Kansas Football: Can Les Miles turn Jayhawks around in 2019?
By Phil Poling
Les Miles brings defensive mind to Lawrence
During his tenure at LSU, Les Miles coached some of the best defenses in football. He was coaching elite talent, too, pulling in top-ranked recruiting classes in Baton Rouge, but Miles routinely coached-up his players. He’ll need to do plenty of that, but also help his players transition to a new scheme — the 3-4.
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Two of Kansas’ top tacklers from a season ago graduated, but a talented secondary should keep everything in front of a young Jayhawks team. While the offense will preach ball control, a bend-but-don’t-break approach will keep the team in games defensively.
Bryce Torneden will command the Jayhawk secondary, flanked by Mike Lee, Corion Harris and Hasan Defense. Each add a different element to the secondary, too. Torneden makes routine plays in the backfield. Lee’s developed into a player wide receivers fear before heading over the middle. And Harris and Defense are constantly breaking up passes. Miles would prefer interceptions to pass deflections, though, but we’ll see how they fare under his tutelage.
Kansas’ opponents scored an average of 30 points per game last season. Not once at LSU did a Miles-coached defense surrender an average of more than 22 points per game. So that’s the first goal: stop opponents from scoring so much.