himself and his son Madden dancing in a field of wheat.

“I love being at Kansas,” Dearmon said recently on an episode of The Jayhawker Podcast. “I’m passionate about Kansas football. I’m passionate about the university. I’m passionate about Lawrence. And I’ve got my wheat planted deep in the ground with my roots so I can wave it every time the wind blows.”

The COVID-19 pandemic put a temporary hold on Dearmon’s ability to work closely with KU’s offense. But Miles said he was impressed by the work he had seen from his offensive coordinator during the past couple of months.

“All they’ve been in is a remote classroom,” Miles said. “But I think Brent’s going to be in great position to have success this fall.”

Virtual reps and online meetings with the quarterbacks and the rest of the offense are far from the only ways Dearmon has been active online during the pandemic.

He also has been a featured guest on several Zoom calls for high school and college coaches interested in the RPO offense he operates. And he has done his part to fire up the KU fan base on social media, posting videos, highlights, replays and his signature hashtag, #GetTheWheatReady.

Just how many arms will be inside David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium this fall to wave the wheat when Dearmon’s offense strikes is something KU officials and college football in general are still working through.

But fans or no fans, Dearmon appears to be ready for his first full run with the Kansas offense. He said on The Jayhawker Podcast that he’s done his best to instill a winning mentality in his players.

“But winning is not just on the scoreboard,” Dearmon said. “Winning is an attitude. Winning is a mindset that you attack every day with. … We’re raising a championship standard. And if we raise the standard, wins will come.”