Why KU's new O-line coach — a Mizzou grad — faces one of team's biggest challenges

A.J. Ricker knew the comments were coming.

The former Missouri offensive lineman — he started 47 consecutive games from 2000-03 at Mizzou — had a feeling some friends would give him a hard time for accepting a job as Kansas' offensive line coach in the offseason.

At times, though, the response was still surprising.

"I was like, ‘Surely, this won’t be that big of a deal,’ then I started to read my Twitter like, ‘Gah, I better not show my wife this,'" Ricker said with a laugh. "I’ll have to call for security or something."

Some people offered him congratulations, which included former Mizzou coach Gary Pinkel. One teammate, though, sent him this: "A.J. I love you, but you are now dead to me."

"I get it. That stuff doesn’t hurt my feelings," Ricker said with a grin. "Because it was kind of out of the blue."

Ricker himself wouldn't have seen this coming a year ago. In coaching, it's commonplace for new opportunities to open up because of previous relationships, and Ricker admits that he wasn't too familiar with any of KU's staff when he first interviewed for his new job in the winter.

He's here now, though, one season after serving as an offensive analyst for Oklahoma State. And he's not shying away from the reality of his situation:

Ricker has been brought in to help fix KU football's biggest uncertainty, a position that has not only struggled recently but is hamstrung because of a lack of depth.

"But you know what? That’s what I love. That’s the way I was raised: kind of the underdog role," Ricker said of his new circumstances. "We can sit here and feel sorry for ourselves, or we could fight our way out of it. I love right where we’re at right now, because we’ve got great guys."

Just not as many as he'd like.

Because of injuries, KU has between eight and nine available offensive linemen who can fully practice in the spring. Head coach David Beaty cited that lack of bodies as the reason he has changed the spring game, set for 1 p.m. on April 28, to an open practice instead.

"We have about eight guys to get us through, and it's difficult to play a game when you're there. And we still have five practices left to go," Beaty said. "So we've got to do what we've got to do to make sure that we're smart."

For Ricker, the inability to have a true two-deep also has required planning. For example, he wants to make sure that guys who might be 2018 starters don't get 100-plus reps each practice, as that potentially could wear them down unnecessarily before the season even begins.

Because of that, he's created a matrix for each workout to help him stay organized about who goes in when.

"We’ve had some weird issues here. It’s nobody’s fault," Ricker said. "I’m not big on the blame game. I’m on, ‘How do we fix it? What’s the solution?'"

And part of that has been working to add depth — in the near future, too.

Ricker admits his "second job" has been scouring the country for offensive linemen who can help KU as quickly as next season. He's told players in practice to not get complacent in just trying to beat out the guys around them, because there could be others they're competing against in the fall.

"They want to be good," Ricker said of his current players. "It’s just changing the mentality."

And that's been the top on-field objective for Ricker as he tries to help KU up front.

The coach says most of his focus has been on improving players' mindsets. Offensive linemen who walk to the line of scrimmage and think, "I hope I block this guy," he says, are already defeated.

"I want them, whether they are or not, I want them to think, ‘Hey, I’m the best right guard in the country,'" Ricker said. "And you’re not going to win every battle, but that’s the beauty of it."

Ricker also has emphasized fundamentals. He said KU had worked on the same inside zone play each of the first nine practices, knowing that to succeed during the season, the team will need to be attentive to the small details.

The future, if nothing else, is uncertain. It's likely that one or two starters are injured now. It's also possible that one or two starters aren't even on campus yet.

Ricker still is embracing whatever lies ahead.

"Obviously, we’ve got a lot of work to do. I get that," Ricker said. "But I want to do it, and these guys want to do it."

This story was originally published April 19, 2018 at 5:22 PM with the headline "Why KU's new O-line coach — a Mizzou grad — faces one of team's biggest challenges."