Brian Borland looking for improvement, players getting reps

Brian Borland is pleased with the way the defense has started spring football. With the fourth practice of the week today he likes the way the team gets to the football.

“Been good so far, a lot of good teaching, a lot of good learning,” he said. “Guys have responded well. You know, I think it's still fresh and new. Guys are flying around pretty good and don't have a lot of complaints right now. You know, things that, you know, without a lot of corrections, but so far so good. And guys are staying healthy.”

Borland guided the Jayhawks defense last year to a big improvement from the previous year. KU’s defense took a big leap finishing in the top half of the league in total defense and scoring defense.

He wants to continue to see players learn and be physical. That was one reason for the better numbers in the comparison from 2022 to 2023. Now, he hopes to see that trend move in the same direction.

“Eventually there's some schematic things like we want to better in third down situations, we want to better in red zone situations,” he said. “Those things will come up as we get along a little bit further.

He continued: “Right now, again, it's just the things of we're going to play hard, we’ve got to play fast, we got to play physical, we got to use good fundamentals and do that every play. It's still kind of some of the basic kind of things that we're trying to do and we're trying to look at certain guys and to see what their level of readiness is because we're going to need some guys to step up. So, getting good evaluations on certain players and seeing what their ability is and how much they can help us.”

One position that will be thin this spring is defensive end. Gone from last season is All-Big 12 selection Austin Booker, who led the team in sacks. Also behind Booker was Hayden Hatcher and Patrick Joyner. The three players with the most snaps at the pass-rush position will not return.

The other defensive end position is handled by Jereme Robinson, who was a starter last season. Robinson appears to be limited in practice the media can attend.

“He's totally limited,” Borland said. “He's really not doing anything. That's not good, but he's also played a lot, so it's really given a lot of our other defensive ends a great opportunity. Like I said, it's their opportunity to kind of step up and hopefully shine a little bit.”

Dylan Wudke is one of the players getting an opportunity at defensive end. He plays the same position as Robinson, giving him a lot of snaps in his absence. Wudke, 6-foot-4, 265 pounds is a transfer from Youngstown State.

“He's extremely physical and that's good to know,” Borland said. “Dean Miller and some of those guys, they've shown some real aggressiveness and some speed and things like that. There are guys starting to step up a little bit and it'll sort itself out over time.”

Wudke looks to be suited to play the strong-side defensive end.

“I don't want to say he can't rush the passer,” Borland said. “His strength would certainly appear to be his ability to get his hands on blockers and control blockers and that kind of stuff, but we really haven't turned anybody loose in pass rush just yet to really know all those things. But he's certainly been noticeable in his ability to control a blocker and then not just control the blocker, but also shed a blocker and find his way to the ball with the safety group.”

The Spring Showcase is set for April 12, less than three weeks away. Borland wants to see how players progress and continue to build depth. That is going to be one of the main goals heading into summer workouts.

“I don't think there's a position we're not looking for depth,” he said. “Our interior defensive tackles, we lost a guy or two in there, but we also played a bunch of guys. We return a lot of experience, but not necessarily starting experience as much. But we got to find five or six defensive tackles.”

Going back to the defensive ends, Borland knows that is a key position to identify players who will earn their way into the two-deep.

“We’ve got to find probably five or six defensive ends that we could feel like we could not have a lot of drop off with,” Borland said. “And we're probably not quite there at the defensive end spot yet, but we're building towards that.”

There are snaps to replace at linebacker and one of the key departures was Craig Young. He played multiple positions and had the highest PFF grade of the linebackers. Borland said they are changing the position Young played.

“Lost a few linebackers to graduation, but again, we played a lot of guys back there, and we've sort of taken that Craig Young position from last year, and it's becoming more of a safety position,” he said. “I feel good about our ability to put some linebackers out there that can play more than just a couple of guys.”