photo by: Carter Gaskins/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas defensive coordinator Brian Borland blows the whistle during practice on Saturday, March 30, 2024, in Lawrence.

Brian Borland did not mince words about his defense’s performance last year in the red zone.

“We couldn’t be any worse than we were,” he said.

He was quite literally correct. Kansas was 130th of 130 Football Bowl Subdivision teams in the red zone during the 2023 season; given 50 opportunities to prevent an opposing team from scoring on a drive that reached the 20-yard line or closer, it gave up 35 touchdowns and 14 field goals.

As Borland, KU’s defensive coordinator, put it, “I don’t know that we stopped anybody from scoring when they got inside the 20 last year, whether it was kicking a field goal or scoring a touchdown,” which was technically accurate because KU’s lone stop in the red zone came when Oklahoma got to precisely the 20-yard line and then took a sack on fourth-and-3.

By the time the final days of camp rolled around, leading into the 2024 campaign, Borland had seen moments of success indicating improvement in this realm, but not on a consistent basis; plenty of work remained to be done.

“(We’re) trying to do some different things, not just do the same things as we always have done,” he said on Thursday. “I’m trying to be a little more aggressive down there sometimes in ways that we can, and I feel like we’re having a little success with that. Maybe that’s something we’re learning as camp goes along.”

The good news for Borland was that the red zone was just one of three areas he had pinpointed for improvement in 2024, along with defending against the run and in third-and-long situations. And in those other two he saw encouraging signs in fall camp.

“I feel pretty good about our ability to stop people in the run game,” he said. “I think if we can get people to some third-and-passing situations, we’ve got some good players, good skill players and good enough scheme to make things happen there.”

Last year, the Jayhawks allowed opponents to run for 161.5 yards per game, which was 88th in the country, and score 26 touchdowns on the ground. As Borland himself points out, though, they had good games now and then. For example, BYU managed just nine yards on 22 attempts and Cincinnati and UNLV were held under 100 yards.

“If you’re asking me,” Borland said, “I want to be a defense where teams, man, they almost quit trying to run the ball on you because they can’t.”

He said that through much of fall camp the Jayhawks’ defense had managed to limit runs of more than 10 yards in practice.

“For the most part we’ve held that number down pretty good,” he said, “so I feel like we’re certainly understanding the defense and the run fits accordingly well, and really trying to keep playing downhill in those areas.”

As for third downs, while Borland’s emphasis was on preventing long-distance conversions in particular, KU had been lackluster enough overall to finish 97th in third-down defense by giving up 41.6% of possible conversions.

“You build your game habits through practice and we need to just win more in practice doing those things,” he said on Aug. 2. “And if we can, then I got to feel good going into the season about where we’re at.”

By the end of camp Borland hadn’t gotten much practice time centered on the particular third-and-long situations he was concerned about, but managed to fit some in on Thursday.

“Today was one of those days,” he said, “and I thought for the newness at which we put some things in and the way that guys executed today, (it) was pretty good.”

KU will look to continue its upward trajectory on defense as Borland enters his fourth season. In 2022, KU finished 124th on scoring defense and 127th in yards allowed; in 2023 it was a respectable 67th and 64th, respectively.