photo by: Henry Greenstein/Journal-World

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

During Kansas’ first week of spring practice, new offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes is starting to get a feel for what sort of group he has this year.

Grimes, who previously served as an offensive coordinator and tight ends coach for Baylor from 2021 to 2023 and BYU in 2020, ranks highly among the nation’s offensive minds; he was named the top assistant coach in the NCAA in 2020 and 2021. He comes in to replace the also highly regarded Andy Kotelnicki, who left the Jayhawks after three seasons as their coordinator for the same position at Penn State.

Grimes mentioned that a perk of having a rather experienced team this year was that he was able to get a feel for the program and personnel by watching film before spring practices even began.

“The first thing we’ve been talking about is just playing fast; you can’t emphasize the physical piece of the game too much without pads on, but our play speed is something that we’d like to always show up when we watch film,” he said Thursday.

The Jayhawks’ first two days of practice, which he called “pretend football (until) you put the pads on,” haven’t allowed for much analysis on Grimes’ end, but he has been able to see his group of guys in action with his own eyes and start to piece together a potential lineup for this year.

“The next piece for me is who are the next guys?” he said. “Who are the guys underneath them that need to be developed … and who’s going to step into that void that Mason (Fairchild) left? Who’s going to step into the voids that (Dominick) Puni and (Mike) Novitsky left?”

The departures of both Puni and Novitsky, both of whom were big contributors in 2023, leave a few holes in Kansas’ offensive line, creating a big point of uncertainty for the 2024 season.

“I think the offensive line, and I don’t mean this in a negative way at all, but it’s the biggest question mark,” Grimes said. “I don’t say that in the mode that I think they’re not good, but I think there is just more unknown about them at this point.”

Because of this, Grimes has set a goal to figure out the basic construction of his offensive line before the end of spring camp.

“You want to know who your top eight guys are going to be,” he said. “And then who are the first five, and then the other thing would be are they going to have the toughness and the aggression and the mindset that would be the tip of the spear for our offense? I hope so, and I think they’re capable of that, but time will tell.”

Although the Jayhawks lost a good amount of experience with Novitsky, who started three years at center for Kansas, it gives Grimes a chance to coach his own game and start anew with the core of the offensive line.

“The other thing I started talking about that was really my point with the unit meeting today was to play fearless,” he said. “To just go out there and be willing to throw the ball deep and go make a play on the ball when it’s your opportunity.”

While Grimes’ new role is still evolving, his initial transition has been as smooth as it can be, which he credited to both the players, team personnel and Kotelnicki’s influence.

“They’ve been great from day one … I think it helps that Lance (Leipold) and I have a familiarity, Andy (Kotelnicki) and I have a friendship and have known each other for a long while and have similar views on offense, so it’s been pretty seamless.”

Kansas will have 10 more practice sessions to get the offense further situated before concluding the spring season with its annual Spring Showcase, which will be held at Rock Chalk Park this year because of the ongoing construction at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium.