Kansas football: Highs and lows from the 2019-20 season

High: Brent Dearmon is named offensive coordinator

After the Jayhawks suffered a 20-45 home loss to the Oklahoma Sooners, Les Miles decided to make a change halfway through the season. Miles would fire offensive coordinator Les Koenning and replace him with Brent Dearmon, who was previously an offensive consultant on the staff.

Before coming to Kansas, Dearmon had led the highest-scoring offense in the country at any level at Bethel College (NAIA). Before Bethel, Dearmon was an offensive coordinator at Division II Arkansas Tech and was also on Gus Malzahn’s staff at Auburn.

Dearmon is also an author, having written a book: The Evolution of the RPO. He’s an expert on the run-pass option or RPO, which is a relatively new offensive concept that’s being adopted throughout the country.

Similar to a traditional run option, the quarterback has a decision to make in an RPO play, the difference is his options. He can either hand the ball off to a running back, or throw the ball to a receiver depending on what read he gets from the defense.

The decision to promote Dearmon to offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach was one of Les Miles’ best in his time with Kansas football. The change made a big difference early and almost led to what would have to be the upset of the season.