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Published Oct 17, 2024
Jeff Grimes hopes to build on numbers after the bye-week
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Jon Kirby  •  JayhawkSlant
Publisher- Football Editor
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@jayhawkslant

Jeff Grimes used the bye-week to look over the offense and take a closer view at the first half of the season.

Over the last three games against the offense has averaged 400 yards a game and 29 points.

“I don't want to overstate the obvious but doing a lot of good things,” Grimes said. “If you just look at the numbers and then look at the film, sometimes you get a little bit different picture than what you anticipate. But I think the film kind of matches what you see from our numbers.”

The strength of the numbers, especially early, was the running game. It has been the consistent part of the offense as the Jayhawks are currently rank third in the Big 12 in rushing.

Even though the ground game has been successful Grimes admitted he can do things to make it better.

“Making some plays in the run game, obviously, I think we could do better there,” he said. “I think part of the challenge is me doing a great job just trying to design a run game that best fits our offensive linemen at times.”

The challenge the running game has faced in recent games is defenses adjusting to make it harder to find openings. Three games ago, the Jayhawks rushing numbers had them ranked 15th in the country. Some of that is opposing defensive coordinators bringing more defenders in the box to stop the run.

“That can be a challenge when you're facing defenses that are giving you seven, eight man fronts, you know, against 11 and 12 personnel groups,” Grimes said. “So, there's an extra gap, an extra hitter because we're seeing a lot of cover three with an extra hitter and one single high deep safety.”

The bye-week gives them a chance to look over the film and see how they can combat the defensive schemes they are seeing with more defenders near the line of scrimmage. Adjustments over the bye-week will show if they can continue to move the ball on the ground like they want.

Some of that can be helped out by completing passes and hitting deep balls. That can loosen up the defense and take stress off the running game.

“Sometimes you're so busy from week to week game planning, it's really hard just not to miss some things,” Grimes said. “Things become really apparent when you just watch everything and you're able to watch it compartmentalize in the throw game. You know, we've just been very erratic, very up and down. There are times that it's been really good. There are times that it certainly hasn't been for a bevy of reasons.”

The passing game numbers have picked up and Jalon Daniels played his best game against Arizona State according to the coaches.

“I think he continues to get better,” Grimes said. “And I think as I've said from the beginning, time with your receivers as a quarterback, just developing the time, throwing to Luke and throwing to Quentin and throwing to LJ and throwing to Trevor, all those guys, everyone's a little bit different because of their speed, their stride length, their catch radius. I think he's getting better, and I think collectively we're moving in the right direction.”