‘Whoa, where did this energy come from?’ KU football players stirred by interim coach
Kansas senior linebacker Kyron Johnson says it didn’t take interim coach Emmett Jones long to make a strong first impression at KU’s first spring practice Tuesday.
“He brings that juice,” Johnson said. “You don’t really see that a lot out of the head coach — like they bring that juice, that energy, that motivation.”
It didn’t surprise Johnson, then, that the enthusiasm — at least for a day — rubbed off on others as well.
“That’s why I say, the team looks different too. It looks real different,” Johnson said. “I can say that a lot of times though, but when I say it looks different, you can see it on the offensive side, you can see it in the on the defensive side, you can see it in the D-Line, linebackers, receivers, running backs ... you can see the energy. You can see it’s a whole type of step-up.
“With him, it’s like, ‘Whoa, where did this energy come from?’ And it’s like, we needed that. We needed that motivation.”
These are just the early impressions on Jones, who took over as KU’s interim coach earlier this month after Les Miles mutually parted ways with the program.
Jones, previously the team’s receivers coach and passing game coordinator, hasn’t been a head coach since high school. He said Tuesday’s drills, though, didn’t seem too different while serving as the man in charge.
“To be honest with you, I feel like I’ve been down this road before,” Jones said. “I just let natural leadership abilities just kick in.”
The players who spoke to reporters Tuesday seem to enjoy Jones’ enthusiasm.
That included senior receiver Kwamie Lassiter, who has had Jones as a position coach the last few seasons. Lassiter also was one of KU’s players who publicly campaigned on social media for Jones to get the interim tag a few weeks ago.
“I will want to go to war with anybody, but we all want to go to war with (Coach) Jones, and that’s pretty much it,” Lassiter said Tuesday. “It’s self-explanatory. If you know Jones, you know how that goes.”
Lassiter, for his part, said he didn’t see too much difference in his coach’s personality Tuesday.
“He’s still humble. He’s still head down. He’s still trying to work,” Lassiter said. “I feel like he hasn’t done what he wants to do yet, so we’re still real hungry. Hungry and humble.”
Jones’ role for KU the next few months remains uncertain. KU is in the process of bringing in a new athletic director — that announcement should come in the next few days — and that hire will then decide whether to leave Jones as interim for the 2021 season or hire a new head coach.
For the time being, Jones says he focuses on the daily work and not what’s in the distant future.
“Everything else is pretty much out of our control,” Jones said. “The good Lord above, he’ll make the final decision.”
Jones still admits his current gig is “like a dream come true.” He said he didn’t come to KU to be the head coach, but instead to be the best co-worker he could be.
For now, he’s been tasked with trying to improve a program that went 0-9 last season, but has some hope based on recruiting returns from the last two seasons.
“Our plan next year, you know ... if you don’t speak it, it won’t happen. We want to contend and be in contention in December,” Jones said. “We just don’t want just to go through the schedule, just a normal game. No, we want to be in contention. We feel like we have the pieces that we need, and we’re very fired up about it.”
This story was originally published March 30, 2021 at 8:55 PM.
